Tag: History

The City That Does Not Age The History of Sofia: Book Review

By Bistra Johnson

CentralMarketHall-Sofia-C Attribution

The Central Market Hall, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Photo by  © Plamen Agov • studiolemontree.com, is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.  The dome of the Sofia Synagogue may be seen in the background. 

In the early twentieth century travelers could take a train, the Orient Express, from the heart of Europe to the very threshold of the Middle East. The train stopped at strategic cities along the way. One of these was Sofia, Bulgaria. It is the history of this city that Bistra Johnson describes in her delightful book, The City the Does Not Age: A History of Sofia.

Since antiquity, Sofia has been at the crossroads of East and West, North and South. Its significance was recognized over the centuries by ambitious leaders, who invaded and conquered the city. Dramatic stories about these leaders fill the pages of The City that Does Not Age. The book takes us on a journey through time.

Sofia was an administrative center during the reign of Trajan (Roman Empire). It was ravaged by Attila the Hun and rebuilt by the Emperor Justinian (Byzantine Empire). The city accommodated Germans in WWII and the Soviet Union after the war. Today, Sofia’s population reflects its variegated past. Three of the largest minorities are Turks, Russians and Roma. Though most of Bulgaria’s Jewish population emigrated after WWII, the city of Sofia is home to the largest synagogue in Southeastern Europe.

Over the centuries, Sofia has suffered floods, plagues and earthquakes. Each of these is described by Ms. Johnson with scrupulous attention to the historic record. The author quotes liberally from sources. These will serve, for any student of history, as a trove for future reference. Ms. Johnson’s presentation of the material is enlivened by asides about personalities that helped to shape the destiny of Sofia. The book is extremely well-organized and this organization enhances its readability.

For me, one welcome addition would have been maps. That’s a personal preference. I find it easier to visualize events when I study a map.

People who are interested in history will love this book. This is especially true for those who want to learn about the history of Eastern Europe.

I highly recommend Bistra Johnson’s The City the Does not Age: A History of Sofia.

A. G. Moore 3/2017

by Categories: A. G. Moore, Book Review, Bulgaria, History, Reviews, TravelTags: , Leave a comment

Bellevue Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital: Book Review


By David Oshinsky

In 2016, a Johns Hopkins safety review panel reported that every year, 250,000 deaths in the United States are attributable to medical error. That’s a whopping 9.5% of all deaths in the country. As eye-opening as this statistic may be, it pales in comparison to deaths attributable to medical misadventure in previous centuries. According to David Oshinsky, author of Bellevue, eighteenth and nineteenth century medical treatment was as likely to be the cause of death as it was to save life. The evolution of medical care from that dark age occurred in fits and starts. Dr. Oshinsky offers a gripping description of the journey from darkness to the relative enlightenment of today.

This author skillfully blends medical and social history. He demonstrates the knack of a skilled teacher as he weaves anecdotes into a narrative of hard facts. Dr. Oshinsky has so much information at hand, that he doesn’t need to resort to conjecture to enliven his story. Truth, he proves, is indeed stronger than fiction.

Examples of Dr. Oshinsky’s dynamic writing are on display throughout the book, most memorably in his descriptions of surgery without anesthesia and treatment without antiseptics. In the first case, a boy’s leg is amputated. The father is present and aids in restraining his son. The sound of a saw fills the surgical theater as the child, without benefit of anesthesia, loses his leg. Shrieks fill the room. The father faints. We, the readers, are left with an indelible impression.

In another instance, President James Garfield suffers the consequences of medical obstinacy. The President is shot. An assassin’s bullet must be removed. The esteemed Dr. Frank Hamilton of Bellevue is called in. He, confident in his skills, declines to follow new guidelines in medicine that prescribe sterilization before contact with a patient. Garfield dies, month later, of massive infection. It is the medical consensus that this death was due not to an assassin’s bullet but to medical misadventure.

