Peter Skinner, Book Reviewer

Book Review

East of Asia Minor

by Peter Skinner

Most Americans and Europeans see the Roman Empire as centered on Greece, France, Britain, and Spain. Relatively little thought is given to Rome in North Africa and the Near East, and even less to conquests in eastern Anatolia and beyond... Read More

Book Review

The Roman Empire

by Peter Skinner

Diligently researched, intriguing history says Western Roman Empire fell for lack of food. Whether the Western Roman Empire fell with a bang or a whimper—or fell at all—remains earnestly debated and somewhat nebulously questioned. In... Read More

Book Review

The Great Game, 1856-1907

by Peter Skinner

Extensively researched and enriched text details British imperialism in India. “The Great Game” of this book’s title was the half century of political maneuvering and machinations in the Hindu Kush and in India’s Northwest... Read More

Book Review

Pax Ethnica

by Peter Skinner

In "Pax Ethnica", Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac analyze what makes for peaceful coexistence among people with national, racial, religious, and color differences. The book’s value lies in the authors’ demonstration of how peaceful... Read More

Book Review

Russia

by Peter Skinner

Marika Pruska-Carroll offers an insightful and rewarding contention: Russia is regressing politically in the face of economic and educational progress and an ongoing social revolution. Pruska-Carroll was raised in Poland, earned her PhD... Read More

Book Review

The Downtown Book

by Peter Skinner

The post-Pill, pre-AIDS decade of 1974—1984 was uniquely rich in art and performance. Because most locations are gone, many artists displaced, much “product” lost to the public, and even the most arresting work and events slipping... Read More

Book Review

Written on Water

by Peter Skinner

The author, a novelist, wrote these sparkling, discursive essays during Japan’s brutal World War II occupation of Shanghai. Readers are likely to consider her a carefree commentator, writing about home, siblings, fathers (and their... Read More

Book Review

Fallen Giants

by Peter Skinner

The authors have transformed the catalog-of-climbs, accounts-of-accidents approach of Himalayan mountaineering history into one that captures history and change—from sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century reports, through the... Read More

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