www.talkcyprus.org

[thebrix]

Well, £10 rather than £25 :)

It is available at the excellent postscript books which sells remaindered books on every topic imaginable and offers a printed catalogue as well as the Web site.

I wonder if it will be the elusive "objective account" ... ?

Alastair

[cannedmoose]

I've got it, it's ok, haven't read it all but it's ok, not great. As for impartial, I don't think there's a single impartial text in existence. All have absorbed spin from both sides in some way or another.

[TVSET]

I thought that "Rought Guide to Cyprus" had a good section on Cyprus history. I didn't find it to be biased towards this or that side and it seemed pretty objective.

The book is available in many local bookstores for about 10-15 CYP and is a good resource about Cyprus. Except history it has useful information about beaches, pubs and restaurants. I'm glad I bought it.

[cannedmoose]

A good review of this book in Cyprus Mail...

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=21685&cat_id=9

Having read about 1/2 of it, it certainly wasn't worth the £17 I paid for it, it pretty much regurgitates information already contained in a hundred other books. As the article says, Rebecca Bryant's book is without doubt the best recent text on the Cyprus problem. I've written a review of it in the 'reviews' section.

[thebrix]

cannedmoose wrote:
Having read about 1/2 of it, it certainly wasn't worth the £17 I paid for it, it pretty much regurgitates information already contained in a hundred other books. As the article says, Rebecca Bryant's book is without doubt the best recent text on the Cyprus problem. I've written a review of it in the 'reviews' section.

It turned up, and I see why the other posters had reservations ... £10 wasted :cry: At least it wasn't £25!

In effect, everything is explained by a conspiracy theory; the author falls into the common fallacy of believing that a big result must have had a big thought behind it, which leads to chains of largely unrelated events being built up and projected forwards in time.

I was almost expecting to find Freemasonry, Skull and Bones and "the world Jewish conspiracy" evoked at some point ...

Alastair

[cannedmoose]

thebrix wrote: In effect, everything is explained by a conspiracy theory; the author falls into the common fallacy of believing that a big result must have had a big thought behind it, which leads to chains of largely unrelated events being built up and projected forwards in time.

I was almost expecting to find Freemasonry, Skull and Bones and "the world Jewish conspiracy" evoked at some point ...

Alastair

I agree entirely with your reading of it... it's almost as bad as reading one of Christopher Hitchens books about Cyprus. I think the author must have spent too much time in Cyprus and been sucked in by all of the conspiracy theories that fly around the Cyprus 'jungle telegraph'.

[David Carter]

Christopher Hitchens was married to Greek Cypriot lady. While there are very few 'objective' histories about the island, I think my friend, the late Nancy Crawshaw came closest with "Revolt in Cyprus". Another book worth reading is a very serious academic account: "Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954 1959"By ROBERT HOLLAND Published by CLARENDON PRESS, OXFORD (1997)
Regards David

[erolz]

David Carter wrote: While there are very few 'objective' histories about the island, I think my friend, the late Nancy Crawshaw came closest with "Revolt in Cyprus".

Thanks for 'pointers' David.

Unfortunately Nancy Cranshaws book is very hard to get hold of. I have been searching for a copy I can afford for a long time now as it is constantly referred to in the many other books I have about Cyprus. Secondhand copies tracked down via the net seem to go for £200+ and that is beyond my budget :(

[Bullika]

Quote: I thought that "Rought Guide to Cyprus" had a good section on Cyprus history. I didn't find it to be biased towards this or that side and it seemed pretty objective.


I agree its pretty objective, probably my favourite guide to Cyprus. It has a section at the back entitled "Who are the Turkish Cypriots?" It lists the various origins, Yoruks (Turkmens), Venetian, Maronite, Black, Palestinian etc. No other guide does this.

The author Marc Dubin claims that many Turkish Cypriots are descendants of Latins and cites the name Mehmet Valentino as being used in old archives, but he never listed his sources. I would love to know where he found this information. Did he personally check Ottoman archives or did he read it somwhere, if so, he should have declared which book or journal.