Critique Of John R Green's Book: "A Short History Of The English People"

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Norseman, Roman, German, and French incursions imprinted the primitive Picts, Jutes, Anglia, and Celtic enclaves found in the Isles early history. Early Maps and Generational Tables reflect the ascent and decline of influence and dynastic successions. Indicatively, the names Great Britain and England find their nominative substance in Angevin territories bridging the channel, along with Brittany in Western France.

In 1008 pages, the author reveals a short history of the Anglo Saxon; revealingly, its introduction was written in 1888. With biographical assistance from eras much more ancient than Shakespeare, Chaucer, Homer, or even Ovid, Green chronicles those influences shaping the ethics, ethos, and law construct among English speaking peoples. With candor, he describes the cruelty, debauchery, and chicanery associated with Great Britain's rise as a world leader; indeed, it was a reflection of mankind's propensity to the course, vulgar, and licentious liberties common among those who used the sword and mace to control equally undisciplined values. Though England's Kings and Court are exposed in their most basic appetites, Green remarks: "I have drawn greater attention to the religious, intellectual, and industrial progress of the nation itself than has, so far as I remember, ever been done in any previous history of the same extent."

John Green died before his work could be fully edited. To bring his ambitious endeavor to fruition, his wife, Alice, labored on to finish his massive elaboration.

Development of the expansive United Kingdom is drawn in laborious detail; simultaneously, an introduction to English mechanics, in its purest form, can be perused in this copious demonstration of intellectuality. The book is highly recommended as an introduction to English skills; but amidst such linguistic elegance, readers must endure unending banality from the era's repeated power struggles and unconscionable inhumanities. Still, with over one-half million words, the book represents a formidable history of English speaking peoples.

Incongruously, we find Wyclif's Bible translative efforts honored, along with Tyndale's; yet, no mention was made of King James' translation effort to design a book 'easy to be understood.' King James, though he was crude and unscrupulous, was responsible for the most far-reaching literature to affect Anglo Saxon minds - though the result did not in the least alleviate symbol and number mysteries in the ancient and cryptographic Bible accounts. Even now, those secretive writings, unanswered for 2000 years, remain hidden to all but the most studious exegete. Neglected in the King James translation, as was King James' considerable effort neglected by John Green, these mysteries have since been unraveled beyond contest.

The only fault accused Mr. Green's considerable work is his neglect to the one truly great literary work accredited to English speaking peoples, the King James Holy Bible.

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Oaxaca, Cuna Y Destino De La Civilizacion Americana: Asserts Zapotec Culture Cradle of Mesoamerica

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Oaxaca, Cuna y destino de la Civilizacion Americana is an impassioned plea for recognition of ancient Zapotec culture in the state of Oaxaca, south central Mexico, as the cradle of Mesoamerican society. As such, the treatise contends, it constitutes one of the world's six great founding civilizations.

To buttress his proposition, author Juan Arturo Lopez Ramos cites key evidence which supports the contention that Oaxacan settlement should be credited with developing the continent's earliest known system of writing, calendar, cultivation, and first great city-state, Monte Alban. He bases his thesis on the fruits of primarily archaeological investigation by national and international researchers.

Background to Lopez Ramos' Knowledge and Investigation Regarding Oaxaca and its Pre - History

Lopez Ramos was born in the Mixteca district of Oaxaca. He studied in Mexico at the Instituto Politecnico National, and did his graduate work at the Antigua Universidad de Alcala de Henares, in Madrid, Spain. He then returned to Oaxaca to embark upon a career in politics. As both Secretary of Tourism, and member of congress, he gained exacting knowledge of Oaxaca, having had the opportunity to visit virtually all regions of the state. In addition, as a prominent politician he had occasion to meet with scores of academics working in the state over the course of more than two decades. He would inevitably be kept abreast of research in such diverse areas of inquiry as history, geography, anthropology and archaeology, botany and zoology, and linguistics, to name but a few.

