Curzon: Imperial Statesman

Book Description

“A Superb New Biography . . . A Tragic Story, Brilliantly Told.” —Andrew Roberts, Literary Review

George Nathaniel Curzon’s controversial life in public service stretched from the high noon of his country’s empire to the traumatized years following World War I. As viceroy of India under Queen Victoria and foreign secretary under King George V, the obsessive Lord Curzon left his unmistakable mark on the era. David Gilmour’s award-winning book—with a new foreword by the author—is a brilliant assessment of Curzon’s character and achievements, offering a richly dramatic account of the infamous long vendettas, the turbulent friendships, and the passionate, risky love affairs that complicated and enriched his life.

Born into the ruling class of what was then the world’s greatest power, Curzon was a fervent believer in British imperialism who spent his life proving he was fit for the task. Often seen as arrogant and tempestuous, he was loathed as much as he was adored, his work disparaged as much as it was admired. In Gilmour’s well-rounded appraisal, Curzon emerges as a complex, tragic figure, a gifted leader who saw his imperial world overshadowed at the dawn of democracy.

Customer Reviews:

A Destiny at the Service of Imperial Greatness.......2004-01-23

David Gilmour renders a balanced portrait of George Curzon, a complex imperial statesman. Curzon was born and raised as an aristocrat at a time that the British Empire was at its apex in the decades before WWI. Unlike the rest of his family, Curzon was very ambitious and determined to leave his mark in history. Gilmour makes a judicious use of Curson's writings to show us how extraordinarily well-traveled Curzon was for a man of his time. Curzon had a first-hand knowledge of many foreign issues, his undeniable specialty, unlike such luminaries as Lloyd George, A. J. Balfour, to name a few. Curzon was a work alcoholic, self-centered person who sounded condescending at times and was unable to delegate much because of his very exacting standards. Furthermore, Curzon often did not display much emotional intelligence in his relationship with others, including his own family. Unsurprisingly, Curzon's peers and superiors in politics found him regularly unbearable in Parliament, during his viceroyalty in India and as a member of different cabinets in the last decade of his life. Chirol summarized it very well when he told Hardinge that Curzon had the knack of saying the wrong thing, or even, when he says the right thing, of saying it in the wrong way, is quite extraordinary. I can recall no instance of a man whose personal unpopularity has to the same extent neutralized his immense abilities and his power of rendering great services. Gilmour shows very clearly how Curzon could be well ahead of his time in fields such as foreign policy and protection of old monuments and at the same time be so backward in such areas as women's rights and his attitude to nationalism. Overworked for most of his life, Curzon died prematurely at the age of 66. However, Curzon left some built-to-last monuments to posterity: think for instance about the impressive restoration of at one time decrepit Taj Mahal in India, the negotiation of the Lausanne Treaty that formalized the existence of Modern Turkey or Remembrance Day, a fitting tribute to the Fallen Heroes.

Solid, magisterial biogrphy.......2003-11-04

Even though I read (on Dec 26, 1976) Superior Person: A Portrait of Curzon and his Circle in late Victorian England, by Kenneth Rose, I figured that was a while ago and I could enjoy another biography of George Curzon (born 11 Jan 1859, Viceroy in India from 1899 to 1905, in Lloyd George's War Cabinet from 1916 to 1919, Foreign Secretary from 1919 to 1924, died 20 March 1925)and I am glad I decided to read it. He was a fantastic and brilliant if difficult person. The book is solidly researched, with ample footnoting, and an interesting bibliography.

An Impressive Work.......2003-09-23

David Gilmour has written an excellent biography of George Curzon, who, although little known to most Americans, was an important figure in English politics and government from the 1890s until the 1920s. The virtues of Gilmour's biography far outweigh its minor faults: the book is well-written and takes a balanced and comprehensive look at its subject.

That balance is important: Curzon was by all accounts a brilliant but highly difficult man who was often haughty with subordinates and quarrelsome with his peers. Gilmour makes no excuses for Curzon's often indefensible behavior, nor does he gloss over Curzon's regrettable tendencies in this regard.

