An archaeologist goes beyond the Vikings’ bloody reputation to search for the truth; in a new and groundbreaking historyThe Vikings famously took no prisoners; relished cruel retribution; and prided themselves on their bloodthirsty skills as warriors. But their prowess in battle is only a small part of their story; which stretches from their Scandinavian origins to America in the West and as far as Baghdad in the East. As the Vikings did not write their own history; we have to discover it for ourselves; and that discovery; as Neil Oliver reveals; tells an extraordinary story of a people who; from the brink of destruction; reached a quarter of the way around the globe and built an empire that lasted nearly two hundred years.Drawing on discoveries that have only recently come to light; Scottish archaeologist Neil Oliver goes on the trail of the real Vikings. Where did they emerge from? How did they really live? And just what drove them to embark on such extraordinary voyages of discovery over a thousand years ago? The Vikings: A New History explores many of those questions for the first time in an epic story of one of the world’s great empires of conquest. 16 pages of color and BW photographs
#243908 in Books 2015-11-08Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .78 x 5.98l; 1.12 #File Name: 1602357730348 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful; well-argued studyBy Ryan SullivanWonderful; well-argued study. It is easy to see how those who do not recognize their own racist ideologies could find this "offensive;" but the true offense is how educated people could be so stupid.This should be required reading for all composition instructors and program leaders.1 of 13 people found the following review helpful. The Paradoxes of Arguing Against Racism in AssessmentBy James Williams; Ph.D.Much has been written about writing assessment over the years as writing faculty have grappled with understanding the nature of assessment and concepts like “reliability†and “validity†that are largely foreign to people trained in English departments. One result has been a movement to abandon standardized assessment as a practice that measures proficiency and performance. The aim; instead; is to focus on various forms of student self-assessment; usually through self-reflective practices.Inoue's book can be seen as yet another attempt to dismantle standardized writing assessment using the powerful political claim that assessment is racist. As such; it is part of the decades-old argument that American institutions and their practices are inherently racist. Unfortunately; rather than breaking new ground; the author uses many of the same clichés and faces many of the same challenges as past advocates of this view. Perhaps the most problematic is that in arguing against racism; Inoue ends up engaging in stereotyping and racist language himself. Just imagine the outrage if any academic used terms like "blackness" or "yellowness" to stereotype African-Americans or Asian-Americans in the way that Inoue uses the term "whiteness." I doubt that any reputable publisher would be willing to face the backlash if these terms were used to claim that "blackness" or "yellowness" describes an inherently and uniformly racist population and its institutions.Two paradoxes render this text offensive and insensitive. First; at no point does Inoue seem aware that in advocating an anti-racist approach to assessment he comes across as a racist himself. Second; given that his primary audience consists of university faculty; nearly all of whom are progressive liberals who already agree with him; he has failed rhetorically. I therefore do not recommend this book.
