Beneath Another Sky: A Global Journey into History

by Norman Davies

'He writes history like nobody else. He thinks like nobody else ... He sees the world as a whole, with its limitless fund of stories' Byan Appleyard, Sunday Times

Where have the people in any particular place actually come from? What are the historical complexities in any particular place? This evocative historical journey around the world shows us.

'Human history is a tale not just of constant change but equally of perpetual locomotion', writes Norman Davies. Throughout the ages, men and women have endlessly sought the greener side of the hill. Their migrations, collisions, conquests and interactions have given rise to the spectacular profusion of cultures, races, languages and polities that now proliferates on every continent.

This incessant restlessness inspired Davies's own. After decades of writing about European history, and like Tennyson's ageing Ulysses longing for one last adventure, he embarked upon an extended journey that took him right round the world to a score of hitherto unfamiliar countries. His aims were to test his powers of observation and to revel in the exotic, but equally to encounter history in a new way. Beneath Another Sky is partly a historian's travelogue, partly a highly engaging exploration of events and personalities that have fashioned today's world - and entirely sui generis.

Davies's circumnavigation takes him to Baku, the Emirates, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Tasmania, Tahiti, Texas, Madeira and many places in between. At every stop, he not only describes the current scene but also excavates the layers of accumulated experience that underpin the present. He tramps round ancient temples and weird museums, summarises the complexity of Indian castes, Austronesian languages and Pacific explorations, delves into the fate of indigenous peoples and of a missing Malaysian airliner, reflects on cultural conflict in Cornwall, uncovers the Nazi origins of Frankfurt airport and lectures on imperialism in a desert oasis. 'Everything has its history', he writes, 'including the history of finding one's way or of getting lost.'

The personality of the author comes across strongly - wry, romantic, occasionally grumpy, but with an endless curiosity and appetite for knowledge. As always, Norman Davies watches the historical horizon as well as what is close at hand, and brilliantly complicates our view of the past.

Genres: History, Travel, Nonfiction, World History

639 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2017

About the author

Ivor Norman Richard Davies FBA, FRHistS is a leading English historian of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom. From 1971, Davies taught Polish history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of the University of London, where he was professor from 1985 to 1996. Currently, he is Supernumary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. Throughout his career, Davies has lectured in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Poland, and in most of the rest of Europe as well.

The work which established Davies' reputation in the English-speaking world was God's Playground (1981), a comprehensive overview of Polish history. In Poland, the book was published officially only after the fall of communism. In 2000, Davies' Polish publishers Znak published a collection of his essays and articles under the title Smok wawelski nad Tamizą ("The Wawel Dragon on the Thames"). It is not available in English.

In 1984, Davies published Heart of Europe, a briefer history of Poland. Interestingly, the chapters are arranged in reverse chronological order. In the 1990s, Davies published Europe: A History (1996) and The Isles: A History (1999), about Europe and the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively. Each book is a narrative interlarded with numerous sidepanel discussions of microtopics. In 2002, at the suggestion of the city's mayor, Bogdan Zdrojewski, Davies and his former research assistant, Roger Moorhouse, co-wrote a history of Wrocław / Breslau, a Silesian city. Titled Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, the book was published simultaneously in English, Polish, German and Czech. Davies also writes essays and articles for the mass media. Among others, he has worked for the BBC as well as British and American magazines and newspapers, such as The Times, The New York Review of Books and The Independent. In Poland, his articles appeared in the liberal Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny. Davies' book Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw describes the Warsaw Uprising. It was followed by Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory (2006). In 2008 Davies participated in the documentary film "The Soviet Story"

