Scribble, Scribble, Scribble
Writing on Politics, Ice Cream, Churchill, and My Mother
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Schama is a masterful stylist and storyteller.”
—Boston Globe
“A writer of gorgeous prose.”
—Washington Post
The ever erudite, always delightfully curious Simon Schama returns with Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, a wonderful compendium of thirty provocative, witty, enlightening, and stimulating essays previously published but collected in a single volume for the first time. One of our most distinguished historians and commentators, Schama, the acclaimed author of The American Future: A History, explores an amazing diversity of topics—from the political to the personal, from the earth-shaking to the mundane, from ice cream to Churchill to Hurricane Katrina and everything in-between. In Scribble, Scribble, Scribble, Simon Schama opens up his—and our—wide world to us.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In these lively essays and reportage, Columbia historian Schama (The American Future: A History) turns his omnivorous erudition and warm prose to a vast array of topics. There are incisive historical essays on everything from Europeans' evolving image of the "Unloved American" to Churchill's oratory and, in a deliciously cruel book review, the "pigmification of historical scale" in micromonographs. There are meditations on the art of Rembrandt and Richard Avedon; reportage from British and American election campaigns; disdainful commentary on the Bush administration, and a stew to ice cream smorgasbord of foodie articles, recipes included. Schama is essentially the reporter-pundit with a chair in history, illuminating the most contemporary of topics in the buttery glow of historical context. One occasionally wonders whether that licenses him to write about absolutely everything: some pieces misfire profiles of Martin Scorsese and Charlotte Rampling feel like generic celebrity puffery and he lacks the distinctive style and outlook that would make you want to follow him all over the map. Still, he approaches every subject with gusto and amusement and, like your favorite professor, always has smart things to say. 8 pages of b&w photos.
