DWD's Reviews

Published in September of 2024 by Hourly History. I consider myself pretty well-versed in modern history, but I literally knew almost nothing about the wars that ran rampant through the Balkans just prior to World War I. I knew the area was all in an uproar, but I had no idea that the region had seen multiple all out wars rage throughout in just a few years. Those wars set up the scenario that directly led to World War I. Hourly History specializes in writing histories and biographies that can be read in about an hour. That was enough time for this little history. The reader learns of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and how that created a power vacuum in the Balkans. Then, the reader learns how various ethnic groups in the region fought for their independence and earned it only to fight among themselves over the borders of disputed regions.  Finally, the reader sees how the intervention of the great powers led more fighting and eventually to World War I. This is a very readable ...

  Published by Hourly History in December of 2022. The short histories produced by  Hourly History  are designed to read in about an hour. In some cases the size limit makes for a very incomplete history. In this case, I thought that topic and the size limit matched up pretty well. The Gallipoli Campaign was an unmitigated disaster during World War I. Winston Churchill (yes, the famous one from World War II) was the head of British navy and thought up a plan to do three things: 1) relieve the pressure on Russia from the Germans and the Ottomans; 2) possibly knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war; 3) encourage the Germans to divert more troops away from the French front to support the Ottoman Empire. The plan Churchill came up with was to land thousands of soldiers from France, Britain, Australia and New Zealand on the Gallipoli Peninsula at the edge of the Aegean Sea in a quick and bold attack. Troops from Australia and New Zealand landing at  Gallipoli - April 25, ...

Published in 2018 in the United States by Dey Street Books. Kate Harris and her childhood friend Mel decided to go on a bicycle adventure that approximates Marco Polo's trip along the Silk Road from Turkey to China. This is not a trip taken on a whim. Harris has read about explorers and dreamed about being an explorer all of her life. She's a scientist by training but she can't stand to be in a lab - she has to get out and see the world. Actually, she started out wanting to go to Mars and actually went so far as to participate in a Mars simulation complete with spacesuits out in the Utah desert.  The simulation told her one important thing - being in a space suit denied her the tactile experience of exploration such as the wind in your hair and the smells. So, rather than Mars, she decides to go to one of the most remote areas of the world, for a couple of Canadians - Central Asia. It has vast deserts, literally the tallest mountains in the world and arcane bureaucracies...