Some historians, most vocally Lucy Dawidowicz and Abraham Brumberg, object to Davies' historical treatment of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland. They accuse him of minimizing historic antisemitism, and of promoting a view that accounts of the Holocaust in international historiography largely overlook the suffering of non-Jewish Poles. Davies’s supporters contend that he gives due attention to the genocide and war crimes perpetrated by both Hitler and Stalin on Polish Jews and non-Jews. Davies himself argues that "Holocaust scholars need have no fears that rational comparisons might threaten that uniqueness. Quite the opposite." and that "...one needs to re-construct mentally the fuller picture in order to comprehend the true enormity of Poland’s wartime cataclysm, and then to say with absolute conviction ‘Never Again’." In 1986, Dawidowicz’s criticism of Davies’ historical treatment of the Holocaust was cited as a factor in a controversy at Stanford University in which Davies was denied a tenured faculty position for alleged "scientific flaws". Davies sued the university for breach of contract and defamation of character, but in 1989 the court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction in an academic matter.

Davies holds a number of honorary titles and memberships, including honorary doctorates from the universities of the Jagiellonian University (since 2003), Lublin, Gdańsk and Warsaw (since 2007), memberships in the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU) and the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea, and fellowships of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society. Davies received an honorary DLitt degree from his alma mater the University of Sussex. Davies is also an honorary

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Norman Davies once wrote a history of Europe (Europe: A History) that is among the best in its genre for me: what an erudition, and what a talent to tell a broad and richly varied story! I could also appreciate his Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe about so-called dead ends in history, the states and nations that disappeared from the scene prematurely, although that book tended to go in the direction of an encyclopaedic accumulation of facts,. This book, perhaps his last major monograph, also suffers from this shortcoming: it tells the history of a dozen places in the world with great detail. The book is only more readable because almost all chapters are also presented as a travel story: Davies offers the impressions of his visits to those sometimes very distant places, scattered all over the world.

But that is where the misery begins: the author regularly offers tourist cliché remarks, trivial occurrences, reports on dinners with diplomats, etc. From time to time Davies’ story strongly resembles that of an elderly white man who is bewildered by the exotic place he has ended up in. And in that regard, especially his closing chapter is a let-down: Davies makes an attempt to more or less exonerate European nations from imperialist crimes by listing all the awful deeds committed throughout history by just about all nations and peoples (even starting with the Celts and ancient Greeks!). Putting things into perspective is always in order, but this is really absurd. Of course, I do share Davies' view that more attention should be paid to global diversity and to the fundamental contingency in history. And I must concede, regardless of the downsides, this comes into its own in this book.

[Knigoqdec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Въпреки че първите две глави (визирам въведението и първата глава от същинското повествование) изобщо не ми харесаха, като цяло мнението ми за книгата е добро. Струва ми се, че авторът започна разказа си изключително разхвърляно. Имаше риск да оставя книгата още в първите двайсетина страници, но се преборих някак.
Трудът е изключително интересен, тъй като се отнася до места, които никога или изключително рядко биват споменавани в обучението по история, независимо дали в училище или в университета. При това не говорим само за чиста история, но и за богати примеси от науки като културологията, етнологията, лингвистиката и прочие. Идеята е чудесна и поднасянето ѝ общо-взето като вид пътепис улеснява достъпа и на неспециалисти. Щом изпитах момента, в който завидях (не)благородно на автора, задето има възможност да посети тези места и да види толкова много, значи "историческият пътеводител" е написан с талант. И най-важното - с уважение, разбиране и искрен интерес към различните, което прави описаното по-цветно и ярко.

[Sense of History]

This indeed is a global history, but only in so far that Davies offers us a view on about 15 places, scattered around the globe, that he visited in a number of years before the publication of this book. It's a kind of historical compendium, in line with his previous book Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe. But at times it's more of a travelogue. And though this makes up for a rather light and entertaining read, it's also unsatisfying because of the superficialness (something you wouldn't expect of Davies). A pity. Of course, Davies still succeeds in offering a diverting and interesting historical read.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 5 out of 5]

Под различни небеса човечеството показва различните си лица: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/p...

