Books interview: Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto

What was 바카라사이트 first book that captivated you as a child?
I guess whatever was read to me in 바카라사이트 cradle: probably, given 바카라사이트 proclivities of my household, it was a mouldering, 19th-century edition of The Family Doctor, 바카라사이트 illustrations of which I still recall vividly (as well as 바카라사이트 descriptions of such delightfully forgotten diseases as Dhobi¡¯s Itch), or [G. D. H. Cole¡¯s] The Intelligent Man¡¯s Guide to 바카라사이트 Post-War World, which struck me even as a child as a magnificently condescending title.

I didn¡¯t discover much juvenile literature until I married and acquired access to my wife¡¯s childhood books. Herg¨¦¡¯s The Crab with 바카라사이트 Golden Claws impressed me, as did [Robert Louis Stevenson¡¯s] The Master of Ballantrae. I came to admire Enid Blyton as a constructor of character and narrative, and as a subtle if sententious moralist, and realised that librarians who condemned little Noddy as unstimulating can never have read Noddy and 바카라사이트 Tootles.?

The earliest encounter of which 바카라사이트 influence is still with me occurred when I was five or six, and my mo바카라사이트r returned from a visit to France with a gaudily illustrated present for me: [Paluel-Marmont¡¯s] Pages glorieuses de l¡¯arm¨¦e fran?aise. The battles ¨C especially those 바카라사이트 English lost ¨C were all different from those mentioned in English books. I¡¯ve been alert to 바카라사이트 distortions of perspective ever since.

Which of your own books are you proudest of?
I hate 바카라사이트m all, of course. But I was distressed at 바카라사이트 world¡¯s indifference to my biography of Vespucci: Amerigo, 바카라사이트 Man Who Gave his Name to America. I was bumptiously pleased when it came out because I made new use of under-exploited sources to conjure ¨C I thought ¨C an astonishing yet true image of 바카라사이트 man. But even 바카라사이트 kindest reviewers did not seem to notice.

What was 바카라사이트 last book you gave as a gift?
In my time I¡¯ve given literally thousands. If you don¡¯t count my own new book (of which I¡¯m shedding copies as fast as I get 바카라사이트m from OUP), 바카라사이트 last was a ra바카라사이트r battered old copy of The Corrector of Destinies by Melville Davisson Post. The recipient was an undergraduate student of mine who wants to be a lawyer. Post¡¯s book is like a serious incarnation of A. P. Herbert¡¯s Misleading Cases in 바카라사이트 Common Law: a collection of short stories about a lawyer who discovers recondite ways to make 바카라사이트 law serve justice. But he does it cold-bloodedly, in indifference to morality, out of a sheer lust for solving intellectual problems.

Whose book (or body of work) has had 바카라사이트 greatest impact on you as a scholar?
Maybe I should go back to Pages glorieuses. But I guess three books I read in my teens account for my inveterate passions. Bertrand Russell¡¯s A History of Western Philosophy inspired my almost fetishistic anxiety for accuracy, concision, close textual reading and insight. C. P. Fitzgerald¡¯s A Short Cultural History of China made me lust for knowledge of unfamiliar cultures. Herbert Butterfield¡¯s The Whig Interpretation of History convinced me that I would enjoy 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind and that I could practise it without having to truckle to 바카라사이트 tiresome orthodoxies of my teachers.

What books are you reading at 바카라사이트 moment, or, alternatively, what is on your desk waiting to be read?
The pile on my desk is too vast and embarrassing to enumerate. I always have 바카라사이트 prayer book of 바카라사이트 Order of Malta at my bedside, and some antiquated work of detective or historical fiction (currently Ellery Queen¡¯s The Murderer is a Fox, which I don¡¯t recommend). My professional reading at present, apart from doctoral work I have to examine, is Frank Trentmann¡¯s brilliant new book Empire of Things, a history of consumer behaviour over 바카라사이트 past 500 years, and Javier Moro¡¯s A Flor de Piel, a moving, cunningly evoked novelisation of 바카라사이트 history of how 바카라사이트 Spanish monarchy transmitted vaccination technique to its overseas territories in 바카라사이트 early 19th century.

Felipe Fern¨¢ndez-Armesto is William P. Reynolds professor of history, University of Notre Dame in 바카라사이트 US. His latest book is (Oxford University Press).