I review some books
About 15 minutes ago, I finished "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." For centuries - yes, centuries - everyone has raved about this book, nearly holding it up as the standard for all histories. After spending five months reading it - and reading other books during this time - I ask - why? It has been a huge waste of energy, fortunately, I read this on the bus while there is nothing else to do.
In any case, I will review some other books, too, that I haven't had time to review. Many of you know I like to read, and you know I am highly partisian. So you would expect that my bookshelf would be loaded with books of partisians. Not so. While I have most books of Michael Savage and Ann Coulter, I don't get too many books by partisians. Sure, I also have a book by John Stossell (a libertarian partisan largely) and one by Rush's brother, and one by Patrick Buchanan (with whom I largely disagree) these are intersperced with huge works by Conrad Black, W.E.B. Du Bois (who probably deserves the epitatat Tom more than everyone else), and mostly random, historical, works, whose authors do their best to wash the biases out of their work.
Work by pundits are largely intellectual junk food - you really don't get a lot of intellectual nutritional value from them, but they are enjoyable to consume. Yet, just like everyone likes a Twinkie (or in my case, a Ding Dong) every once in a while, one occasionally is tempted to read something from their own partisian. So thus my junk book of choice is Ann Coulter - who is quite funny to read, unlike a lot of boring partisan books, on both sides. And one should read a book or two from the other side every year, so I start with George McGovern's book,
The Essential American
This book is practically worthless. And I'm not speaking as a partisian. While books by Ann Coulter and Michael Savage are fun to read, this is not. This is because this is a loser - remember, he lost 49 states as a presidential candidate - who whines a lot about the right wing. And gives lots of leftwing nostrums, without introducing anything new. No liberal should read this book, because it is a waste of time - stick to James Carville, who is entertaining, or Michael Moore, who is probably entertaining (I don't know, I have yet to read something by him) - and relevant, too. Only conservaties should consider this book, to see what the other side is up to. And I say consider. Because McGovern has been irrelevant for a quarter century now.
What does he say? Well, I forget - it has been six months since I read the thing. Something about his vision of America. For which no one has really cared about since 1972, the year he lost 49 states. The only thing I remembered is that he mentioned that Benjamin Franklin wrote about the benefits of having an older mistress. Which probably means McGovern has ED, his wife is horny, and neither Viagra of the Boston Medical Group can cure this condition - so he has to find a younger man for her. Which makes for good copy for the National Enquirer, but takes a lot of wading thru to get to. This is almost as boring as the Gibbon book mentioned above.
McGovern, for those who forget (something easy to do) was pretty much a fellow traveller - or a useful idiot. In 1948, he supported not Truman, but Wallace. Wallace wanted to support the Soviet Union. And he had the support of communists and other "progressives." Wallace wrote four years later Where I Was Wrong, which states his trust in the Soviets was based upon misinformation. Unlike Wallace, however, he was unrepetent, and apparently is still proud of his support that year, and disregards such misinformation. The following book give a history of that in the Third World
The World was Going Our Way
This book is about Soviet Espinioge activities in the turd world, written by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. Mr. Mitrokhin was a former KGB spy who left Russia in 1992 with a whole bunch of documents stuff away in his suitcases. This is so he could reveal that the Soviets were a bunch of sneaky liars - which everyone who knows something knew already, so it confirms what they believe. Despite the torrent of new information, however, there are those who still refuse to believe this, so now amount of new information will change their minds.
Basically, his thesis is that around 1961 the KGB leader, Alexander Shelepin, decided to "use national liberation movements as the spearhead of a forward policy in the third world." This is because he wanted to do his part to make the world communisty. So he used covert activities to get the KGB involved anywhere and everywhere. And they did everything imaginable to do this. Not just the dirty stuff, like killings and invasions, but infiltrating youth groups, getting involved in politics, and gathering information. It goes into a lot of irrelevant details, like the $150 icon it gave to Allende (a gift Allende requested). This is the kind of stuff that ends up in Presidential libraries and has no influence on policy whatsoever.
