Reviews for Thirty Bullies: A History of the Rugby World Cup

The average rating for Thirty Bullies: A History of the Rugby World Cup based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-01-07 00:00:00 Amber Bippert I like to learn more about where I live. Since moving to Dallas earlier this year, I've read a history of Texas, and a short photography book about Dallas. I checked out Dynamic Dallas to learn more of the history of the city. It was an interesting read, if not quite as detailed as I'd like. The book contains a lot of interesting tidbits, especially about the early years of Dallas. It's hard to forget the death picture of Alexander Cockrell. Since I didn't grow up in the area, I was interested to learn who buildings and streets were named after--Thornton, Cockrell, and others. At times Dynamic Dallas seems to be reaching to mention any superlative about Dallas possible: "In [such and such a year] Dallas had the largest [such and such]," and so forth. I don't doubt any of the facts, but I assume any city in the world can come up with a list of its own greatest hits. On the other hand, I wondered if the book is playing down the race relations in Dallas more than it should have. There are sections about the KKK in the 1920s, unrest in the 1960s, and civil rights, but from my other reading about Texas I've been horrified at the difficult time Blacks had in this part of the country. It just made me wonder if this book was giving a too-rosy picture of how glorious Dallas's origins were. I'd thought from the size of the book that it would be a more thorough history of Dallas. However, at one point I was surprised to find that I was already reading about the JFK assassination. And then the history section was over, and I discovered that the second half of the book is just one- or two-page blurbs about various businesses and organizations in the Metroplex. I wasn't very interested in reading PR articles about local realtors and insurance agencies. I skimmed this half of the book, only reading entries that interested me--the origins of 7-11 and Mrs. Baird's Bread, for example--or entries that are related to me somehow--the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, or the International Linguistics Center. Not a bad book, but not quite all I was hoping for. I'll continue my quest to learn all I can about Dallas and Texas.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-08-20 00:00:00 Roby John [image error]