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Adventures in History
The Reading Chair: The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
A thrilling history of the bloody birth of modern Capitalism and the multi-national corporation.
“History is better than fiction,” a late lamented writer named Kevin Briggs once insisted to me in his grave and graveled voice. That was many years ago and though it’s taken awhile, these days I’m inclined to agree. My reading habits certainly reflect this long-term change.
Even writers of no style but who have strong narrative and descriptive skills, along with the ability to analyze and clearly explain complex strands of events (while keeping their intrinsic biases at bay), can provide as much drama, suspense, action, and wonderment at the human condition in a work of history as the most skilled genre writer.
Of course, there’s more to this recent shift away from my film criticism. In this particularly stressful era, a good history book can provide a comforting and useful perspective on our current travails. (Things have been much worse, believe me.) It also can hold up a mirror to our times that, while often smudged, dusty, and fragmented, may reveal clues to escaping our current dismal situation.