Basically, it shows that the KGB did nothing more than what all large intelligence agencies are supposed to do. If the CIA did this stuff, we might be better off in the War on Terror. This book is largely a chronicle of it's operations in non-developed countries from 1945 - 1991. Which becomes a springboard for future historians who want to look for material for their own books.
There is a companion book which I have yet to read, called The Mitrokin Archive, which is the prequel to this book and talks about activities in the more developed countries.
While this is largely irrevant to current policy, it is good for us to understand the Cold War as it is so recent. The next book tells of the story of it.
The Cold War
By John Lewis Gaddis. This book does an excellent job of explaining the Cold War, from the reasons why it happened, to all the major events.
This book was written at the request of his students, at Yale, where he teaches an undergraduate class on the Cold War. They didn't like all that reading material he gave and wanted something shorter. While I read this book in about three days, it gives the sad state of our education system if Yalies need something this brief, and this low of a reading level, in order to pass their classes. At least his consolation is that he got to sell a lot of books and probably make a lot of money, as it was reviewed in lots of prominent publications (so people would go out and buy the book). And he certainly is one of the few experts on this subject.
I'm not going to get into details here. Only that he covers all the bases on all the events of the Cold War. From all it's major events, as well as it's causes. And he gets the causes right, in that it wouldn't have happened had not the Soviets been bent on world conquest - they wanted to impose their murderous and totalitarian communist ideology on the whole wide world, and of course many people did not want this, which is why there was a demand to resist this. While this focus got watered down over time, they certainly acted as if this was the case, and since I was alive and cognizant of this at the end, it appeared to be the case, so governments needed to keep reacting to preserve this thing called national security. The intelligentsia of course does not see it this way, and either wants this themselves (thinking they will run things - but totalitarians are gangsters who will easily liquidate these bothersome useful idiots when they obtain power), or has an incapacity to realize that some things are in reality quite simplistic. Which is why they have an inability to understand that Islamofascists want to make Sharia the law of the world (even Osama says so). So often times the intelligentsia gets involved in the mix, hence the term useful idiots.
Of course some leftwing ideologists - er, historians - will deny much of this book through their own apologias. But until a few generations pass, where the historians are removed from the feelings and the ideologies of the Cold War, there will not be a more honest or knowledgable book written on this subject.
As long as we are talking about past events, I will go onto the book first so mentioned
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
By Gibbon. Actually, this is an abridged version by Hans-Friedrich Mueller. Which all versions of this book available are abridged, so it is very difficult to read the real McCoy.
This book is over 1200 pages, and according to the introduction, is only 1/3 of the original. And not much is to be learned. Maybe another abridgement, by Moses Hadas (1962) will provide a better version of it?
In any case, this book goes on and on and on and on and on without giving any explanation as to why the Empire fell. Both the empire of the West, and the remnant, the Byzantine Empire. Oftentimes, he does not really give a description of what happened, either. Which makes him a poor historian. Instead, he likes to focus on the physical characteristics of the individuals. Or go over every single church dispute since the third century (or something like that).
For example, when he talks about Constantinople falling to the "Latins" of the 13th century, all we know is that they took that city. He does not indicate what they did to take it. One would expect that in a 1200 page book (or a nearly 4000 page book) he would give us a bit of detail here. But he doesn't.
Nor, does he go into the good stuff. Like the adventures of the barbarians, who obviously played a huge role in the death of the empire. That was what I was looking forward to. Nor does he explain why it fell. I heard he said that cause was inflation, but nary a word of rising prices.
I have no idea why everyone has been touting this book for over two centuries, but I can only determine that their reason is that this was a good sleep aid before Ambian (and at least one doesn't go out and do some sleepdriving). Unlike this book, the next book does a good job of chronicalling what happened.
