Customer Reviews

Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The acclaimed British wine writer Hugh Johnson once wrote: "No novelist could have invented Haraszthy. There is a surprise around every corner of his life-and how many lives have had so many corners?"

In Strong Wine: The Life and Legend of Agoston Haraszthy, Brian McGinty explores, analyzes, and describes every "corner" of Agoston Haraszthy's remarkable life, taking readers on fascinating excursions into the history of Habsburg Hungary, Jacksonian America, Gold Rush California, and post-Civil War Central America. It is an absorbing story, and an important one, too, for Haraszthy made real contributions to the development of agriculture in California during the almost twenty years (1849-1868) he lived and worked there.

As history professor William K. Crowley attests in his review of this book, "McGinty comes through as the true authority on Haraszthy, provides the peruser a well written read and substantiates the claims of Haraszthy as the `Father of Californian Viticulture'. His meticulous footnotes and mountainous bibliography lend testimony to his scholarship."

In his review, John Wills of the University of Bristol calls Strong Wine "an impressive biography." P. D. Travis of Texas Women's University calls it "a wonderful book for agricultural, ethnic, and western historians, and for those with interests in Americana." Bernard Demczuk of George Washington University describes it as "masterful." Jacob Vander Meulen of Canada's Dalhousie University says it is "fluid and engaging." Robert J. Chandler, of the Historical Services of Wells Fargo Bank, says it is an "ably written, well-researched study." And Richard Steven Street, author of Beasts of the Field: A Narrative History of California Farm Workers (2004), labels it "the finest biography of any California agriculture figure."

Recommended!

This is a book that often manages to take a colorful and fascinating life and reduce it to the tedium of everyday minutiae. Still,the research is great,the issues addressed are interesting. It is worth reading, though it may put you to sleep at times. There are certainly large portions that will be of interest to no one but a descendant (as the author is), and the prose is dense and not conducive to page-turning at times. You'll wade through this if you're a real geek--but not otherwise.