Customer Reviews

The Armenians (The Peoples of Europe)

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you want a continuation of western research that ignores findings in the Soviet era and afterwards, Elizabeth Redgate's poorly researched work should suffice. This is another example of how western writers cannot seem to pick their rear ends away from their ivory towers and actually conduct field research in the country they are attempting to describe.

Redgate doesn't simply ignore facts, she isn't even remotely aware of the body of evidence in archeological and historical findings that have been published in and out of the republic since the mid 1980's (just read her bibliography for the obvious english-language western slant in her research). Instead, Redgrave continues to rely on (mostly) British research of the pre-independence era--easy to pick up at the library, no doubt, but filled with errors and conjectures of a cold war history.

Som facts from the 1990's would be nice, and reconcile the 7000 year old Metsamor excavation with your repetitiion of another's prehistory of the area.

Though the book starts off positive: "the Armenians contributing to Eastern and Western civilizations" in the end it seems as if the Armenians copied everything around them and did not at all contribute to any society (not even their own: American missionaries converting many and introducing schools in the area). The few famous Armenians around the world, according to this author, grew up in the west, like Cher.

What surprised me most was the assumption that Armenians until today believe that there were no other people living in Eastern Turkey before them. Perhaps some very conservative orthodox bishops and priests still believe this, but many modern Armenians today have names like Argishti and Nairi (or Naira). In fact, Ararat is derived from Urartu and some hotels and restaurants in Armenia carry that name.

Then Mount Ararat. Whether geographical, historical, religious or legendary, one cannot ignore the symbolic value that Ararat has had on the Armenians for centuries until today.

Also, the "first" Armenian book was printed in Venice, not New Julfa.

And finally, the reason why diasporan Armenians want the genocide to be recognized by Turkey is not to annoy the Turks but so that (finally!) peace-process talks can start, resulting in diasporan Armenians returning home.

Maybe in the next edition?

I ordered this book hoping for an interesting, legible, treatment of Armenia, from pre-history to more recent times. If you're tempted to buy it, don't bother. The information presented is disorganized, superficial and not very coherent.

this book left me with quite a muddled picture of the armenians.

the book can be broadly divided into three parts, chronologically speaking: 1. beginnings-1071, 2. 1071-1915, and 3. 1915-present. the latter two parts are rendered in quite a summary fashion in my opinion, and a topic as central as the genocide has been accorded barely half a page.

throughout the book one finds it hard to understand when armenians were independent and when not, what elements of their culture they got from whom and what contributions they made to other cultures. one major contribution of armenians is their distinctive architecture, and that could have been explored with far more pictures than are included in the book.

the exceptionally summary treatment of the centuries under turkish rule and especially of the genocide leaves one startled, as these are the centuries and events that must have had a most profound effect on the armenian identity. an establishment turkish historian writing about armenian history could not have paid less attention to the genocide issue (for other purposes, of course, but that's another matter). the recently independent armenian republic is also equally summarily treated. the lack of a single armenian name in the acknowledgements page is also very curious.

i had bought it to get an unbiased introduction to the subject, instead i got a muddled one. in sum, i would not recommend this book as an introduction to the subject.

Like the previous reviewer I found this book extremely difficult to follow and in fact did not finish it. I would hope that historians write books in such a way that non-historians can easily follow and enjoy their books.

A poorly written, unorganised, and dissapointing book which will go nowhere in getting the reasonably unknown history of Armenia on the map. Certainly not one for the first timer...

Despite the weaknesses--some fair, some very unfair--pointed at by the other reviewers, this book is the best work published in English on Armenia and the Armenians from their early origins to the Turkish invasion in the eleventh century.

While the book has been written by a professional, I have a feeling that it has been written somewhat hastily, and the topics covered have been arbitrarily chosen. It is frequently hard to trace the underlying logic of the arguments or to come up with specific conclusions intended. One almost gets an impression of the author claiming something like, "If we make this and this assumption, we would arrive to this and this conclusion, if we make the other assumption, we would arrive to the other conclusion. We can arrive to any conclusion, thus the subject should not be seriously studied." This characterization is especially transparent in the case of the topic of the "Origin of Armenians." It looks as if "I have been asked to write about it and I have done it. I can spend my time on better things, however."

For example, it is noteworthy that the author pays minimal attention to the era and the contribution of the Paulicians, who have had tremendous impact on the evolution of European theological thought starting in the 9th century, laying down the foundations of Protestant thought.

On the other hand, this book obviously is not meant for bedtime reading, and has to be read with a sharp pencil in one's hands. However, in this case, I suspect there is a high likelihood of emerging with a much more negative reaction towards it.

Overall, I think this is a book to at least glance through and to know about, and is a positive contribution when looked at from the perspective of bringing Armenian History to the International spotlight. It is a welcome addition to the library of anyone who has serious interest in Armenian History, but would not necessarily be appropriate for novices or those with only a passing interest.

How can such awful writing get published?

Just in case anyone out there actually wants some facts concerning the Armenians here is some actual information.

1. The ancient Persians wrote of a kingdom to their north which they referred to as Armina.

2. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus mentioned the Armenian people numerous times in his fifth century BC writings.

3. The ancient Romans fought a war with the Parthian Empire over control of Armenia from 58 to 63 AD.

4. Romans won the aforementioned war. They later lost influence in Asia Minor but in 113 AD the Emperor Trajan attacked Parthia and reestablished Roman control of Armenia. In 114 the Roman government officially made Armenia a full Roman province Catilius Severus served his government as the governor of Armenia.

5. Roman coins which can still be seen in museums to this day where issued by the Roman senate in commemoration of Rome's victory in Asia Minor which say "ARMENIA ET MESOPOTAMIA IN POTESTATEM P.R. REDACTAE"

6. The ancient Greek Xenophon wrote about his experiences among the Armenians during the fourth century BC. One of the observations Xenophon made was that the Urartians and Armenians were close kin and that the Urartian nation had merged into the Armenian nation.

7. Linguistic research has found that the language of the Hurro-Urartians (a people indigenous to eastern Asia Minor whose history goes back to the second millennium BC) is closely related to the Armenian language.

8. Persian historians of the fifth century AD record Armenians of the Persian empire fighting a war of rebellion against the Sassanid dynasty.

9. Seventh century Arab Muslims invaded the land of Armenia. The conflict between Arabs and Armenians in the 600s was written about by Arabs, Persians, Byzantines and people from numerous other nations.

10. Hecataeus of Miletus a Greek who lived in the sixth century BC speaks of the Armenians in his writings.

Can such an author have any shame?