1776
By another prominant historian, David McCollough.
Actually, this book is about the American Revolution to to the end of 1776. And the author does a great job explaining what happened.
Despite my interest in history, the events of the American Revolution were a fog. It's like historians wrote assuming that everyone knew exactly what happened, and the sequence of events. The author explains the revolution as a story, from beginning - to the end of 1776. I now have a cleared picture of what happened. Hopefully, he will write more books and go up through 1783.
No new information is revealed here. This, rather, is an aid for those who want to know what happened. Hopefully, teachers will use this as a textbook on the Revolution, rather than use the Marxist-inspired texts that don't say much truthful.
I will go into one more book, which is different than the rest of these
Reallionaire
By Farrah Gray.
This is a kid who became a millionaire by age 17. Which is amazing considering that he was a minority who came from da hood of Chicago. Or so he states - he had moved to a wealthier part of town at a still young age.
Actually, he had experience most people don't have. For examply, by age 10, or somewhere around then, he was studying in Japan. And he had connections galore, which few 10 year old have.
Nonetheless, all can learn from him - most people are not millionaires, and there are some lessons we can all take. While most boys are fascinated by sports, he was fascinated by businessmen. He got his first business going (and making good money) when he was like 8. Of course he was indirectly subsidized by adults who thought that it was cute to see a bunch of kids playing entrepeneur, but I guess that is a good selling point to get adults to help start up your operation. By the age of 17, he was able to make a bunch of food products, then cash out his business and live happily ever after - in a way. And he got to meet his idol, Bill Clinton. Why any God-fearing entrepeneuer would idolize Slick Willy is beyond me, but then again, it is an honor to meet any president, no matter what your politics.
This bibliography falls under the category of "self-help" books. While some people have denounced this industry, there is some benefit to it. Just don't get too sucked into this industry. As with anything else, there is a declining marginal benefit, and your natural abilities will only take you so far (you have to practice those skills before you can move on and develop more skills). But if done right, self-help books will help you succeed to some degree.
Well, that's a wrap of those books I have recently read. I will read more and get back to you on their reviews on my blog.
In any case, I will review some other books, too, that I haven't had time to review. Many of you know I like to read, and you know I am highly partisian. So you would expect that my bookshelf would be loaded with books of partisians. Not so. While I have most books of Michael Savage and Ann Coulter, I don't get too many books by partisians. Sure, I also have a book by John Stossell (a libertarian partisan largely) and one by Rush's brother, and one by Patrick Buchanan (with whom I largely disagree) these are intersperced with huge works by Conrad Black, W.E.B. Du Bois (who probably deserves the epitatat Tom more than everyone else), and mostly random, historical, works, whose authors do their best to wash the biases out of their work.
Work by pundits are largely intellectual junk food - you really don't get a lot of intellectual nutritional value from them, but they are enjoyable to consume. Yet, just like everyone likes a Twinkie (or in my case, a Ding Dong) every once in a while, one occasionally is tempted to read something from their own partisian. So thus my junk book of choice is Ann Coulter - who is quite funny to read, unlike a lot of boring partisan books, on both sides. And one should read a book or two from the other side every year, so I start with George McGovern's book,
The Essential American
This book is practically worthless. And I'm not speaking as a partisian. While books by Ann Coulter and Michael Savage are fun to read, this is not. This is because this is a loser - remember, he lost 49 states as a presidential candidate - who whines a lot about the right wing. And gives lots of leftwing nostrums, without introducing anything new. No liberal should read this book, because it is a waste of time - stick to James Carville, who is entertaining, or Michael Moore, who is probably entertaining (I don't know, I have yet to read something by him) - and relevant, too. Only conservaties should consider this book, to see what the other side is up to. And I say consider. Because McGovern has been irrelevant for a quarter century now.
