Heard way too many good things about this book from regular commenters like Scott Shipman (read his review here) to ignore it. The blurbs on the dust jacket are from some genuine heavyweights (and provoked an amusing academic political tantrum masquerading as a review in FP.com from some minor departmental nemesis of Hill’s at Yale, where Hill is one of the founding lecturers of their Grand Strategy Program).
I will upjump this in my antilibrary queue to be read after I finish with Luttwak.
Saw a number of interesting posts on this “best book” theme, starting with Cameron Schaeferand Lexington Green and Cameron challenged me to make a comment in this regard.
I am reading two excellent books right now,The Human Face of War by Col. Jim Storr and The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire by Edward Luttwak, but as these are unfinished, they are out of the running. So are any books that are fiction, as I am poorly qualified to evaluate books purely upon their literary merit alone. I leave that to the English majors.
As my criteria for “best” will be the book with “most profound idea” then….the winner is…..The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter. As I wrote recently:
A superb academic book, previously featured and reviewed in the blogosphere by John Robb and Joseph Fouche, The Collapse of Complex Societies embarks upon a critical examination and partial de-bunking of theories that purport to explain the “sudden” fall of great empires, such as Rome or the vanishing of the Mayans. With caveats, Tainter settles on declining marginal returns from increasing societal investment in complexity as a rough proximate cause capable of subsuming a ” significant range of human behavior, and a number of social theories” under it’s rubric. Highly recommended.
The legendary slave rebellion of Spartacus has yielded a relatively thin book by Strauss but it is an opportunity for me to get a fresh interpretation of “Roman COIN” (as if Caesar were not clear enough about how Romans dealt with insurgency in his Commentaries). Marcus Aurelius too has acheived almost mythic status, the stoic philosopher-Emperor who is the gold standard to whom other rulers are compared, and frequently found wanting.
Not sure when I will get to these…into the antilibrary pile they go 🙂
Just starting reading this magnum opus by eminent strategist Edward Luttwakand I am thoroughly enjoying it; particularly, the context-building historical digressions that enrich the text. Highly recommended.
Zenpundit is a blog dedicated to exploring the intersections of foreign policy, history, military theory, national security,strategic thinking, futurism, cognition and a number of other esoteric pursuits.
by Joseph Tainter. As I wrote recently:
by Barry Stauss 
by Frank McLynn
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