“Под различни небеса” е възхвала на пътуването като най-висшето човешко действие. В своя пространен предговор Дейвис говори подробно за пътешествениците в историята, за ролята им в опознаването на разделените и толкова самобитни части на света, за смелостта им да идат там, където никой не е бил, понякога за фантазията, която твърде щедро използват, но и за разширяването на човешките хоризонти, което утъпква пътя към следващите поколения, които поемат по тези следи. И сам залага за себе си жалоните, които иска да постигне, земите, които иска да посети, и в крайна сметка целта, която е нищо по-малко от един мащабен поглед към човешките миграции, към различните култури и влиянието, което си оказват една на друга, към мирната търговия и жестоките завоевания, които винаги се движат ръка за ръка. Хората наистина най-добре умеем да пътуваме, да търгуваме и да воюваме – и всичко е следствие на постоянната страст за промяна, която никоя власт, политическа или религиозна, не е можела да потуши.

CIELA Books
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/p...

[Toby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where do I start with this?

On the positive side Professor Davies is an engaging writer who rarely bores. I learnt a lot reading this book, especially as my knowledge of history outside of Europe is shamefully poor. There are some wonderfully titbits of knowledge, my favourite being that of the Tahitian Queen Aimate whose name the Europeans believed to mean "beloved" but that actually translated as "Eyeball-eater".

I found his chapter on air disasters, particularly MH370 illuminating and at times he writes with real verve and energy.

But, and there are a lot of Buts.

There is very little here that could not be gleaned from Wikipedia, and despite the book being touted as a blend of history and travel journal, there is in fact comparatively little of the latter. The chapter on Manhattan provides us with no evidence that Davies has ever travelled to New York at all. Elsewhere there are small vignettes of encounters with locals, sometimes expressed in rather odd ways - Malaysians are dark and stocky, his Azerbaijani guide is dark haired and dark eyed. Like most Asians, in fact.

And then there are the mis-steps, factual errors and dodgy history. Norman Davies is an acknowledged expert in European, especially East European history, but once outside of his natural subject, he is less certain.

So there are the errors of cultural understanding: the Church of North India is emphatically not an Anglican church. It's a uniquely Indian expression of Protestant Christianity - albeit one which has Cathedrals and Bishops.

Then there are the errors of fact: The United States is made up of 50, not 51 states. The English Philosopher Roger Bacon preceded Leonardo da Vinci by 200, not 300, years.

There are quirky typos, or faulty maths: The indigenous Tasmanians may have been around for 10,000 years before the first Europeans arrived, but that does not equate to 4000 generations. Unless, that is, the Tasmanians had the life span of a hamster.

And then there is the sloppy history. Take this paragraph, for instance:

"In July 1776, when American Independence was declared, crowds gathered on the bowling green in Lower Manhattan to witness a patriotic ceremony. The centrepiece of the action was to be the toppling of an equestrian statue of King George III... A surviving print of the era shows how the demolition was done. A number of ropes were fastened around the monarch's head and that of his horse, and a gang of black slaves, stripped to the waist, were brought in to heave on the ropes in rhythmic unison and to pull the monument crashing down. Yet half a century later, when the scene was painted for posterity by the German-American clergy and artist Johannes Oertel (1823-1909), the details were incomplete... The Afro-American slave gang that actually did the work is nowhere to be seen. Such was the self-image that the newly liberated citizens wished to portray."

But hold on. Oertel was born in 1823, 47 years after the events depicted. He could not have re-painted the scene half a century later. A quick Wikipedia search finds the painting dated to c.1859, a full 83 years later. The work is not that of newly liberated citizens but of antebellum New Yorkers who would certainly have had their own reasons to erase the history of their forebears' slave-keeping.

So overall the book is well-written, albeit far too long (the chapter on the United Arab Emirates could most certainly have been excised), but has been poorly researched and proof-read and so sadly does not stand comparison with his other works.

[Любомира С. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Определено за тази книга трябва много време и спокойствие, за да вникне човек в текста. Доста интересни факти за различни страни по света, които са крити или рядко се коментират и малко хора са запознати с тях.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read large chunks of this book five years ago and like his earlier Vanished Kingdoms, of which more later, parts are fascinating but others are instant soporifics, like his excursion into Cornish history. I recently borrowed a copy from the library to refresh my memory to write this review and I was surprised how my original reservations came flooding back with only minimal reacquaintance.

