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3.0 AVERAGE
3.0 AVERAGE
I was looking for a history of Cyprus, and this was one of the few books I could easily get hold of. I'm glad someone decided to write a brief history, as there's a surprising lack of books on Cyprus given that it's been in the middle of the know world for most of Western history.
I did have a few issues with the book though. My first complaint was that the description promised that it would cover the whole history of the island, from the earliest Ancient sources available. While this is technically true, the book is heavily weighted towards modern history. Everything up to about 1940 is covered in the first 30 pages, so essentially it's a book on modern Cypriot history with older history providing background/ an introduction.
My second issue (which is more of a personal one) was the style of the writing. It's written so as to avoid offering any obvious opinion or bias, instead just reporting on events. I know some people prefer history to be treated like this. I don't, because everyone has some kind of bias or opinion. If you've read hundreds of articles, books and papers about events that happened over the course of decades, and are condensing all that knowledge into a short book, much of what you could include must be left out, and those decisions are a kind of bias. I'd rather a writer was open about their thoughts, opinions and judgements so I can understand why they made the choices they did, rather than having to second-guess what the writer was thinking when they chose certain examples over others.
The third (and most minor) issue is just one of editing/proof reading. It's all small things, like the odd typo, or jarring phrases that don't feel quite like they belong among the rest of the text. The only time it really proved a problem was when a date was mentioned, and the text continued discussing the same time period across section breaks and chapter changes, without re-establishing the date/time period being discussed. It made it a bit hard to follow at times.
While the complaints above probably seem a lot more negative than the 3 stars I've given it suggest. While I had some issues with the book, I respect the project. I'd like to read more about the history. A short book like this inevitably couldn't offer much detail on certain events, and it'd be nice to read about it all on a book with the space to delve into things more.
I did have a few issues with the book though. My first complaint was that the description promised that it would cover the whole history of the island, from the earliest Ancient sources available. While this is technically true, the book is heavily weighted towards modern history. Everything up to about 1940 is covered in the first 30 pages, so essentially it's a book on modern Cypriot history with older history providing background/ an introduction.
My second issue (which is more of a personal one) was the style of the writing. It's written so as to avoid offering any obvious opinion or bias, instead just reporting on events. I know some people prefer history to be treated like this. I don't, because everyone has some kind of bias or opinion. If you've read hundreds of articles, books and papers about events that happened over the course of decades, and are condensing all that knowledge into a short book, much of what you could include must be left out, and those decisions are a kind of bias. I'd rather a writer was open about their thoughts, opinions and judgements so I can understand why they made the choices they did, rather than having to second-guess what the writer was thinking when they chose certain examples over others.
The third (and most minor) issue is just one of editing/proof reading. It's all small things, like the odd typo, or jarring phrases that don't feel quite like they belong among the rest of the text. The only time it really proved a problem was when a date was mentioned, and the text continued discussing the same time period across section breaks and chapter changes, without re-establishing the date/time period being discussed. It made it a bit hard to follow at times.
While the complaints above probably seem a lot more negative than the 3 stars I've given it suggest. While I had some issues with the book, I respect the project. I'd like to read more about the history. A short book like this inevitably couldn't offer much detail on certain events, and it'd be nice to read about it all on a book with the space to delve into things more.