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A review by shanaqui
Sheeplands: How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World by Alan Marshall
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Alan Marshall's Sheeplands is, as it says, a history of Wales (and the wider world) through the lens of sheep and sheep-farming. This isn't trivial: farming has been very important over the years, and the development of farming techniques, breeds of sheep and ways of transporting the sheep have been vital in the economy, war, colonisation, and everyday lives. I definitely appreciated a history that kept coming back to Wales, specifically, and from a very pro-Welsh point of view.
However... the problem is, the book doesn't have numbered references, just a list of sources in the back, making it very difficult to follow up a particular anecdote and reference it. Sometimes something is stated as sheer fact when it sounds like mere theory, and sometimes the flippant easy tone elides the author's lack of knowledge on a subject ("Homer" didn't "scribe into text" anything, folks; Homer quite possibly never existed -- it's all more complicated than that). Sometimes that doesn't affect the underlying point, and it didn't in the case of this example. But. What about inaccuracies in the stuff I don't have personal knowledge of? How can I tell apart flippancy, opinion, and fact, without proper sourcing?
I know it's meant for a popular audience, but that shouldn't mean you put yourself beyond fact-checking. Adding numbered sources doesn't interrupt the flow for someone who is reading very casually, and allows anyone to look up the source for more information if they're curious, sceptical, etc.
I did also find that I wasn't so keen on the personal interjections about the author and his son Shelley. It's cute, but it doesn't really add to the narrative for us to be told what the author's six-year-old son thinks about a given fact or location.
So... there were definitely things I enjoyed about the reading experience, don't get me wrong, but it did also leave a lot to be desired in other ways.
However... the problem is, the book doesn't have numbered references, just a list of sources in the back, making it very difficult to follow up a particular anecdote and reference it. Sometimes something is stated as sheer fact when it sounds like mere theory, and sometimes the flippant easy tone elides the author's lack of knowledge on a subject ("Homer" didn't "scribe into text" anything, folks; Homer quite possibly never existed -- it's all more complicated than that). Sometimes that doesn't affect the underlying point, and it didn't in the case of this example. But. What about inaccuracies in the stuff I don't have personal knowledge of? How can I tell apart flippancy, opinion, and fact, without proper sourcing?
I know it's meant for a popular audience, but that shouldn't mean you put yourself beyond fact-checking. Adding numbered sources doesn't interrupt the flow for someone who is reading very casually, and allows anyone to look up the source for more information if they're curious, sceptical, etc.
I did also find that I wasn't so keen on the personal interjections about the author and his son Shelley. It's cute, but it doesn't really add to the narrative for us to be told what the author's six-year-old son thinks about a given fact or location.
So... there were definitely things I enjoyed about the reading experience, don't get me wrong, but it did also leave a lot to be desired in other ways.