This is a companion volume to his earlier Vanished Kingdoms which dealt with European nations?kingdoms? sates? that had once existed like Burgundy, Byzantium or Savoy which are gone or like Poland and Montenegro were gone but have now returned, but on a global scale, which is why I had problems shelving it. Even colonies-empires is only accurate for some of the places covered in Beneath Another Sky though the majority of them have had to endure stretches as colonies of various, usually but exclusively, European powers. This world wide reach not only differentiates it from Vanished Kingdoms but is the basis for most of my reservations.

With all due respect to Professor Davies erudition he simply does not have, and probably no one has, the experience or knowledge to write well across such a broad canvas. That circumstances allowed him, on retirement to globe trot to all the places he writes about makes it worse. His journeys are not those of a globe trotting international foreign correspondent, but the stopovers of a travel journalist. His academic experience can hide but not totally conceal the superficial and at times vapid nature of his analysis. That it is often tarted up with observations from his peregrinations actually make these more rather than less embarrassing. Also it makes them date quicker than good journalism. I wouldn't recommend anyone read his chapter Azerbaijan or the United Arab Emirates and expect to be in any way conversant with those areas current situation - I wouldn't even suggest that they provide useful historical background.

I have immense respect for Norman Davies, he writes beautifully even when it sends me to sleep, which is why I have given this book three stars but I would not recommend it. Reading this book was not like when:

"...I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien." (John Keats)

Rather it was something for a veil to be drawn across and forgotten.

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and scholarly work. Highly recommended. This book takes you so far away. It takes you to places you have never heard of . Truly wonderful. This work is mesmerizing.

[Jarvo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its lovely to think about travel in retirement, and if you are a prominent historian like Norman Davies you can combine a round the world trip on a gap year with writing a book. This book is a combination of history - which is expert - and travel writing, which is occasionally a little bit amateur, in that it reads like something I might have written myself.
It charts an amazing itinerary, and gave me itchy feet for visiting the likes of Baku and Tasmania, with deep insight into colonialism and the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world. The author has a particular feel for geography (which is handy given the approach of the book) and language. Chapters are often called by earlier or alternate versions of the names of the places visited (beginning with Kernow for Cornwall). It makes it clear that things are mutable, that there is more than one way of looking at things, and that we should not always rely on the European view. Chapters on Texas and Singapore were highlights for me.
I've given it three stars because ultimately I think the book might be less than the sum of its part. In many ways it is a plea for global history, and it might have had more of an impact with a conventional approach outlining the case more clearly. Enjoyable though.

[Vikash Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great travelogue - history book. Davies travels almost every region of the planet and documents its geographical ,cultural and anthropological history in the most detailed and fascinating way. The best thing about this book is that it also documents about the native population before they were finally conquered.

[Katya Shtatnova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Путевые заметки автора, совершившего кругосветное путешествие, в которых он обращается к истории выбранных им регионов. Собрание интересных фактов, изложенное живым языком с добавлением личных впечатлений автора от путешествия. Достаточно академичный, но не сухой труд.

[Mendoza · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is nothing more than a set of travel tales / info dumps about randomly selected points of Planet Earth that the author happened to pass through on a lecture tour. None of the locations are particularly esoteric (I've been to most of them) and Davies does not have anything radical to say about any of them - in fact most of his chapters are part history lesson, part Wikipedia-style datarrhea, part tourist guide for elderly academics (endearingly, Davies is not afraid to appear as a remarkably clueless traveler, seemingly in need of Embassy support to move around major cities). But nevertheless most of the book is interesting and, in the end, not that hard to get through, despite its considerable length.

What lets it down however, is the very large number of factual mistakes, ranging from the subtle to the truly absurd. When I read that wine accounts for 72% of New Zealand's exports, I don't need Google to know that this statistic cannot possibly be correct. (The Internet was however helpful in finding out the true value, which is around 3%). Also, amusingly, Davies gives the number of US states as 51. Presumably he forgot that Britain hasn't formally applied to join yet.

