Rating: 
Summary: I wish more history books were like this
Review: Friends of mine who are serious students of history have always told me that it is important to read "primary sources" instead of just the analysis of historians. But as a non-historian, I don't usually have access to eyewitness accounts of historical events. This book gave me that chance. I felt more like a voyeur than a scholar, but basically my friends were right. History seems alive when told by those who were alive to see it.
Rating: 
Summary: The single most interesting book I've read
Review: I love this book! If there was one book I could take to the proverbial desert island, this would be it. I've read it so many times, and always find something new to delight in. The publisher should reissue it, I'm tired of lending it to friends.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding as a history book and marvellous entertainment
Review: John Carey has assembled close to 400 separate short pieces here. Some are eyewitness accounts of important historical events, but more often they are pieces that give you the flavour of a time and place in a way no history text can possibly manage. These stories stay in the mind long after a dry textbook narrative would have faded away.Some examples: there is a first-hand account of a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756, a story I had read about as a schoolboy but which finally came alive for me when I read this piece. There is a piece by Fanny Burney relating her mastectomy in 1811, performed without anaesthesia of any kind. There's an excerpt of an interview by a British Parliamentary Commission in 1815 with a twenty-three year old woman severely deformed as a result of the terrible conditions in the Leeds factories; this one had me practically in tears. There's an account from someone who had dinner with Attila the Hun; an account of a pipefitter who was at Pearl Harbour; Charlotte Bronte's account of the Crystal Palace--the list is seemingly endless, and endlessly fascinating. The book rewards skimming, and is hard to put down--just one more story about Trafalgar, or the Civil War, or Caesar . . . . The only thing I'd like to change about the book is that most of the accounts are from the last 150 years; I'd have enjoyed reading more older pieces. However, it's not John Carey's fault that it is far easier to find recent accounts than old ones, and the many twentieth century tales are just as much fun to read as the older ones. A terrific book.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding as a history book and marvellous entertainment
Review: John Carey has assembled close to 400 separate short pieces here. Some are eyewitness accounts of important historical events, but more often they are pieces that give you the flavour of a time and place in a way no history text can possibly manage. These stories stay in the mind long after a dry textbook narrative would have faded away. Some examples: there is a first-hand account of a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta in 1756, a story I had read about as a schoolboy but which finally came alive for me when I read this piece. There is a piece by Fanny Burney relating her mastectomy in 1811, performed without anaesthesia of any kind. There's an excerpt of an interview by a British Parliamentary Commission in 1815 with a twenty-three year old woman severely deformed as a result of the terrible conditions in the Leeds factories; this one had me practically in tears. There's an account from someone who had dinner with Attila the Hun; an account of a pipefitter who was at Pearl Harbour; Charlotte Bronte's account of the Crystal Palace--the list is seemingly endless, and endlessly fascinating. The book rewards skimming, and is hard to put down--just one more story about Trafalgar, or the Civil War, or Caesar . . . . The only thing I'd like to change about the book is that most of the accounts are from the last 150 years; I'd have enjoyed reading more older pieces. However, it's not John Carey's fault that it is far easier to find recent accounts than old ones, and the many twentieth century tales are just as much fun to read as the older ones. A terrific book.
Rating: 
Summary: It ain't necessarily so. . .
Review: Making a book out of so-called eye-witness accounts is a wonderful idea, making for fascinating reading. However, there is a question of the reliability of some of those "eye-witnessess." The John Evelyn account of a circumcision in Rome,in 1645, is nothing but a piece of blatant anti-semitism. It propagates the idea of Jews as blood drinkers and practishioners of filthy rites (they are depicted as drinking a mixture of wine, blood, and spittle). The fact that the editor of this volume didn't know better than to include this piece of arrant and evil nonsense suggests, at best, that his mind was elsewhere at the time, that he didn't know better, or (less charitably) that accepted this view of Jews. In any case, the history is poor.
Alex Levy
Rating:
Summary: It ain't necessarily so. . .
Review: Making a book out of so-called eye-witness accounts is a wonderful idea, making for fascinating reading. However, there is a question of the reliability of some of those "eye-witnessess." The John Evelyn account of a circumcision in Rome,in 1645, is nothing but a piece of blatant anti-semitism. It propagates the idea of Jews as blood drinkers and practishioners of filthy rites (they are depicted as drinking a mixture of wine, blood, and spittle). The fact that the editor of this volume didn't know better than to include this piece of arrant and evil nonsense suggests, at best, that his mind was elsewhere at the time, that he didn't know better, or (less charitably) that accepted this view of Jews. In any case, the history is poor.
Alex Levy
Rating:
Summary: 2430 years of recorded horrors.
Review: Socrates taught that a good person never knowingly
does wrong. "Unfortunately", the effect of Socrates
teaching was disruptive since he opposed Tyranny.
Accussed in 399 B.C. on charges of corruption
of the young, he was condemned by the Athenian
authorities to die by drinking hemlock.
In the the book we get Platos eyewitness
account of Socrates death.
From there on we get eyewitness accounts from one
gruesome historic event after another. I particular
"enjoyed" a Viking funeral with gang rape
and human sacrifice(992 A.D),
the execution of Louis the 16th (1793 A.D),
prostitutes in London (1839 A.D.), Winston Churchills
account of the battle of Omdurman (1898 A.D.),
Birkenau (1944 A.D.), My Lai (1968 A.D.) etc.
But somehow I would have appreciated it, if John Carey
had taken the time to tell me what he thinks
it all means.
One could end of up thinking that people are just
a bunch of low lifes. After all that is not the
complete story.
There are glorious moments also, as when Neil Armstong
stands on the Moon in 1969 ?
Rating:
Summary: I wish I could give it 6 stars! or 10!
Review: This is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. I just wish they'd publish a second volume...there must be more historical material out there like this!
Rating:
Summary: Reading It For The Fourth Time!
Review: Today I ordered my fourth copy of Eyewitness to History (Carey, John) since it first was published. Why? When my guests have seen it in my home, some have borrowed it, become addicted to it, and I end up telling them to keep it. It makes a good gift and great reading.
I enjoy reading both history and short stories: Eyewitness to History is the best of both in one volume! The authenticity is appealing, but the spontaneity of the eyewitness accounts is without equal. The simple, forthright eyewitness accounts are devoid of verbose, protracted and often biased interpretations that one frequently encounters in most historical texts.
Mr. Carey, when are you going to write an updated edition with more accounts? I want to be the first to know.
Rating:
Summary: Suspiciously similar to the Faber Book of Reportage (!)
Review: UK readers may not realize that this is the same as the book (originally?) published in the UK as 'The Faber Book of Reportage'. I think this had more of a cult (i.e. small) following, perhaps due to its more sober title - and cover! The contrast between the appearance of the US book (which looks like a Monty Python film poster) and the UK original could not be greater. Anyway, both are indeed incredibly fascinating books, which nobody could give fewer than 5 stars.
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