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losangelestim
, January 15, 2011
(view all comments by losangelestim)
this book has been my favorite book for many years now. i bought it over twenty years ago at a junk store because it had a pretty binding. little did i know that this book i bought for it's cover would stay with me for so long! a wonderful chronicle of world history laying out tableaux of man's doings from the beginning of civilization to the middle of the twentieth century. the writing is delightful (i wish i'd met the man, i hear he was charming), personal, and indo-centric. my copy has some maps and diagrams that are also interesting and helpful for me since i have only the smallest grasp of indian culture and geography. it's context shouldn't go without mentioning: a fathers letters, often written in colonial prisons, to his daughter, in a european boarding school; from the father of his country to the woman who would go on and lead it; from the east to the west. especially interesting to me were his distaste for brahmanism, his quick study of american religiosity, and his adoring appraisal of the united states.
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