M. Evan Brooks

Helpful votes received on reviews: 100% (1 of 1)

Location: Gainesvile, VA USA

In My Own Words:

Author, Military History's Most Wanted (Brassey's, 05/02)
Civilian Occupation: Attorney-Advisor, Estate & Gift Tax (HQ-Policy), Internal Revenue Service

Web Site: http://home.comcast.net/~evanb rooks

Publications:
CURRENT NOTES (Atari User Publication, 1981-1983)
COMPUTER GAMING WORLD (Contributor, Wargames Editor,
1984-1993)
COMPUTER GAMES STRATEGY PLUS (Contribu… Read more

Reviews

Top Reviewer Ranking: 636,855 - Total Helpful Votes: 1 of 1

Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History by James Carroll	SAID THE APOSTATE: SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE JEWS , Jan 28 2001 CONSTANTINE'S SWORD purports to be a history of relations between the Catholic Church and the Jews. However, the author is a novelist and not a historian, and the failures of his research are clearly apparent throughout this 616-page narrative. For example, he notes that Rome "was perhaps the first empire to require of its subjects an at least outward show of assent to the proposition that the emperor, too, was God." {page 80}. But most ancient empires regarded their leader as either a god or divinely inspired (cf. Pharaohonic Egypt) and Roman rulers were generally deified only after their death. Historical inaccuracies are only compounded by omissions - this history jumps from shortly… Read more

Barbarian Conversion by Richard Fletcher	1 of 1 people found the following review helpful In Depth Research/ No Depth Elucidation, May 6 2000 A subject which purports to cover seven centuries of religious change, the BARBARIAN CONVERSION is a book which shows no lack of research. However, what it does lack is a proper focus based on historical precedents. Why did pagan Europe adopt Christianity? What were the motives and major societal pressures which required the abandonment of thousands of years of pagan belief and traditions? This reader would have expected an explanation of where initial success was found, how it fed upon itself and expanded. Instead, the author writes a tome which follows little-known monastic leaders on a pilgramage through the European terrain without fixing on the secular leadership, the… Read more

	Interesting but Not Definitive, Feb 25 2000 This book covers the world-wide disaster of the mid-sixth century and delineates its effect on world history over the next two hundred and fifty years. While the author's thesis is attractive and partially substantiated in regard to the initial effect, his interpretations of the course of human history seem overbroad. The synergistic effects of plague and meterological conditions are interesting. However, a more detailed narration upon the effect of the dissolution of the societal infrastructure would have been appreciated. Panati's EXTRAORDINARY ENDINGS OF PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY notes the effects of the sixth century plague pandemic on Roman society in three pages… Read more

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