Steve West > Recent Status Updates

"It looks as if the young William was growing up not only at a time when his father’s rule was increasingly secure and successful, but in an atmosphere where atonement for sin and religious patronage were a central part of everyday life."

Bates, David. William the Conqueror (The English Monarchs Series) (p. 78).

Scene 1 - King Edward

starting to get good after page 100 or so.

"...he was certain that in the days and years to come he'd thank her for keeping him from acting on his worst primitive instincts. Without women, there would be perpetual war and chaos. With them, there was only chaos."
p. 519

"Venezuela, like much of South America, was blessed by nature and cursed by man." p. 353

Got this book after listening to a Gone Medieval podcast with the author.
Good review: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/02/bo...

"Grog was a sacred fluid, the one indulgence mariners could count on, the staple that fueled long journeys. It was part rum to four parts water."
pg. 145

"Cook was an explorer and a mapmaker, not a conqueror or a colonizer."
page xv

"Cook, in some respects, has become the Columbus of the Pacific."
page xvi

"Cook was a hard person–hard to please, hard to fool, hard to reach, hard to know."
page 11

"He had no training in this regard, yet he became a kind of proto-anthropologist and ethnographer"
page 14