As a reader one can only shake one's head and read on; but unfortunately, seeing so many errors ends up undercutting the enjoyment of reading about those subjects that one knows nothing about - if the author (and his editors) have left so much nonsense in, how do I know that what I am learning is reliable?

[Boris Dobrev · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Под различни небеса" от Норман Дейвис. Завърших 2020 година с този невероятно обемен и впечетляващ том, обхващащ световната история. Разбира се, невъзможно е да се обхване цялата история на всички народи, но поне по-интересните дялове биват пространно и подробно описани. Книгата представлява невероятно добра комбинация между околосветско пътешествие и история. Макар обемът на книгата (798 страници с бележките!!!) да плаши много читатели, книгата наистина си струва да се прочете. Интересни факти за посетените местенца се нижат страница след страница, а съдържанието на книгата може да обогати дори най-запаления историк. Авторът, Норман Дейвис, е изключително ерудиран историк, който не цитира просто факти, но изказва и обосновава своята позиция по множество съвременни проблеми. През голяма част от книгата авторът непрекъснато споделя своите размишления относно загадката около изчезването на малайзийския полет MH370, която премести медийния фокус върху Югоизточна Азия и всички конспиративни теории. Авторът пътува от родината си Корнуол, преминава през бързо развиващия се Дубай, екзотиката на Югоизточна Азия и островите в Тихия океан, и затваря обиколката на Света отново в Европа. Препоръчвам книгата на любителите на пътешествия и история. 🌍🌎🌏🗽🕌🛕🕍🌇✈️

[Daniel B Grimsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

History professor travels around the world, writes a travel diary, then goes home and does a lot of Googling about where he's been.

The result?

The odd belief that Bathurst is located in Victoria, that echidnas are "unique to Tasmania" - news to all my Victorian echidna friends! - and a stubborn insistence that Tasmania has a Prime Minister.

Not to mention the mystifying description of Port Phillip Bay being on the banks of the Yarra River; a description that makes about as much sense as describing the Gulf of Mexico as being on the banks of the Mississippi or the North Sea as being on the banks of the Thames.

I hate to think of what he got wrong in lands in which he doesn't speak the language (or in which I myself don't live)

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, essentially, Davies' account of his gap year - taken in his late 70s as a historian with a genuinely global perspective. In each location, he gives a brief tourist's guide, but then the angle widens and he sets the present in the contest of an always contested past, writing with judicious observation and thoughtful commentary. His perspective is deeply humane. Not all of his judgements are right, but his perspective is global and the world looks slightly different after you've read Davies.

[Anthony Zacharzewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davies is a good writer and his deeper works such as Vanished Kingdoms and God’s Playground marry that style with a lifetime’s research. Here the material is thinner but the style remains. Very readable but more than a hint of “what I did on my holidays”. But for a set of historical sketches on different countries around the world, worth reading.

[Philip Tadros · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling ride; delightful. It's history, geography, culture, and travel literature all in one!

[Sebastian Marek]

