The Scriptorium

After reviewing the exceptional podcast 12 Byzantine Rulers, I contacted the publisher/author duo of Anders and Lars Brownworth to explore the possibility of interviewing the podcasting team about their efforts in the audio lecture field. Fortunately for our readers, they agreed to this request and the result is an exciting, insightful look into what it is to be an author, a publisher, and a pioneer in a new media.   

1) Why did you choose podcasting as your medium?

(Anders) Initially, the 12 Byzantine Rulers project was released as MP3 files for download from a website. We turned the project into a podcast shortly after that when Apple added podcast support in iTunes which gave us two primary advantages. Firstly, the podcast format was the most convenient way to disseminate lectures to our listeners. It took the pain out of keeping up to date with the lectures and we started to see greatly increased return rates from our listeners. Secondly, the podcast feed allowed us to submit our project to iTunes and other sites which greatly increased our visibility. Rather than relying on people finding us through Google searches, we were categorized with other educationally oriented podcasts which allowed us to be seen by a much larger and more targeted group of potential listeners. In hindsight, the podcasting decision has been very good for us. (more…)

     Game of Shadows is the controversial expose of steroid abuse in Major League Baseball written by San Francisco Chronicle journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams  Based primarily on leaked grand jury testimony and several well-placed confidential sources, Game of Shadows purports to reveal what really happened inside baseball’s largest scandal since Pete Rose chose the under. The main utility the book provides is the fusion of information from all sources, that is to say it absorbs the convoluted information concerning this issue and synthesizes it into a readable format. From the beginnings of Victor Conte’s career in nutritional supplements to Barry Bond’s career statistics, Game of Shadows chronicles the origin of steroid use in sports and its effects on some of the greatest names to ever play America’s game or wear her flag at the Olympics. 
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     12 Byzantine Rulers: A History of the Byzantine Empire by Lars Brownworth is a series of lectures by podcast that offer an insightful look at the origins, development, and relevance of the Byzantine Empire. According to the short biography on his website, Mr. Brownworth is a History teacher at the Stony Brook School on Long Island and has “traveled and studied Byzantine history extensively”. His lectures by podcast are extensive in their purview and exceptional in their depth. Mr. Brownworth is not content to merely offer you names and dates. He is committed to his mission of having his listeners walk away from his lectures with a keen understanding of the origins and development of the Byzantine Empire. His lectures are rife with anecdotes and ancillary information that offer a complete picture of his chosen subject matter. Overall, the lectures are very informative and provide a quality learning experience.
 

Editor’s Note: Admittedly, reviewing podcasts requires the discussion of several elements that are alien (at least in context) to the reviewing of bound literature, specifically tempo, clarity, and enunciation. Thankfully, as with most items contained in these reviews, these characteristics are subjective and expertise is not essential. 
           

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Hello Readers!  After a short leave of absence (Annual Appalachian Trail Trip) I am back and will have more reviews up in the next few days. I plan on writing reviews for some of my favorite military history books as well as a few of my well worn novels. You know the ones, they lie on your night stand rather than your book case, despite having read them on a multitude of occasions. 

Also, my webhost is transitioning servers (and ownership) over the next few weeks. I have scheduled this site’s transition for the 20th of June, so be aware the site may not be available on that date. 

Thank you for your support,

-Matt  

Lawrence James is a British historian best known for his title Rise and Fall of the British Empire, which was published about ten years ago and had a military-historical focus. In Raj, James again focuses on the more military aspects of his subject, but does not ignore cultural or political topics either.  The book weighs in at a hefty 650 pages, but through some deft organization, much of the bulk of the book seems to fly by quickly. This is no small achievement, since there is such a host of peoples, places, and pageantry that it would become dangerously easy to get lost in the pages of a more tedious work.
            Details are not sacrificed, though. If the reader is interested in almost any particular point of the British rule of India from the rise of Robert Clive (mid-18^th century) to the departure of Viscount Mountbatten (1947), rest assured that it is romantically and intriguingly covered within the pages of Raj. Whether the reader wants to know the full story of the East India Company, is intrigued by the fall of the Mughal Empire, desires a full and detailed account of the 1857 mutiny, or fancies a sharp retelling of the Great Game between Victorian Great Britain and Imperial Russia, all of these topics are included in great detail with dashes of military flavor. (more…)

     For those searching for a relatively condensed exposition on the life and times of America’s most famous Founding Father, one need look no further than His Excellency: George Washington. Authored by Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency is an unbiased foray into Washington’s intricate and occasionally contradictory life.  Ellis masterfully synthesizes the many phases of Washington’s life into a potent brew of the principles that ruled Washington’s mind. The author is quick to inform his readers that he will cast a critical eye on Washington’s achievements, and attempt to avoid the pitfalls (deifying/vilifying) that beleaguer those who choose Washington as their subject. In my opinion, Ellis has fulfilled his oath, and presented his readers with an accurate, unbiased picture of the Father of America. (more…)

     A Walk in the Woods is a humorous travelogue about the author’s journey along a two thousand mile swath of wilderness stretching between Georgia and Maine known as the Appalachian Trail. His companion on this journey, Stephen Katz, is a life long friend that will be familiar to readers of Bryson’s previous travelogues. In between the mirthful anecdotes and witty conversation, the author wedges in a wealth of information concerning the history and current maintenance of the trail. From the couch potato to the most grizzled mountain man, readers of all walks of life can enjoy Bryson’s humorous take on hiking in America.

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      The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara is a novel of the Revolutionary War, told through the eyes of the major participants: George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, Charles Cornwallis and the Marquis de Lafayette, just to name a few. This novel, like most of Jeff Shaara’s novels, falls into the style of his father’s Pultizer-prize winning work, The Killer Angels, that is to say, transforming historical events into drama with the major players as the stars.

      As in all good dramas there is a hero, and unsurprisingly, it is George Washington, the stoic, intrepid leader who is beyond reproach (by the reader, at least). Although Shaara somewhat falls into a bit of hero worship when it comes to Washington, the depiction of the strong, decisive leader is not too far off the mark.

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