What does he say? Well, I forget - it has been six months since I read the thing. Something about his vision of America. For which no one has really cared about since 1972, the year he lost 49 states. The only thing I remembered is that he mentioned that Benjamin Franklin wrote about the benefits of having an older mistress. Which probably means McGovern has ED, his wife is horny, and neither Viagra of the Boston Medical Group can cure this condition - so he has to find a younger man for her. Which makes for good copy for the National Enquirer, but takes a lot of wading thru to get to. This is almost as boring as the Gibbon book mentioned above.
McGovern, for those who forget (something easy to do) was pretty much a fellow traveller - or a useful idiot. In 1948, he supported not Truman, but Wallace. Wallace wanted to support the Soviet Union. And he had the support of communists and other "progressives." Wallace wrote four years later Where I Was Wrong, which states his trust in the Soviets was based upon misinformation. Unlike Wallace, however, he was unrepetent, and apparently is still proud of his support that year, and disregards such misinformation. The following book give a history of that in the Third World
The World was Going Our Way
This book is about Soviet Espinioge activities in the turd world, written by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin. Mr. Mitrokhin was a former KGB spy who left Russia in 1992 with a whole bunch of documents stuff away in his suitcases. This is so he could reveal that the Soviets were a bunch of sneaky liars - which everyone who knows something knew already, so it confirms what they believe. Despite the torrent of new information, however, there are those who still refuse to believe this, so now amount of new information will change their minds.
Basically, his thesis is that around 1961 the KGB leader, Alexander Shelepin, decided to "use national liberation movements as the spearhead of a forward policy in the third world." This is because he wanted to do his part to make the world communisty. So he used covert activities to get the KGB involved anywhere and everywhere. And they did everything imaginable to do this. Not just the dirty stuff, like killings and invasions, but infiltrating youth groups, getting involved in politics, and gathering information. It goes into a lot of irrelevant details, like the $150 icon it gave to Allende (a gift Allende requested). This is the kind of stuff that ends up in Presidential libraries and has no influence on policy whatsoever.
Basically, it shows that the KGB did nothing more than what all large intelligence agencies are supposed to do. If the CIA did this stuff, we might be better off in the War on Terror. This book is largely a chronicle of it's operations in non-developed countries from 1945 - 1991. Which becomes a springboard for future historians who want to look for material for their own books.
There is a companion book which I have yet to read, called The Mitrokin Archive, which is the prequel to this book and talks about activities in the more developed countries.
While this is largely irrevant to current policy, it is good for us to understand the Cold War as it is so recent. The next book tells of the story of it.
The Cold War
By John Lewis Gaddis. This book does an excellent job of explaining the Cold War, from the reasons why it happened, to all the major events.
This book was written at the request of his students, at Yale, where he teaches an undergraduate class on the Cold War. They didn't like all that reading material he gave and wanted something shorter. While I read this book in about three days, it gives the sad state of our education system if Yalies need something this brief, and this low of a reading level, in order to pass their classes. At least his consolation is that he got to sell a lot of books and probably make a lot of money, as it was reviewed in lots of prominent publications (so people would go out and buy the book). And he certainly is one of the few experts on this subject.
I'm not going to get into details here. Only that he covers all the bases on all the events of the Cold War. From all it's major events, as well as it's causes. And he gets the causes right, in that it wouldn't have happened had not the Soviets been bent on world conquest - they wanted to impose their murderous and totalitarian communist ideology on the whole wide world, and of course many people did not want this, which is why there was a demand to resist this. While this focus got watered down over time, they certainly acted as if this was the case, and since I was alive and cognizant of this at the end, it appeared to be the case, so governments needed to keep reacting to preserve this thing called national security. The intelligentsia of course does not see it this way, and either wants this themselves (thinking they will run things - but totalitarians are gangsters who will easily liquidate these bothersome useful idiots when they obtain power), or has an incapacity to realize that some things are in reality quite simplistic. Which is why they have an inability to understand that Islamofascists want to make Sharia the law of the world (even Osama says so). So often times the intelligentsia gets involved in the mix, hence the term useful idiots.
