What I’ve been reading

1. Yoram Hazony, Conservatism: A Rediscovery.  An intriguing if unconvincing book.  Imagine the United States of America but without the natural rights and liberty emphasis in its background.  Does Hazony favor a kind of Christian Israel for us?  Nonetheless easy to read and a point of view that deserves at least one book.  I am pleased that Hazony is a fan of John Selden.

2. Helen DeWitt,  The English Understand Wool.  Fiction, about 66 pp., excellent, I read it as a modern re-do of Rousseau’s Emile but I doubt if anyone else sees it that way.

3. Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920 and ‘the miracle on the Vistula.‘  And Adam Zamoyski, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe.  These are obvious reads at the moment.

4. Orlando Figes, The Story of Russia.  A decent introduction for those who are not so well-informed.

5. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, Revolution & Dictatorship, is an interesting take on why (some) authoritarian regimes have proven so durable: “As this book has shown, revolutionary assaults on powerful domestic and foreign interests often trigger a reactive sequence that, over time, lays a foundation for authoritarian durability.  Early radicalism generates violent and often regime-threatening counterrevolutionary conflict.  Regimes that survive these conflicts tend to develop a cohesive elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus capable of both systematic low-intensity repression and, when necessary, high-intensity crackdown.”

I haven’t seen it yet, but here is the forthcoming Ashlee Vance book on commercial space exploration, looks very good.