Gilmour does a very good job overall reviewing Curzon's long life in English public affairs, starting with his career in the House of Commons, moving on to his years as Viceroy in India, then to his years in the House of Lords and then in Cabinet. Nor is Curzon's private life neglected. My sole criticism is that at times Gilmour assumes a relatively high level of background knowledge of English history and politics of the era. For example, many of the references to the passage or defeat of individual bills before Parliament were simply beyond my knowledge. For my part, that level of detail could have been omitted without interrupting the narrative flow. But although those sections were inherently less interesting to me, I still give high marks overall to this work.

Superb biography of driven public servant.......2000-05-01

George Curzon was born in the Victorian era with an extremely privileged family background. This excellent biography relates the multiple rises / falls in his career - I enjoyed the book because of the insightful account of the timeless contradictions of Curzon's character; he was born to an aristocratic family, yet worked incredibly hard all his life; he inspired great loyalty amongst those who worked with him, but thoughtless offense to other senior political figures contributed to missed opportunities; hopelessly out-dated on issues such as women's rights and empire, his views on foreign policy issues were well ahead of his time. David Gilmour gives a great overview of a life which started at the time of the Great Exhibition and ended just before Britain's humiliations of the Gold Standard in the 1930s. People who enjoyed Titan (Rockefeller) may well enjoy this account of a flawed but dynamically positive man.

An elegant and detailed biography.......1998-07-24

Lord Curzon was a major figure in British politics at the turn of the century. Immensely accomplished as well as ambitious, he served in several of the highest postions in government, including as Foreign Secretary and Viceroy of India. It is Gilmour's achievement that he manages to convey the complexities of the man, his overweening ambition, his insecurities and also, his tremendous drive to succeed. This a greatly detailed biography, but it is at the same time also very readable. It does not bog down in the minutiae of detail, and keeps a very articulately expressed story-line going. A book of immense interest to those keen on the politics and social and cultural history of that era.

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Curzon Imperial Statesman
Gilmour David
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UE2YU0

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Curzon Imperial Statesman

Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I9GS3Q

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Average customer rating:

Slow and plodding
An excellent linguistic survey covering major languages
Wonderful, insightful introduction to the History of Major languages
Pleasantly surprised by Ostler
The World's Linguistic History

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
Nicholas Ostler
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0066210860
Release Date: 2005-06-28

Book Description

The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it.

Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told. Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English.

Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating: Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India?

As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long-term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full of surprises.

Customer Reviews:

Slow and plodding.......2007-05-29

Well, so it seems I am going to be in the minority in stating my general dissatisfaction of this book. It is hard for me to pin down exactly why I didn't like it.

Perhaps it was the fact that for the first hundred pages, it was hard to track the authors point. I've know enough to know that if you don't track the text early on, just give it a little while, read some more, and you'll usually get in gear. But that just did not happen here.

I found the style of narrative confusing, as the author has a way of jumping back and forth, and making it hard to tie everything in.

The author also tends to skim over some important issues, or at least, what I would consider important. But after all, isn't that what a review is, but a subjection opinion? I think in all, this is more of a social commentary than a linguistic discourse. More time is spent on examining the social impact of language spread rather than discussing technical details, which I was hoping for.

No solid details on how the early alphabets were heavily modified until we reach our current alphabets. Even tho there are plenty of books on the matter, I still enjoy reading it.

At about one-third into the book, I found myself skipping large sections of text, until I eventually just shut the cover and shelved it.

An excellent linguistic survey covering major languages.......2007-05-12

I could not put this book down until, disappointed, I ran out of pages to read. Dr. Ostler's book perfectly combined my greatest interests--history and linguistics. I do wish there had been a bit more depth in his treatment of Arabic, the "single hyperlanguage community" and something about its influence on Latin-origin Spanish (comparable to the influence of Norman French on Germanic English). My only quibbles (I'm an editor and can't help it) is that Dr. Ostler didn't comment, on page 378, the strong influence that Spanish has had on both surnames and given names in the Philippines, even though the spoken language has almost completely died out there. Also Italian is not included in his "top 20" list on page 526 yet is mentioned as included on that list on page 528. That said, I have been fervently recommending this book to everyone (as my son had recommended it to me).

