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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Couldn't Put it Down,
By
This review is from: Dogs of the Conquest (Hardcover)
I picked up this book in an old Book Store in San Antonio and couldn't put it down. Amazing facts and stories about the war dogs that the spaniards brought with them when they conquered the new world.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Horrific, but True History, and Utterly, Morbidly Fascinating !,
By
This review is from: Dogs of the Conquest (Hardcover)
This is one of the best History books I've read in a long while. This is a virtually "unknown" episode of history that either gets briefly mentioned if at all, or ignored outright. But the simple fact is , as brutal and utterly barbaric as it may be, that it is the unglossed Truth of the Spanish Conquest of the New World. I'm enough of a Historian to not have knee-jerk reactions to History books in general, and to always look for the "spin", as there is usually some "side" being propounded in the majority. But this is a truly Scholarly work in the very Best Traditions of Historical Research. Excellent research, and equally excellent writing, makes it hard to put down. And it IS morbidly fascinating. Highly recommended for anyone without a faint heart and an interest in good, objective History!
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Richard Salisbury, Feb, 1984.,
By B. Shelby "B. Shelby" (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dogs of the Conquest (Hardcover)
The passage of centuries has done little to diminish the controversy surrounding the nature of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. One school of scholarly interpretation portrays the Spanish conquistador as embodying essentially negative characteristics and virtues during the conquest. As far as the partisans of this school are concerned, the Spaniard, as wicked, cruel, wanton, and bigoted conqueror richly deserves identification with the so called "Black Legend" approach to conquest historiography. An alternative view of the Spanish conquest, however, emphasizes the efforts of many individuals, priests and friars for the most part, who struggled to secure from the conquistador and Spanish Crown alike just and human treatment for the native population.Advocates of this historical school have given rise to a "White Legend" interpretation of the conquest experience which serves as a counterpoise to their colleagues who perforce remain on the dark side. Those who seek benign elements in the Spanish conquest, however, are herby forewarned that they will look in vain in John and Jeannette Varners' Dogs of the Conquest for anything even remotely resembling support for their positive perception of conquest reality. What the Varners have produced is a good piece of traditional narrative history. Their thesis is simple and direct: "Man's best friend" served as a "lethal weapon of war" in the conquest of the Americas. The authors sustain this thesis through effective utilization of the Spanish legal records, first hand accounts, and early histories which make up the bulk of their documentation. The use of dogs as an instrument of war did not, as the Varners point out, originate with the Spanish. Dogs played combat roles in the armies of Asia Minor, Greece and Rome and maintained such a role in Western European armies well into the 16th Century. Thus the Spanish simply transferred to the New World what generations of European fighting men had considered as standard military practice. The combat role that dogs played in the Americas was elemental. Whenever a potential or real combat situation presented itself the Spanish conquistadores released their dogs and urged them "to seek out their prey and rip, tear, and devour." As the Varners laconically observe, "the dogs dutifully carried out their masters' commands." In addition to their specific combat role the dogs functioned as trackers of quarry, both animal and human alike, and as instruments of execution and torture. Indeed, for an American Indian the expression "to be thrown to the dogs" held, as the Varners document in gruesome detail, implications that were horrible and most often terminal. Perhaps, as so often is the case, Shakespeare can be prevailed upon to place the subject in final perspective. The grieving Mark Anthony, standing over the bloody corpse of his beloved Ceasar, warns the world of dire things to come as the raging shade of Ceasar will "Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war." Had a time warp enabled any native Americans of the early conquest era to be present in the pit at the Globe, they would most certainly and tragically have had more than just an academic appreciation for the words of the bard. By Richard V. Salisbury, Western Kentucky U. history professor. Printed in Park City Daily News, Feb. 12, 1984 I had Dr. Salisbury as a professor many moons ago. I came across his review and wanted to share it with the Amazon community.
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