Książkę dostałem chyba ze dwa lata temu i w końcu skończyłem ją czytać. 800 stron podróży historyka przez historię. Dosłownie i w przenośni. Niezwkle spodobało mi się podejście pana Davies'a do tematu. Ogromnie szanuję pana Davies'a jako historyka, mimo że nie zawsze zgadzam się z jego opinami, tym bardziej, że jako brytyjczyk z urodzenia na pewno bardziej obiektywnie podchodzi do historii Polski. Ta książka jednak niewiele ma wspólnego z historią Polski, choć bardzo ciekawie autor wplata "polski punkt widzenia" na miejsca i wydarzenia, które opisuje.
Wędrując "dookoła świata" pan Davies odwiedza po drodze kraje głownie związane z obecnością w nich imperium brytyjskiego - Azerbejdżan, Zjednoczone Emiraty Arabskie, Indie, Malezję, Singapur, Mauritius, Tasmanię, Nową Zelandię, Tahiti, USA, Maderę i Niemcy. Momentami wydaje mi się, że miektóre rozdziały były pisane troszeczkę na siłę (i właśnie wtedy czytanie szło niezwykle ciężko), ale rekompensowane to jest rozdziałami perełkami, które nieraz odrywały mnie od książki tylko po to by spojrzeć na mapę świata i wirtualnie odwiedzić opisywane miejsca i głębiej poznać ich historię.
Paradoksalnie uważam, że książka powinna rozpocząć się od ostaniego rozdziału - "Przemyśleć kanon na nowo", w którym autor w pełni ukazuje swój profesjonalizm jako historyk. Historia, to nie suchy daty, nazwiska, wydarzenia. Historia, to umiejętność spojrzenia w przeszłość, próba zrozumienia tych, którzy żyli przed nami, tak aby rozglądając się dookoła widzieć te miejsca w pryzmacie setek i tysięcy lat przed nami. Tak, aby zastanowić się co pozostanie po nas.
Historia ma wiele wymiarów, w zależności od tego kto ją opowiada. Ale historię tworzymy także my i warto sobie uzmysłowić, że to co po nas zostanie może zostać opisane (i ocenione) z zupełnie innej perspektywy.

[Stefan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Der emeritierte Historiker Davies hat ein wunderbares Werk über unsere Welt und deren Entdeckung und Besonderheiten vorgelegt. Ein Buch, das sich in 16 Kapiteln verschiedenen vergangenen Orten annimmt, während vier weitere Abschnitte sich mit thematischen Inhalten auseinandersetzen. Kenntnisreich beschreibt er Nahes und Fernes und beweist sich als genauer Beobachter und begnadeter Erzähler. Davis bekennt sich dazu, als Kind in „Stiche und Atlanten" verliebt gewesen zu sein und so ist es auch kein Wunder, dass die Reise, auf die er die Leser mitnimmt eine sehr persönliche und imaginative Reise ist. Sein theoretischer Rahmen ist durch klassische Dichtung, Poesie und historisches Wissen gegeben. Damit lässt Davis die Welt als Palimpsest erscheinen, durchzogen von nostalgischen und sehr persönlichen Erfahrungen immer gepaart mit der reichhaltigen Kenntnis des Historikers und der Gewissheit, dass die Welt sich im permanenten Wandel befindet und unsere heutige Welt die vorläufige Summe aller aufaddierten Bewegungen auf dieser darstellt. Das finale Kapitel „Imperium“ basiert auf einem Vorlesungsskript und wird Studierenden der Imperialismus-Geschichte als wertvolle Grundlage dienen.
Gerade in Zeiten, in denen das Reisen erschwert ist, stellt solch ein Buch ein Geschenk dar, ist es doch eigentlich eine ganze Bibliothek.

[ThePageGobbler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I expected a riveting read, a deep dive into the respective histories of an impressive array of countries off the beaten track of the average reader’s understanding (Baku, Tahiti, Tasmania…) The framing device for the book is a meandering world tour by Davies, an eccentric Senior academic, which is useful in terms of its creative approach to a lot of the countries involved, with unexpected connections and instructive tangents aplenty, but the scepticism/eccentricities sometimes fall slightly short of the weighty subject matter (culminating in a limp final chapter on imperialism) and he is at his best when passionate and even outraged about the trails of destruction that he has encountered

[Ian Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I expected, but it turned out to be a fun, interesting, informative and thought-provoking read. Norman Davies travels to some often overlooked destinations, mostly with some colonial past which is described in great detail. Intertwined with the journey, we have some comment and thoughts on the present day location, as well as little bit of family history in the form of the family stamp collection. I was remined a little of Bill Bryson as we travelled the world, but with perhaps more focus on the history and past of each destination. Great read.

[Charlotte Fellingham · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I got bored and ended up not finishing it.