Of course some leftwing ideologists - er, historians - will deny much of this book through their own apologias. But until a few generations pass, where the historians are removed from the feelings and the ideologies of the Cold War, there will not be a more honest or knowledgable book written on this subject.
As long as we are talking about past events, I will go onto the book first so mentioned
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
By Gibbon. Actually, this is an abridged version by Hans-Friedrich Mueller. Which all versions of this book available are abridged, so it is very difficult to read the real McCoy.
This book is over 1200 pages, and according to the introduction, is only 1/3 of the original. And not much is to be learned. Maybe another abridgement, by Moses Hadas (1962) will provide a better version of it?
In any case, this book goes on and on and on and on and on without giving any explanation as to why the Empire fell. Both the empire of the West, and the remnant, the Byzantine Empire. Oftentimes, he does not really give a description of what happened, either. Which makes him a poor historian. Instead, he likes to focus on the physical characteristics of the individuals. Or go over every single church dispute since the third century (or something like that).
For example, when he talks about Constantinople falling to the "Latins" of the 13th century, all we know is that they took that city. He does not indicate what they did to take it. One would expect that in a 1200 page book (or a nearly 4000 page book) he would give us a bit of detail here. But he doesn't.
Nor, does he go into the good stuff. Like the adventures of the barbarians, who obviously played a huge role in the death of the empire. That was what I was looking forward to. Nor does he explain why it fell. I heard he said that cause was inflation, but nary a word of rising prices.
I have no idea why everyone has been touting this book for over two centuries, but I can only determine that their reason is that this was a good sleep aid before Ambian (and at least one doesn't go out and do some sleepdriving). Unlike this book, the next book does a good job of chronicalling what happened.
1776
By another prominant historian, David McCollough.
Actually, this book is about the American Revolution to to the end of 1776. And the author does a great job explaining what happened.
Despite my interest in history, the events of the American Revolution were a fog. It's like historians wrote assuming that everyone knew exactly what happened, and the sequence of events. The author explains the revolution as a story, from beginning - to the end of 1776. I now have a cleared picture of what happened. Hopefully, he will write more books and go up through 1783.
No new information is revealed here. This, rather, is an aid for those who want to know what happened. Hopefully, teachers will use this as a textbook on the Revolution, rather than use the Marxist-inspired texts that don't say much truthful.
I will go into one more book, which is different than the rest of these
Reallionaire
By Farrah Gray.
This is a kid who became a millionaire by age 17. Which is amazing considering that he was a minority who came from da hood of Chicago. Or so he states - he had moved to a wealthier part of town at a still young age.
Actually, he had experience most people don't have. For examply, by age 10, or somewhere around then, he was studying in Japan. And he had connections galore, which few 10 year old have.
Nonetheless, all can learn from him - most people are not millionaires, and there are some lessons we can all take. While most boys are fascinated by sports, he was fascinated by businessmen. He got his first business going (and making good money) when he was like 8. Of course he was indirectly subsidized by adults who thought that it was cute to see a bunch of kids playing entrepeneur, but I guess that is a good selling point to get adults to help start up your operation. By the age of 17, he was able to make a bunch of food products, then cash out his business and live happily ever after - in a way. And he got to meet his idol, Bill Clinton. Why any God-fearing entrepeneuer would idolize Slick Willy is beyond me, but then again, it is an honor to meet any president, no matter what your politics.
This bibliography falls under the category of "self-help" books. While some people have denounced this industry, there is some benefit to it. Just don't get too sucked into this industry. As with anything else, there is a declining marginal benefit, and your natural abilities will only take you so far (you have to practice those skills before you can move on and develop more skills). But if done right, self-help books will help you succeed to some degree.
Well, that's a wrap of those books I have recently read. I will read more and get back to you on their reviews on my blog.
<< Home