Dr. Oshinsky comes to the task of writing his book with excellent credentials. He is a professor of history at New York University and the director of Medical Humanities at NYU Langone Medical Center. In addition, he has won a Pulitzer Prize for an earlier book, Polio: An American Story.

The current book, Bellevue, is about the history of a public institution, and it is more. It traces the history of health care in New York City. It introduces readers to some giants of modern medicine, including Robert Koch, Joseph Lister and Florence Nightingale. The author’s broad perspective offers insight into the immigrant experience and its intersection with New York City politics. Dr. Oshinsky’s wide lens creates a richly textured tableau in which Bellevue Hospital is the focal point.

Bellevue is an easy read. I recommend it to anyone interested in history, and to those readers who would like to gain insight into the culture of the medical profession.

By A. G. Moore 2/10/17

The picture of Bellevue Hospital (above) is used under a Creative Commons
 4.0 International License
by Categories: A. G. Moore, Health, Health and Environment, History, Medicine, Nursing Care, Reviews, ScienceTags: , , , Leave a comment

The Duality Code: Book Review

By
W. K. Choy

yin-and-yang
This image was captured from Google Translate.  The concept is represented in traditional Chinese characters.

 

The title of this book, The Duality Code, will lead some readers to expect a spy mystery. In a way, that expectation is correct. There is a mystery, one that involves an obscure code. And there is intrigue, even murder. The startling aspect of the murders is that these are occasioned by disagreements over language.

W. K. Choy guides us through the sometimes gruesome history of China’s language wars. As he does so, he deciphers the mystery of China’s ancient language. Choy provides detailed analyses of relationships between Chinese written characters and he explains the difference between traditional and simplified Chinese characters.

According to Choy, the Duality Code has its roots in pre-modern China, in a warrior class called the shi. The “code” is secret in the sense that mastery of it, even today, is reserved for the highly educated. It is partly because Chinese characters were historically complex, according to Choy, that the literacy rate in China remained low, until recent times. Attempts toward simplification in the twentieth century included the suggestion that Chinese characters be eliminated altogether in favor of an alphabet-based system. Such a reform, it was believed, would make the language more accessible to ordinary people. However, the reform was never instituted.

Choy writes about how language has been a cultural football in China, and how the rules of this game have been brutal at times. For example, the Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered (in 212 BCE) that four hundred and sixty Confucian scholars be buried alive. He wanted to control scholarship and the use of language in his empire. Mao Tse-tung, centuries later, also wanted to control scholarship and the use of language. In furtherance of that end, Mao boasted, “We are a hundred times worse (than Qin Shihuang)…We have buried forty-six thousand Confucian scholars”.

I learned a great deal about the Chinese language from reading The Duality Code. I know now, for example, that Chinese characters are logographic. Each character represents a concept. This is distinct from alphabet-based languages, in which letters are combined to represent speech sounds. Sounds, in Chinese, are not associated with the characters. Therefore, Chinese characters may also be used by people who speak other languages.

Chinese characters can be combined (described and diagrammed in detail by Choy). Some characters are pictographic–their shape approximately resembles the idea they are intended to convey.

This book has much to offer besides an analysis of Chinese language. There’s history, political theory and philosophy. There’s commentary on the role of language in culture. W. K. Choy has a broad command of a variety of subjects. Readers of this book may not understand everything that is offered, because there is so much here. Choy’s analysis of language morphology is very clear and logical. For those with the ambition and time, it can serve as a veritable course on the Chinese language.

I found a wealth of information in The Duality Code, and not all of it specific to China. The book is unlike any I’ve read. It is challenging and entertaining. It is a cultural history and technical analysis. For Western readers, this will likely be an eye-opener. It was for me.

I highly recommend W. K. Choy’s Duality Code.

A. G. Moore  2/3/2017

by Categories: A. G. Moore, Book Review, Chinese History, Chinese Language, History, Philosophy, ReviewsTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment