Reviews for Everyman in Europe: Essays in Social History, the Preindustrial Millennia, Vol. 1

The average rating for Everyman in Europe: Essays in Social History, the Preindustrial Millennia, Vol. 1 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-11 00:00:00 Dees Deeds When introducing utilitarianism to the world, Jeremy Bentham defined utility as the sum of pleasure derived by one’s actions, minus the troubles caused by it. Though I try to be as objective as I can when it comes to my reviews, had I followed his school of thought, my guilty pleasure shelf would be brimming with undeserved rankings of 4+ stars, and this would get a zero. It is not that Brennan’s History and Systems of psychology is a dreadful book. More like it’s rather... useless. While the author promises to clarify the diversity encountered in the titular field of study, he ends up contributing to the sense of confusion inevitably experienced by those virginally introduced to it. While it should be recognized that the undertaking of this book is nothing short of ambitious -truly, it is remarkable he managed to sum up a story that coincides with the time men realized they were men- the outcome is a mendley of information, more often than naught entirely unnecessary and unnecessarily complicated to the point the reader doubts whether the author grasps what they are on about, let alone if he spared a moment of their time to consider their (presumably) less educated reader. The thing is, I’ve taken philosophy classes before -and though I am millions miles away to be considered an expert- some things, when you major humanitarian fields, are so commonly used, they end up being familiar. Plato’s idealism, Skinner’s work as well as Aristotle are three things I strive to know by heart, and yet reading about them in this book, I almost ended up hating them. Though, no doubt, the mediocre translation is partly to blame (I have the Greek edition), the chaotic bombardment of information that only indirectly make their point has no place -in my opinion- in a work directed to scientists. The thing is, if I had a bookshelf field with books that introduced me to the systems discussed in this, thoroughly as individuals, acquiring Brennan’s work might have been a pleasant installment in my collection. The author fails to cohesively present the schools of thought -an anthology of random autobiographies is one of the kinder ways I personally like to call it- and it is certainly rather eclectic when it comes to the things it introduces you to. If you are a sorry lot like me who must study this for uni, I pity you like Dumbledore suggests one must pity the living. However, I found something that might be of help so here you go:

Review # 2 was written on 2010-08-27 00:00:00 Erin Goodin Lord help my soul, I had to study this for Uni and boooooooooooi did it take half of my life to finish it. Like... no one cares about Abelard's birthplace or what university he attended, James! And Abelard is famous so I can forgive that, but did you seriously have to mention every single person's personal life? That wasn't a History and Systems of Psychology, it was more like "important people throughout the ages" and it wasn't even interesting. And when psychology was mentioned it was obviously biased and full of unnecessary comments.