David Boyle (1) (1958–)

A delightful little book that should be rated at six stars out of five if content were the only criteria. It is a complete history of impressionism, beginning with it's immediate predecessors after the French Revolution and continuing into the post-Impressionists in the 1920's. Comprehensive, it draws all the cultural history into focus and relates it to political and economic conditions. It even takes side jaunts into literature, music and the world of the art dealer and auction house. But ...
This was one of the hardest books to read, physically, that I've ever made it through. It's only 7 x 5 inches, and 146 pages and is crammed with information and beautiful artworks. It's also filled with 4 point type - I've seen larger texts at the bottom of loan contracts. Some pages are set in one column, some in two, with no apparent reason. Some side info boxes are printed in Italic, which with the colored background really strained my bifocals.
This book needs to be bigger, physically.
Nevertheless, it is well worth the struggle: if you want to know the complete history of Impressionism as an art movement, this is required reading.… (más)

The story of African Americans differs from that of other nationalities,
since it is one of both forced expatriation and enslavement, and of the
continuing struggle for equality. In Coming to America: African Americans,
David Boyle explores their harrowing history, from the arrival of the first
20 captive Black Africans in 1619, through the abolition of the slave trade
and the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and increasing
pride in African-American heritage. In this book, you'll also find the
story of African-American culture: spirituals, blues, jazz, and rap; the Harlem
Renaissance of the 1920s and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s; and
of African-American greats such as Martin Luther King, Louis Armstrong,
Sidney Poitier, Mohammad Ali, and Jesse Owens.… (más)

This short book covers all three of the summit meetings that British PM Neville Chamberlain held with Adolf Hitler in September 1938 in a largely sincere, but naive and of course ultimately disastrously unsuccessful attempt to stave off the threat of war. It is a deeply unedifying account of missed opportunities to stand up to Hitler, naivety and even crass unpreparedness, e.g. Britain and France not jointly deciding tactics beforehand, Chamberlain at one of the summits not having an interpreter with him and having to rely on Hitler's interpreter Paul Schmidt. No doubt from the point of view of many Britons, Czechoslovakia was a faraway country of which they knew nothing; but the treatment meted out to that country by Britain and France (the latter of whom had a defence treaty with them that was ignored) was truly shameful. Even worse than the handing over of the Sudetenland with its German speaking majority was the fact that these border areas contained the great majority of Czech border fortifications, heavy industry and armaments factories; as a result the rest of the country was ripe for the plucking when Hitler invaded and occupied the whole country the following March. A wider tragic missed opportunity was the fact that senior German army officers were prepared to overthrow the regime, if only Britain and France had shown more resolve. The author has a family connection with these events. His great-aunt, journalist Shiela Grant Duff, was a strong supporter of the Czechs and her book Europe and the Czechs was published just as the crisis was resolved in Hitler's favour; despite this it was read widely and played a major role in shifting public opinion away from appeasement. A very useful short and succinct account.… (más)

Turing has become a symbol for the modern world, as a prophet of information technology and scientific rationality, a martyr for gay rights, and also a genius cramped by convention and intolerance.

David Boyle's mini biography on Alan Turing shows just the surface of the man known for helping break the Nazi's enigma machine. Turing was ahead of his time in mathematics and had an eye for the future, but was ostracized for his quirks and sentenced to chemical castration for being openly homosexual.

But how much do we really know about Turing? Boyle provides a brief glimpse into his life and untimely death while referencing other biographies written on Turing.

Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma: A Review

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