Reviews for Critical Essays, on a Few Subjects Connected With the History and Present Condition of Specu...

The average rating for Critical Essays, on a Few Subjects Connected With the History and Present Condition of Specu... based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-30 00:00:00 Brandon Cassady This is a fascinating look at some little known historical tidbits from the worlds of literature, medicine, science, business, religion, and oolala, sex. Here's a list of stuff YOU may already know, but I sure as heck didn't: ~ Moby-Dick; or, The Whale sold less than 4,000 copies in its first 36 years in print. ~ President James Polk's term ended on Sunday March 4, 1849; his Vice President had already resigned. The incoming President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday, so technically the chain of command left the President Pro Tempore of the Senate as acting President of the United States. The man's name was David Rice Atchison, and he told a newspaper that he spent most of his one day in office sleeping late and napping. His tombstone reads: "President of U.S. one day. ~ NOBODY EXPECTS the Spanish Inquisition to seize their property 65 YEARS AFTER the death of a relative who supposedly confessed to heresy, but that's exactly what happened to a wealthy family in Italy. Because of that - For a period in the Middle Ages, real estate contracts in Florence came with a "Heretic's Clause," promising the buyer reimbursement if the Inquisition later confiscated the property. ~ Besides being whipped, pilloried, stocked, caged and imprisoned, the Quakers, a group that preached "Love thy enemies," could look forward to having their ears cut off and their tongues bored through with a hot iron by their arch-enemies, the Puritans, who came to this country seeking religious "freedom." ~ Also in a Puritanical vein, there was this snicker-inducing quote by historian Thomas Macaulay - "The Puritans hated bearbaiting, not because it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." And one more, my favorite stranger-than-fiction tale in the whole book ~ On May 12, 1863, a bullet passed through the scrotum of a young soldier. The same bullet then penetrated the abdomen of a young woman who was ministering to the wounds of her countrymen. Both victims survived their injuries, but amazingly, two hundred and seventy eight days after the reception of the minie-ball, the girl gave birth to a strapping eight-pound baby boy. Family and friends were mortified, and the girl herself was quite surprised as she insisted she had been a virgin. Three weeks later, a doctor was called to check on the baby. He found the child's scrotum to be swollen and sensitive. Upon operating, he discovered a smashed and battered minie-ball. He managed to put two and two together and approached the soldier with the evidence. The young man was skeptical at first, but consented to visit the young mother; a friendship ensued which soon ripened into a happy marriage, and the pair had three children. Is it true? I don't know, though it does seem to smack of being a folktale. I love it because it's the only story I can think of that combines the magic bullet theory with a virgin birth! These refreshing little dips into history horrified me, charmed me, amused me and left me with a long list of things that are going to require further investigation. To the library, posthaste!

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-04 00:00:00 Joe Piro Fun, engagingly entertaining and often really quite fascinating (and yes, also exceedingly well researched, with all or at least most academic sources readily acknowledged by the author), but rereading Richard Zacks' An Underground Education has indeed made me realise that for one, the rather constant focus on and depiction of sex, sex and even more sex does tend to become more than a bit juvenile (diverting, even funny to an extent, but also often rather boring and tedious, almost as though I am reading a book penned by a teenager looking for cheaply titillating, and with a bit of a pun most definitely intended here, thrills), and for two, that while I am indeed and in fact sure that ALL (or at least the vast majority) of the historical anecdotes and snippets listed and depicted by author Richard Zacks are based on actual reality, the manner in which he has chosen to present them to us as readers and more importantly, which historical factoids have been chosen and which have been ignored and not included makes An Underground Education rather majorly one-sided at times and often basically a bit too much of a problematic diatribe against Catholicism, Puritanism, Christianity (and actually, against all and sundry religious beliefs, period). And no, I am neither a religious fundamentalist in any manner nor have I ever objected to religion-based historical and/or cultural criticism, but I do have to say and consider that since An Underground Education is (in my opinion) and from its very title obviously meant to be a manual of supplemental, of unknown (or not as readily known) historical details and facts about world history and human knowledge in general, I have found much of the presented and featured information a bit unbalanced, onesided, and majorly geared towards an unfortunate general attitude of vehement anti-religion, anti-faith in and of itself. And with this truth of the matter in mind (at least, or rather, this is how I personally tend to now view and consider An Underground Education), I would (and even though I absolutely did majorly adore this book and Richard Zacks' musings, impressions and style of expression the first time I read An Underground Education in 2000) now ONLY consider a low three star ranking at best for An Underground Education (but nevertheless, the book is still to be warmly recommended as a fun, engaging and above all much entertaining foray into world history, world culture, philosophy etc., but with the necessary caveat that in my humble opinion, there is simply a bit too much authorial, read personal bias and in particular against all religions in general cast across the proverbial board).