Development of the Thesis of Oaxaca as the Cradle of Mesoamerican Civilization

Lopez Ramos begins his analysis by distinguishing development in Mesoamerica from Old World civilizations, noting that the latter had the advantage of being in relatively close proximity to one another and therefore the ability to adopt or assimilate the cultural progress of their neighbors. By contrast, Mesoamerican civilization developed in isolation and therefore independent of outside influences.

After summarizing how Oaxaca was instrumental in the development of Mesoamerica by virtue of developments in astronomy, engineering, agriculture and social organization, the author sets up Oaxaca as the geographic center of Mesoamerica, noting its climatic, physical and biological diversity, and how as a consequence the state stands apart from other regions in Mexico. He emphasizes the quantity and broad array of vegetation and animal life in the state, and of course its ethnic and cultural diversity. Oaxaca's unique position, in all of the foregoing respects, was therefore conducive to the development of a grand civilization.

The reader is provided with a review of the evidence of the earliest human occupation in Oaxaca (i.e. the rock shelters and pictographs found between Yagul and Mitla, contributing to the area's recent UNESCO designation as a World Heritage Site), and the inhabitants' crucial advancement through the domestication of squash, pepper, beans and corn. Campsites became villages, and through village life developed rudimentary adobe housing, industry (i.e. ceramics) and social structure including the earliest ritualistic behavior and governmental function.

The book truly shines where Lopez Ramos advances his contention by illustrating that it was the Zapotecs and not the Olmecs, and it was in the central valleys of Oaxaca and not in Chiapas, Tehuacan, Teotihuacan, Veracruz or in other areas, where several indicia (aside from cultivation) of a great civilization first arose. Much of the evidence derives from the excavation at San Jose Mogote in the Etla valley, a settlement pre-dating others.

Lopez Ramos acknowledges that the origins of pottery are in four areas, the oldest sites being San Jose Mogote and Tehuac?n. But by comparing evidence at the two sites, he concludes that it was at San Jose Mogote where the first ever pottery workshop contained in a village, is encountered. The site also bears witness to the earliest use of consciously selected or tooled stones, and the first public buildings - constructed using deliberate astronomical orientation. The existence of a tombstone at San Jose Mogote, with the oldest writing in Mesoamerica, sets Oaxaca apart from anything similar found in the Olmec region of Veracruz or elsewhere. He then notes the antiquity of the calendar found at the same site, and that its complexity and accuracy exceed that of calendars of European societies of that era.

Using detailed description, Lopez Ramos asserts the importance of Monte Alban, the first great city-state on the continent. He notes its significant advancements over the course of its extensive occupation, and indeed its grandiosity. He quotes archaeologists Damon E. Peeler and Marcus Winter who conclude that Zapotec astronomy played a major role in the design of Teotihuacan.

The author makes his case in a convincing manner, citing the research results of several academics who have worked in Oaxaca for decades. He does so in a highly informative, convincing, and in most cases readable and understandable fashion even for those of us without maximum proficiency with the Spanish language.

Lopez Ramos Provides the Reader with a New or Renewed Appreciation of Oaxaca

In the course of the power-point presentation promoting his book, Lopez Ramos cites the likes of D.H. Lawrence, Guadalupe Loaeza, Danish architect Jorn Utzon, and others who have marveled at Oaxaca and in some cases noted its influence throughout the modern world - just to ensure that even if you don't entirely accept his thesis, from reading the book you'll come away with a new or renewed appreciation of the state, and more particularly its central valleys.

Alvin Starkman, M.A., LL.B.

Alvin Starkman has a masters in anthropology and law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Now a resident of Oaxaca, Alvin writes, takes couples and families to the sights, is a consultant to documentary film companies working in southern Mexico, and owns Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast ( http://www.oaxacadream.com/ ), a unique bed and breakfast experience providing accommodations which combine the comfort and service of a four star hotel, with the personal touch of quaint country inn style lodging.