The Faber Book of Reportage

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I was surprised how many were by or about subjects of England, but that says something about the prominence of that country in world history.

The Faber Book of Reportage by Professor John Carey - Waterstones The Faber Book of Reportage by Professor John Carey - Waterstones

Here is one for the way people deal with too much death. The way they just become desensitized to the horror and get on with living.What was it like to be caught in the firestorm that destroyed Pompeii? To have dinner with Attila the Hun? To watch the charge of the Light Brigade? To see the Titanic slide beneath the waves? John Carey's best-selling "Faber Book of Reportage" draws its eyewitness account from memoirs, travel books and newspapers. This is history with the varnish removed. "A quite stunning collection. There are descriptions in this book so fresh that they sear themselves into the imagination". (Jeremy Paxman). Overall good, a bit unbalanced in the timeline, about a third of the book was 1914-1950, almost nothing from 1950-1980, I would expect less from ancient and ramping up to printing, as was the case, but it felt like the editor was very focused on early to mid 20th C.

The Faber Book of Reportage – Griffin Books The Faber Book of Reportage – Griffin Books

Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, 1791, on fleeing the French Revolution and coming to the United States. The first-person accounts cover history from Greek and Roman times up to the middle 1980's - though coverage of any given timeframe may be uneven. It is relatively Euro/Anglo-centric, with only a few non-Western anecdotes. The mix of topics covered is also somewhat uneven - I found myself skimming many of the battle accounts - however, I imagine the source material for that type of event was more abundant than the "slice of life" accounts I found more interesting. There's a harrowing first-person account of a mastectomy performed without anesthetic, written by Fanny Burney in 1811: “When the dreadful steel was plunged into the breast – cutting through veins – arteries – flesh – nerves – I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittently during the whole time of the incision – & I almost marvel that it rings not in my Ears still!” The author, Samuel Gridley Howe, was a leading America educator, and a pioneer in the education of blind and handicapped children.Las Casas, who became a Dominican missionary, was the first European to expose the oppression of the native races of Latin America He had himself taken apart in the conquest of Cuba, 1513 urn:lcp:faberbookofrepor0000unse:epub:eab9de26-4d39-493b-a835-479082ae68e5 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier faberbookofrepor0000unse Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2b50h36n72 Invoice 1652 Isbn 0571141633 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9783 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000516 Openlibrary_edition There is a description of the various regional methods that Hindu women employed for suttee, written in 1650 by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier: “This miserable condition causes her to detest life, and prefer to ascend a funeral pile to be consumed with her deceased husband, rather than be regarded by all the world for the remainder of her days with opprobrium and infamy.” Made up of nearly three hundred contemporaneous accounts, Eyewitness to History gives a truly fascinating insight into what people were thinking in the moment while experiencing those events from the past 2500 years that we still talk about today. Edited by Oxford professor and renowned literary critic John Carey, and initially released in 1987, my only complaint would be that these accounts are overwhelmingly written by white men – too often recounting battle scenes that failed to engage me – but I understand that this reflects the interests of the book's editor and the ethos of its time; I wouldn't want this book itself to be changed but I would be interested in reading other books of this type with more varied points-of-view. Thoroughly valuable romp through history, as recorded by the folks who were there to witness it.

The Faber Book of Reportage: A Book by - Find Book The Faber Book of Reportage: A Book by - Find Book

It is history these accounts offer, but history deprived of generalizations. The writers are strangers to omniscience. The varnish of interpretation has been removed so we can see people clearly, as they originally were – gazing incredulously at what was, for that moment, the newest thing that had ever happened to them. I had been about ten days at the front when it happened. The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail.This book is a collection of primary sources for more than 24 centuries of historical events. It is very good, but definitely uneven, and that's why it doesn't get a higher rating. I think anyone who is serious about studying history or more important BEING an historian needs to read this. Reading primary sources like this is good training—it allows one to see things through different perspectives and worldviews. Excellent book to dip in and out (although i read it through) and get a feel for witness accounts of fascinating events throughout recorded history. The format of the book, entirely first-hand accounts with sometimes a bit of contextual information, is something I haven't read before, and it was very refreshing. There is something much more tangible and alive about a first-hand account of an event, rather than the somewhat dry accounts found in most history books. The span of the events, from something like 400 BC to 1986 AD, allows one to reflect on human history as a whole, rather than focusing on a specific period of time. Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial family shot 1918 - not sure why they had to shoot the doctor, the maid and 2 waiters also?