From Tracie: -5 Cities That Ruled the World by Douglas Wilson

Saturday, November 07, 2009

-5 Cities That Ruled the World by Douglas Wilson

When I saw the name of this book, 5 Cities That Ruled the World, on Thomas Nelson's list, I was excited.  I love books that deal with history and this seemed like an interesting concept. Douglas Wilson gives an overview of the history of Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York, and explains their part in world history.  I felt that he missed the opportunity to discuss the impact of several important Eastern cities, and I was disappointed that he didn't explain the reasons behind the cities that he chose.

To be honest, I struggled through reading this book, which I didn't feel was well written.  As an example, here is a complete sentence that can be found on page 41, "And this promise that there Jerusalem and finds its fulfillment in the New Jerusalem."  The writing was choppy throughout, and I felt that the author spent too much time on his personal conjecture.  The length of the book, 236 pages, may be partly to blame, this is a short book for such a large subject matter.

This is a book with a great title, but disappointing content.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads up on this. I'll pass on reading it.

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  2. Ya that sucks because I would have read it with that title. Oh well there are always books that end up sucking even when the title draws me in.

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  3. I totally agree with you- my review reflected much of the same thoughts. And his attempt at humor was so annoying!

    What book did you pick next? I got The Liturgical Year.

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