Word: gibbons
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There's never been too much point to the apocalyptic faith--believe in it, and all you can do is wait for it. But last Tuesday night leaves us little choice; perhaps it is only temporary, but perhaps, too, some future Gibbon will begin his introduction like this: "November 4, 1980, Americans went to the polls to choose their 40th president...
...ahead in a galaxy far, far away, an old, decadent empire crumbles into barbarism as a farsighted few struggle, at the risk of their lives, to preserve enough fragments to lay the foundations for a new empire. The plot is familiar to anyone who has waded his way through Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. But it was brought up to date and carried forward into a frightening future in this Asimov trilogy. A collection of pieces originally published serially in the monthly science-fiction magazine Astounding, the trilogy has been honored with the Science Fiction...
...ralda for the disbanding of their disgraced unit. The watching pieds noirs wept; the Legionnaires roared out the words of Edith Piaf's plaintive song, "Je ne regrette rien. " The Algerian war has elements of epic grandeur and terror that cry out for a Thucydides, if not a Gibbon to describe them. British Historian Horne, whose previous books include three studies of Franco-German conflicts, may not be in that league, but it is difficult to imagine the story much better told. His lucid, compelling narrative is studded with snapshots of insight; Algiers without the boisterous pieds noirs...
...covers the first 80 years of the Roman Empire, from Augustus to Claudius. Gibbon called Claudius the stupidest of all Roman emperors-a considerable statement, given the fact that in 500 years there were 81 in the class. But it was Graves' fictional conceit that Claudius only feigned stupidity to save his life in that murderous, fun-filled age. While, over the years, his relatives were running from dinner or orgy with various poisons in their gullets, Claudius munched serenely on, watching and waiting and watching some more. I, Claudius purports to be the product of all that observation...
...Talking to Myself, Terkel has rarely sought out people who actually run things. An indefatigable romantic, he prefers the "mute, inglorious Miltons" among the underdogs: the Welsh miner with a taste for the impressionists, the Cockney waitress with a Bruegel print on her wall, the Swedish miner who quotes Gibbon. Terkel is moved by what he takes to be the oppression of such people. As he presents them, though, they seem to be doing very nicely indeed...