Eyewitness to History

I have a few favorte pieces in here myself: Walt Whitman's account of Lincoln's assasination, (He says the lilacs were in bloom early that year, and so lilacs always remind him of that day . . . ) Pliny's accont of Mount Vesuvious' eruption (he was teenager doing his homework that day when the saw the ash cloud. His Uncle was in charge of some navy vessels, so Uncle organsized a resuce operation. Later, Pliny and his mom fled in the pitch black of ash). He says at the end of his riviting account something like, "So friend, if you are bored to tears with all this detail, remember it is your own fault becuase you asked for this letter." Thank God for that friend. Also a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. Not much happens, but he describes her awesome and powerful presence, and all the jewels and attendents. You can see she is a true queen, not just an old maid in a fancy costume. This book is too wonderful.

"Eyewitness" means exactly that. These are first-hand accounts mostly devoted to death in some form or another: The beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots with her pet dog cowering in her skirts, starving Irish with green mouths from eating grass; and the Turkish atrocities where the Bashi-Bazouks kill mothers and then separately kill the unborn infant. (The latter was to up the body count, so the soldier could meet his quota and get into heaven, regardless of his sins.) Other accounts include a bloody Viking funeral, the murder of Lincoln; the force feeding of an English suffragette; The Reichstag Fire, Pearl Harbor, Nazis and Auschwitz, the bombing of Dresden, and so on.Torture, murder, and many accounts of wars horrors make up the bulk of this. Filled with first hand accounts of death and gore, it is impossible to put down, and, believe me, the actual descriptions are in gruesome detail. But there are many other parts too, equally fascinating for reasons other than gore and violence: Dinner with Attila the Hun, the mysterious green children of England, Kublai Khans's park, and the performing ass,But why is it this recounting so filled with death and horror? Is there little else of interest? Carey brings up this point in the introduction, He says, "Death, in its various forms of murder, massacre . . . is the subject to which reportage naturally gravitates, and one difficulty, in compiling an anthology of this kind, is to stop it becoming just a string of slaughters."Carey says that reporting and news has replaced religion, and that the security offered by religion has been replaced by news of catastrophe. This works by telling the reader that he survived while others died, providing him reassurance. I would add that I think people are interested in disasters that befall others out of a need to know and so that they might be prepared. After all, even shrieking monkeys sounding their warning cries is reportage of a sort.In summary, this is terrific book with a wonderful introduction which should not be skipped. I heartily recommend this to everyone except children.

John Carey has assembled close to 400 separate short pieces here. Some are eyewitness accounts of important historical events, but more often they are pieces that give you the flavour of a time and place in a way no history text can possibly manage. These stories stay in the mind long after a dry textbook narrative would have faded away.Some examples: there is a first-hand account of a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756, a story I had read about as a schoolboy but which finally came alive for me when I read this piece. There is a piece by Fanny Burney relating her mastectomy in 1811, performed without anaesthesia of any kind. There's an excerpt of an interview by a British Parliamentary Commission in 1815 with a twenty-three year old woman severely deformed as a result of the terrible conditions in the Leeds factories; this one had me practically in tears. There's an account from someone who had dinner with Attila the Hun; an account of a pipefitter who was at Pearl Harbour; Charlotte Bronte's account of the Crystal Palace--the list is seemingly endless, and endlessly fascinating.The book rewards skimming, and is hard to put down--just one more story about Trafalgar, or the Civil War, or Caesar . . . .The only thing I'd like to change about the book is that most of the accounts are from the last 150 years; I'd have enjoyed reading more older pieces. However, it's not John Carey's fault that it is far easier to find recent accounts than old ones, and the many twentieth century tales are just as much fun to read as the older ones.A terrific book.

For 20 years I've sought the kind of first-hand accounts Carey has assembled. This book is a treasure of lessons in human nature under trial. I've bought three copies for friends over the last year. An observation: most of the content covers that last 100 years via journalistic accounts.I'd love to see a second volume. It's not like material is lacking; the author could include almost any account of imperial excess from Seutonius, or Boccaccio's description of the plague in Florence (first chapter of the Decameron), or Tacitus' telling in the Germanica of political treaties conducted sober but ratified when drunk ... but if a second volume is produced, I'm sure Carey will come up with individual histories I've never encountered!

I love this book! If there was one book I could take to the proverbial desert island, this would be it. I've read it so many times, and always find something new to delight in. The publisher should reissue it, I'm tired of lending it to friends.