Reviews for Lineage A Biographical History of the Chicago Province

The average rating for Lineage A Biographical History of the Chicago Province based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-11-17 00:00:00 Garland Smith Jr. An ambitious history of Scotland starting in earliest times where there are no written records, right up until the mid 19th century or so. It obviously covers a lot of ground and, as the author states, is a personal history. This is especially visible when towards the end of the book he states that Scotland could never again be an independent country - given the current political situation, a particularly ironic viewpoint. The impression is given of Scotland as a loose coalition of warring factions for many centuries, some of whom were looked down on by the others (the Highlanders who themselves were tribal and in conflict with each other over land and livestock and who kept their own language until a policy of genocide was carried out against them). There are some useful genealogies which I made frequent use of, as the story does dot about in time a bit and people are referred to in two or three ways - by title or full name or by surname as in 'the Graham'. I did find that confusing and sometimes was not clear without backtracking to work out who was meant especially as a succession of men were referred to in that way. And it was always men whose identity was in doubt - a few women such as Mary of Guise and Mary Queen of Scots appear - as mainly the book is a story of conflict among men in which women and children are the pawns and victims. I found it a bit hard going at times and given the somewhat dry nature of a lot of it, despite the mayhem and murder, would rate it at a middling 3 stars.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-01 00:00:00 Nancy Hallett Pretty solid. This took me ages to read but Prebble kept me going with his vicious zingers and occasional sass. One take is that Scotland won a few battles but lost a lot of wars, but this was full of other analysis and different views of big and small moments in Scottish history. Lots of well-placed images, too.