New Books And Panties

[molly bloom]

Okay, it's not really 'and panties', that's just an homage to the late great Ian Dury.

Some new books that I thought 'Poly history types might like to hear of:

'Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe'
by William Rosen, and

'Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver' by Arthur Allen

and 'Penicillin: Triumph and Tragedy' by Robert Bud.


The first one deals (obviously) with the devastating plague that struck the Byzantine Empire during Justinian's reign and so weakened the empire that it lost more easily to both the Sassanids (who were also affected by plague outbreaks) and to the Arabs.

The other two deal with ways to combat illnesses, the transforming effect of vaccines on human society and behaviour and the new world which penicillin seemed to offer.

[Solomwi]

You had me at "and panties."

[Ecthy]

Yeah we've all been had at that one.

[Wycoff]

I just purchased The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze. It's an economic analysis of the Third Reich. I haven't read it yet, but its main thesis is that strategic decisions of the Third Reich was motivated primarily by it's relative economic weakness. Hitler and co. saw that Germany and Europe would be eclipsed by the U.S., and that the quest for Lebensraum was a last ditch effort to secure European dominance on the world stage.

[Ecthy]

Does he argue why Hitler went for the USSR? Does he cite Hitler arguing about that economic aspect?

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Does he argue why Hitler went for the USSR? Does he cite Hitler arguing about that economic aspect?

I haven't had the chance to read it yet, so I don't know exactly what he says, but the reviews that I've read say that he does.

[Ecthy]

Seems interesting enough. Some day Europeans will cheer and admit he was just trying to prevent American dominance.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Solomwi
You had me at "and panties."

I have a confession- I loathe the word 'panties'.

Makes my skin crawl, rather like the word 'slacks'.

As in- 'she wore crimplene slacks over nylon panties'.

A ghastly Seventies' nightmare....

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Makes my skin crawl, rather like the word 'slacks'.

I also hate the word slacks.

[Cort Haus]

Sign me up to the slacks-haters. And crimplene. And panties.

Sorry, this was supposed to be about heavy serious stuff. :-|