A Plethora of New(ish) Books II.
[Mark Safranski / “zen“]
The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Creative Schools by Sir Ken Robinson
White World Order, Black Power Politics by Robert Vitalis
Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing our Kids for the [….] by Tony Wagner & Ted Dintersmith
Technology and War by Martin van Creveld
Tough Liberal: Al Shanker and the Battle over Schools [….] by Richard Kahlenberg
With Arrow, Sword and Spear: A History of Warfare in the Ancient World by Alfred S. Bradford
The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein
Mercenaries in the Classical World by Stephen English
Long delayed part II.
Some repeat names in this batch; I have long been a fan of creativity theorist Sir Ken Robinson and eminent historians Simon Sebag Montefiore (Russia, USSR) and Martin van Creveld (War, Strategy) and own many of their other titles. These were easy choices – I’m curious to see how Montefiore’s Romanovs stacks up against the book of the same title by the late Russia scholar, W. Bruce Lincoln.
Some of these titles are outside my normal genres and political dispositions, but if you don’t read things that you might disagree with you’ll never learn anything new. The Vitalis book on the influence of African-American scholars on the evolution of international relations came highly recommended to me by Daniel Nexon so I thought I’d give it a go. The Shanker book I thought was interesting because Al Shanker was not only instrumental in shaping the teaching profession and unionism, he was a “Cold War liberal” and tough anti-communist of the kind the often bloody trade-union wars between the democratic Left and the pro-Soviet Communists in mid-century produced.
What are you reading?
September 18th, 2016 at 1:37 pm
Backporch Reading
One Child (Mei Fong)- An uneven but compelling history of the One-Child policy in China. Many nuggets- ex. an amateur demographer from the PLA literally is the reason 25,000+ babies were not aborted or killed at birth in Yicheng and a few other Chinese counties. He was allowed to run a control experiment there for 2 decades.
Honorary Sailors Can Read Anything Anywhere Book
The Politicians & The Egalitarians (Sean Wilentz) – I read this in 4 days at the library during work lunch breaks in Denver in a modified closet with a man-sized window overlooking the trash area. Messy and more like 13 book reviews by Wilentz of other historians’ treatments of historical figures and movements. A few ‘a-has’.
Airplane Reading
Connectography (Parag Khanna)- There are some very bad metaphors and analysis points- but overall, the author is someone able to look at the entire world in the past 20 years and give a status update. His sections on the Arctic, Dubai, African infrastructure and overall connectivity through trade, internal development, and business are the best.
September 18th, 2016 at 1:46 pm
Also, in a depressing election season and disastrous time for NC, comic books and older American literature go hand-in-hand as welcome distractions.
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I never read ‘The House of the Seven Gables’ in school, so it has been a welcome surprise.
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Silver Surfer, X-O Manowar, Old Man Logan (an alternative Wolverine), Scarlet Witch, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight have all seen excellent runs this year.
September 20th, 2016 at 4:01 pm
Read Creveld’s Technology and War and recall it as being good but not saying much I did not already know. The others I do not know.
September 21st, 2016 at 3:27 am
Reading Thucydides and taking notes