Day 15,114
Clouds
Originally uploaded by Jason Langlois Got up today and looked outside to see sun. Yay, I thought. Grabbed the camera and headed back up Mt. Tolmie thinking I'd get some shots with the sun out.
Well, the price we paid for the sun today was an incredible, blustery wind. Nearly knocked me over, more than once... perhaps being on top of a hill with no cover wasn't the greatest idea.
Got a couple neat shots, though.
Finished up Rites of Peace last night. Rather fascinating look at the Congress of Vienna, and the numerous other types of congress that seemed to occur around it. It does a good job of suggestion that the Congress was not revolutionary, but a mix of evolution and reaction. The end result was around 15 or so years of stability in Europe, and maybe 25 years without major war... but it came with a high price.
The Congress pretty much tipped the balance of power on the continent, the book suggests, by freeing Britain and Russia to look elsewhere, cutting the legs out from under Austria and setting Prussia on a path of conquest. It also put a lid on the liberal changes initiated by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Code, which created a situation that had to bubble over into violence and the creation of socialism and communism.
Which means, to me anyway, that there's many parallels to how the Treaty of Versailles turned out (despite Wilson wanting to avoid replicating the Congress of Vienna). Anyway, a good read and some good history.
I snagged up the first four volumes of the Thieves World series cheap at a used book store, so will be slotting those into the reading rotation. They'll join Infantry Attacks (by Rommel) and Lost Victories (by Manstein) on the corner table.