54) Old Testament Times: A Social, Political and Cultural Context by R. K. Harrison this I picked up years ago out of a love of history despite the fact that it is a Christian text. The present lockdown in Sydney has given me the opportunity to go through and cull my huge collection of books that I’ve amassed over the years and this was one that sat in said collection. I found this very interesting placing the Old Testament events in context of where they fit in with the other civilisations of the day.
55) The Histories by Herodotus my knowledge of Ancient Greek history is rather limited, though I’ve always been interested in it. That said despite Herodotus being referred to as ‘The Father of History’ I didn’t really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Whether the translation had something to do with it, I cannot say for sure, but I found it rather choppy in presentation.
56) Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple the recent events in Afghanistan need no hashing over, but to understand what is happening now, I decided to read this as it parallels the failures of the west to fully understand the deeply rooted cultural and tribal beliefs in Afghanistan. Dalrymple here again delivers a superb recounting of how the British Empire (through the East India Company) sought to gain a foothold in Afghanistan as a means of protecting India from falling into Russian hands. The First Afghan War or as Rudyard Kipling would call it ‘The Great Game’ would ultimately end in disaster for the British (that said this also is how the Koh-I-Noor diamond which is a part of the British Crown Jewels would be ‘acquired’) and the eventual downfall of the East India Company.
57) China: A History by John Keay it is of course difficult to write a complete history of China and condense it into one volume, but Keay does a pretty good job. That said though, I did feel at times that he did gloss over parts to do so especially when he spent a great portion of it looking into the history prior to its unification under the first emperor.
