Bruno Hunziker
Answered a promptWhat are your favorite books of all time?
Interesting enough since I had little to no knowledge about the Etruscan culture and history, but even to me the presentation felt patchy and the research is undoubtedly outdated (there's apparently a newer version in the same series).
Interesting enough since I had little to no knowledge about the Etruscan culture and history, but even to me the presentation felt patchy and the research is undoubtedly outdated (there's apparently a newer version in the same series).
In line with the series' style and spirit, this short book will give you a perfectly adequate crash course on the subject - this time the fall of the Western Roman Empire and all the avatars that followed in his steps. The analysis takes critical but widely accepted positions on the matter, namely the "Rome never died, it just took different forms" narrative.
Great if you're already familiar with the subject and want to solidify you're bases.
In line with the series' style and spirit, this short book will give you a perfectly adequate crash course on the subject - this time the fall of the Western Roman Empire and all the avatars that followed in his steps. The analysis takes critical but widely accepted positions on the matter, namely the "Rome never died, it just took different forms" narrative.
Great if you're already familiar with the subject and want to solidify you're bases.
It's hard to insist on this book's importance without falling in the same pitfalls it (and the other "important" Pennac book, Comme un roman) denounces: I'm tempted to say they should be must-reads for all teachers, but one of Pennac main takeaway is precisely that obligation kills the reading experience, and more generally the learning experience. This book (like all books, like all knowledge) shouldn't be praised and put on a pedestal, lest it be sacralized and then inevitably forgotten on untouched bookshelves, but simply read, experienced - the book with do the work by itself.
More concretely, Chagrin d'école attempts to deconstruct the image of the cancre - the "bad" student -, specially the one the teachers hold of him, much in the same movement that the teachers should help the cancre deconstruct his own image as a bad student.
Easy to read, funny and insightful. The short chapters make it fly by, I couldn't stop reading.
It's hard to insist on this book's importance without falling in the same pitfalls it (and the other "important" Pennac book, Comme un roman) denounces: I'm tempted to say they should be must-reads for all teachers, but one of Pennac main takeaway is precisely that obligation kills the reading experience, and more generally the learning experience. This book (like all books, like all knowledge) shouldn't be praised and put on a pedestal, lest it be sacralized and then inevitably forgotten on untouched bookshelves, but simply read, experienced - the book with do the work by itself.
More concretely, Chagrin d'école attempts to deconstruct the image of the cancre - the "bad" student -, specially the one the teachers hold of him, much in the same movement that the teachers should help the cancre deconstruct his own image as a bad student.
Easy to read, funny and insightful. The short chapters make it fly by, I couldn't stop reading.