The book is a historical journey through geography, which sounds right up my boulevard. However, he starts in Cornwall, which he didn't actually visit, and it is just a long list of dates and people. I persevered and when he reached a place he was actually visiting and was giving his account of the city, it was good. But yet again came the listing of dates and it just lost my interest. I found i was skipping these bits to get back to the present day.

[Chandrashekar Gangaraju · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whilst I really enjoyed what seemed like a collection of tangents from a central theme of a series of countries in the author's circumnavigation, I could not shake off the feeling that it was the author's creative project of weaving themes perhaps yet unused from his scrapbook to write yet another book. There are some very interesting observations and historical facts crammed in along with a good essay on imperialism at the end. There are certainly some parts which contain boring book lengthening details.

[Jacek Białobrzeski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uwielbiam tego historyka. Uwielbiam jego podejście do pozyskiwania wiedzy, pogłębiania jej, tworczego i inspirującego kojarzenia faktów z rozumieniem kontekstu, trendu spoleczno - politycznego, zmiany. Szanuję duży obiektywizm. To nie jest najlepsza jego książka, ale dobrze rozumiem potrzebę jej napisania i wydania. I dostarcza mnostwa ciekawych informacji. I kontekstów właśnie.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose one could call this a book written by a man with the time to write it. Davies chronicles a round the world trip by examining in some detail the history of the places he touches down at. It is a sort of follow on the "Lost Empires", includes and interesting discussion of MA flight MH307, Imperialism and European historical perspectives as well as some rather good travel writing.

[Daphne · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the amazing Vanished Kingdoms my expectations were high, and I was disappointed. The history parts were very interesting, but I did not enjoy the travelogue, and that spoiled it for me. I skipped a fair bit of hotel and dinner descriptions to get to the history, which was tedious to do.

[Carla Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of interesting historical events, facts and figures, covering a diversity of cultures and nations written by the author on his journeys through these places and cultures, Some of it I found dull but overall, glad I persisted.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[2019] A whooper of a book which is a traditional travelogue with a twist. A great holiday read. It is extremely well written and the style is easy, engaging and interesting. The pace is good and the language clear. He flies around the world and describes the geography and history of the countries he visits in a relaxed and chatty manner. He does go into, what appears to be, well-researched detail on the history of the places he visits and informs us, in a slightly lighter manner, of the social values and customs of the people he meets. The places he choses to explore are interesting, Azerbaijan, UAE, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Tasmania, New Zealand, Tahiti, Texas, and Manhattan Island. Perhaps places that many of us might not have ever thought about very much. He provides informative accounts of these places skilfully combining the history and geography - on occasion making you reappraise you ideas about them and wanting to know more and possibly visit.

For some reason, not discovered until the end, he starts the book with Cornwall (a lost Kingdom) here he picks high profile and well-known areas to weave his narrative. He focuses mostly on the past and you are given a limited sense of modern Cornwall and he makes a few errors, inasmuch as Cornwall was never formally assimilated into England and the Cornish language never really died out. You are left with the sense that the same-old cliches are trotted out, that he doesn't make the effort to talk to Cornish people and never really gets 'under the skin' of Cornwall. The illustrates that this book is a classic travelogue inasmuch as most travelogues are about a place written by someone who doesn't live there for other people who don't live there. People who live there should probably avoid reading it.

The two other annoying things were his use of BCE as opposed to BC - a politically correct affectation that, I would suggest, get right up the nose of most general readers and his repetitive negative mentions of Brexit. He is entitled to his opinions, of course, but using his work to support his political opinions and risk offending over fifty-percent of his UK audience is probably ill-advised in this type of book.

The last chapter - which seems somewhat of a preoccupation of his - the story of MH370 the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysian airliner, while interesting, seems oddly placed and slightly 'tacked-on'. Nonetheless a really enjoyable, informative and highly readable book.

[Kasiek · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://kasiek-mysli.blogspot.com/2018...

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Racist man goes on holiday and reads Wikipedia afterwards. That isn't a joke- see pp.318-9, where he complains about Mauritius's Wikipedia page.