Wonderful, insightful introduction to the History of Major languages.......2007-02-06

Ostler's book is an attempt to provide an introductory history of many of the major languages of the world. He particularly focuses on languages that grew to become supranational, lingua francas, etc., and how and why they became so. While many of the languages he discusses are ones we'd expect, e.g. English, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc., Ostler also discusses international languages of the past such as Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, etc. He even gets into modern and ancient languages that we don't regularly hear of, such as Aramaic, Sumerian, Malay-Indonesian, Aztec, and others.

I will confess that this topic is one of my favorites. However, by way of criticism, I would have to point out the very uneven treatment of various languages. For example, Arabic's treatment is minor compared to that of Spanish or French. He also chooses languages somewhat randomly for review. It's obvious that a lengthy discussion of every language spoken in numerous countries could not fit into one paperback book (even though this one is somewhat long, at around 560 pages). But the lack of coverage of certain languages is surprising.

Also, the style of writing used can be somewhat technical and verbose at times, especially for someone who hasn't studied the subject before. Nevertheless, if you're interested in this subject, this book is a must-read and will entertain you for days and serve as a reference for years to come.

Pleasantly surprised by Ostler.......2007-01-09

I had the pleasure in 2005 of watching Mr. Ostler give a presentation on a PBS channel about Empires of the Word. At the time I thought his presentation was disjointed and he came off as somewhat condescending toward his audience. But, after reading his book, I completely changed my mind. Empire of the Word is well-researched and its scope is wide. It deals with more than just language, although languages are its main theme. The book is very readable and for anyone interested in language, linguistics and history, I would recommend it as a "must" read.

The World's Linguistic History.......2006-12-17

"Empires Of The Word: A Language History of the World" by Nicholas Ostler is not a quick or easy read. It is written so that people of different levels of linguistic knowledge can get something out of it. The good news is that if you put in the effort, you will find a tremendous amount of information here. Dr. Ostler has degrees in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics. He also has a Ph. D. in Linguistics from MIT, where he studied under Noam Chomsky. Thus it will come as no surprise that this book is rich in information, and at the same time is very challenging to the reader.

Part I of the book is an overview of language history and a general discussion of what makes a world language. Part II is a more detailed look at the different languages of the world. He looks first at the older languages such as Sumerian, Akkadian, Phoenician, and continues thorough Arabic, Turkic and Persian. He has a very interesting chapter where he compares and contrasts Egyptian and Chinese, showing their similar beginnings and proceeding through their increasingly different developments. He also has chapters that deal mainly with Sanskrit, Greek, and the languages contending in Europe (i.e. Celt, Roman, German, and Slav).

Part III moves to look at language spread resulting from the age of exploration. How Spanish, Portuguese, and English have spread. Looking at the less successful spread of French, German, and Russian, and the complete failure of languages like Dutch to spread outside of their home countries. Part IV takes a look at what may come in the future. He predicts the continuing rise of Arabic and Spanish, the possible decline of English, and the likely steady future of Mandarin.

One of the most interesting questions which arises repeatedly in the discussion is why do certain languages spread while others falter. Such elements as conquest, commerce, religion, and prestige all play a factor. Another interesting discussion which occurs mainly near the end is about the potential for a world language. Would it be a benefit or a weakness to mankind?

While the discussion of languages is very interesting, the historical evidence presented is very weak in spots. While the focus is and should be on the movement of languages, more care should have been put into supporting the theories and conjectures. As a result, I would suggest using this book for its linguistic information and avoid using it as the basis for any historical information outside of languages. All in all, this book is worth the investment of time and effort if you have any interest in the history and development of languages, but you will probably want to look elsewhere for the history.

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Empires of the Word : A Language History of the World
Nicholas Ostler
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF160E

Average customer rating:

Empires Of The Word: A Language History Of The World
Nicholas Ostler
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KWOX74

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Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
Nicholas Ostler
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MC34QS

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World.(Book review): An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society

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Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World.(Book review): An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society
Joshua T. Katz
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000RH03V2
Release Date: 2007-05-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1663 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World.(Book review)
Author: Joshua T. Katz
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 125 Issue: 3 Page: 420(3)

Article Type: Book review

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