And the endnotes can hardly be ignored in a book filled with the names of unfamiliar composers and musicians.

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Similarly, his foray into geopolitics--he thinks Krakatoa contributed to the rise of modern Muslim extremism--suffers from the book's lack of endnotes, and from Winchester's occasional overconfidence in his command of this great mass of material.

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Trailing endnotes are difficult to manage.

NEWYORKER: A New Page

Endnotes are used almost at random.

ECONOMIST: Economic folly

Ours had hundreds more endnotes.

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