Fall of My Blog

Fall of My Blog

I haven't posted anything since late Thursday of last week. Why? Because I got hijacked by Ken Follett's latest book which is a hefty read. Like his previous bestsellers The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, this book has almost a thousand pages so I had to prop the book up on a pillow in my lap to read it because of its weight. But in spite of the length and weight I managed to read it in five days.
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I love history so I love historical novels that give you new insights into a time period. The Fall of Giants is the first of a series of three books that Ken Follett plans to write about the world history of the twentieth century. The Fall of Giants covers the build up to World War I, the war and the aftermath of the war. It gave me a good picture of the supreme world powers of that period: England, France, Germany and Russia and of the up and coming world power, the United States.
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My thoughts after reading this novel: The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems. Whatever countries are the current world powers feel they have the right to step in and micro manage other countries around the world in whatever way they think fits best for their interests and their concept of the world's best interests. In this case, it was how England and France divided up the middle east for their own benefit including creating the new nation of Iraq and how additional new European countries were created by these world powers to replace the old Austro-Hungarian Empire--countries like Yugoslavia and Czeckosl0vakia. Reading this first part of the three part Follett trilogy gave me a better understanding of how the Treaty of Peace in Paris after World War I and the creation of Wilson's League of Nations which was done with the very best of intentions ultimately led to the Second World War.
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And with that you could state that thru out civilization countries are like people: they are born, they live and then they die or are killed in some fashion. For example,Czechoslovakia is now two countries: the Czech Republic and Serbia. Yugoslavia is now seven various nations. Final thought of the day: I wonder what will happen in the future to Iraq? Will it split into three countries following ethnic and/or religious differences in the land? Something to ponder on this lovely autumn day while I anxiously await Ken Follett's second book in his trilogy of the twentieth century.