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Summary: This is a great book.
Review: This is a type of history seldom found. It shows the connections of time.How often can we appreciate the incidents which lead between places and people. A rich book in colour and taste.
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Summary: No Wooden Nutmegs Here
Review: The discovery and settling of the SPICE ISLANDS probably is not on the short list of history buffs. But this book goes far beyond that by showing the politics and murderous struggles of early 17th century Europe. One has to admire these men who went out in ships not fit nowadays for the intercoastal waterway and with just a handful of people fought battles that in this age need a million soldiers and any amount of support. No wonder they took to drinking. They surely made them different in those days!
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Summary: Not Just A Nifty Title
Review: Put on your windbreaker and get a firm grasp on both arms of your easychair and get ready for a great adventure! This book is that good. It flies along at breakneck speed with never a dull moment. Mr. Milton has a wonderful style and he has obviously done a tremendous amount of research in putting this book together. There are a lot of quotes from the primary sources, which makes for very interesting reading as you get a"you are there" feel. Actually, Nathaniel Courthope, from the title of the book is only a relatively small, though integral, part of the story. Mr. Milton gives brief but vivid character sketches of many of the Dutch and English sailors, merchants and explorers who were involved in this long and bloody trade war. Also, the book is not confined to just talking about the East Indies. It moves around from England, Holland, India, etc. to the Arctic and the search for a Northeast Passage and to Manhattan and the Hudson River and the search for a Northwest Passage. One note for the squeamish: the participants in the fight for control of the nutmeg trade did not obey the Marquis of Queensbury's rules for fighting fair. The book is full of beheadings; people being keelhauled and drawn and quartered and there is a horrific chapter on English sailors being tortured by their Dutch captors that is worthy of the worst things done during the Spanish Inquisition. If your picture of the Dutch East India Company is one of fat and jolly pipe smoking burghers, think again!
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Summary: A worthwhile read.
Review: This book gives a more complete historical context to the impetus and urgency behind the exploration of the Indies--East and West. But it's far more than history--it is a good, entertaining read that is well written.
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Summary: An exciting, intriguing, and entertaining book!
Review: Where James Clavell's "Shogun" is fiction, "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" is fact. It was like reading an exciting piece of historical fiction in the James Clavell tradition while knowing it was all true. At times I was laughing at the pure humor of the book only to turn the page and be totally horrified by the shear brutality of those early spice traders. When I was finished with the book, I wanted find the nearest port, jump on a ship and sail for the East Indies to make my fortune. This is one of the best books I have ever read. If you love high seas adventure with a historical twist, this is the book for you.
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Summary: Fascinating and Enlightening...No Need To Spice Up This Tale
Review: The author takes a little known (to laymen) period and place of history and provides an enthralling survey of the spice trade and mercantile rivalries between the Dutch and English.That merchantmen of a few centuries ago were willing to risk probable death, or at least years of privation in pursuit of modest wealth is amazing. The number of deaths, amount of suffering and frequency of atrocities not only underscores the costs of exploration and trade but provides an indelible backdrop to a fascinating story. The author tells this tale well. Although many characters arrive and quickly depart the tale (owing no doubt to the scarcity of complete records of lives and events four centuries ago), the story is vivid and compelling. Enjoyable and very readible.
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Summary: Wonderful narrative history full of eccentric characters
Review: To our modern ears, the spice trade may not sound like much, but in the Elisabethan period it was a mad gold rush. This is a well-told story of desperate men doing desperate things in the pursuit of great wealth.
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Summary: A must-read for all fans of O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books!
Review: A very enjoyable book dealing with a time period that doesn't get much attention in American History which most folks are content to beleive had a start date of 1620. British traders sailing in ships that didn't change a great deal for hundreds of years, not much different than Aubrey's Suprise (and faced with the same navigation and survival challanges too). The book can whet one's appetite for learning more about British expiditions to India and Southeast Asia. Having lost out to the Dutch in the Spice Islands, how did they manage to gain such a foothold there during the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Summary: More Praise for NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG
Review: More Praise for NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG "Giles Milton's exciting account of the dangerous voyages, bizarre transactions and desperate battles of the Spice Wars makes today's drug trade look like a church bazaar." Leo Carey, The Washington Post "Giles Milton, the author of an earlier book on the British explorer John Mandeville, rivals Evan Connell in his ability to tell a good story. . . . [Nathaniel's Nutmeg is] a rousing historical romp. Milton leaves one both yearning for a time when the world seemed full of infinite adventure and appalled by what greed did to such a paradise." Kevin Baker, The New York Times Book Review
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Summary: Interesting History
Review: This is an enjoyable book to read, easy to get into and hard to put down. I found the story of the Spice Trade to be quite interesting and that I suppose was a result of the hard work put in by the author. The story was fun, vibrant and quiet blood-thirsty and all over a little 'nut'. This is good fun history and the story is well told. Well done to the author!
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