Category: Books
*Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years*
The author is Diarmaid MacCulloch and here is one excerpt:
…it was small wonder that the preoccupations and character of Ethiopian faith developed on very individual (not to say eccentric) lines. It was the Ethiopians, for instance, who meditated on various Coptic apocryphal accounts of Pontius Pilate and decided that the Roman governor who presided over Christ's crucivixion should become a Confessor of the Church, to be celebrated in their sacred art and given a feast day in June and a star place in the liturgy at Epiphany, the greatest feast of the year, when the priest intoned a phrase from the Psalms which was also an echo of his words: "I will wash my hands in innocence." The Copts and Ethiopians did not forget Pilate's complicity in the death of Christ, but in retelling his story they made him realize the full extent of his guilt, and they brought a symmetry to his fate by making him die on a cross…
I can't remember the last time I read a book that was so chockful of information and offered such a steady flow of interesting, substantive points. Virtually every sentence counts and as a result the book is quite slow to read — in the good sense. The writing flows very well.
It promises you 1016 pp. of text but in "real terms" you are getting much, much more. If you are only going to read a few books on European or religious history, this probably should be one of them. It is broadly in the Paul Johnson mode but better researched, more serious, and less subjective, though it is ultimately subjective nonetheless. Overall I would describe the author as sympathetic to Christianity and he comes from an Anglican background, although I am not sure how "formal" a Christian or Anglican he is, at least not from the vantage point of p.346.
If there's any danger in buying this one, it's that the book is better than you are.
Nonetheless you can purchase it here. You can find a good review here.
*Stumbling on Wins*
The subtitle is Two Economists Expose the Pitfalls on the Road to Victory in Professional Sports and the authors are David Berri and Martin Schmidt. I liked this bit (p.21) about the factors which do not explain free agents' salaries in the NBA:
Free Throw Shooting Efficiency
Steals
Turnovers
Size of Market Where Player Signs
Playing the Center, Power Forward, or Point Guard position
Race of Player
Here is previous coverage on their earlier book, The Wages of Wins.
Sentences to ponder
When the nest must be defended, its eldest residents – with the least long-term utility remaining to them – become the most suicidally aggressive, “obedient to a simple truth that separates our two species: Where humans send their young men to war, ants send their old ladies.”
That's Barbara Kingsolver, reviewing the new book by E.O. Wilson.
*Europe, Europe: Forays into a Continent*
I very much enjoyed reading this now-dated (1989) but still insightful volume of country-specific essays by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of Germany's leading public intellectuals. The chapter on Sweden was my favorite. Here is one good bit:
The "motley feudal ties" to which Marx alludes in the Communist Manifesto were torn asunder here earlier than anywhere else, to be replaced by a strictly organized centralized state. Oxenstierna, an administrative genius, invented the prefectorial system two hundred years before Napoleon. He sent governors armed with executive powers into all the regions of the kingdom. They even had military means at their disposal to enforce the king's policies against the interests of the provinces. He created the first national atlas and the first central bank in the world. And so on. Does all this have no implications for the present condition of the country and for the problems of its institutions?
Enzensberger also refers to Sweden as a country which has liquidated its own history in a bout of extreme forgetfulness. I also liked this bit on Italy:
The great strength of this system is that it works not only from the top down but also from the bottom up — because even the poor, the "underprivileged," have their privileges, their consolations, and prerogatives. The concierge apportions his favors and his punishments as he pleases, and the doorkeeper enjoys a mysterious power, of which his boss, the minister, is quite ignorant.
You can buy the book here.
What I’ve been reading
1. King Kong Theory, by Virginie Despentes. An excellent short book on feminism, rape, and prostitution. Given how much ink has been spilt on these issues, it's more vital than you would expect; "full of energy," as they say.
2. Solar, by Ian McEwan. Maybe this is still better than most people's stuff, but I didn't finish it. He's lost his intellectual edge.
3. Wolf Hall: A Novel , by Hilary Mantel. Usually I'm willing to blame myself when I don't like "classics," but on this one I'll push back. I started thinking "magisterial" (itself a mixed blessing) and then found myself slipping to "dutiful." It's good — not great — and it doesn't beat reading non-fiction about British history. The second Amazon review hits the mark.
4. The Cost of Living in America: A Political History of Economic Statistics, 1880-2000, by Thomas A. Stapleford. No, I'm not actually reading this one, but I should be.
5. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, by Haruki Murakami. This remains one of the classic studies of collective action, although it is hardly ever recognized as such.
Assorted links
1. Judging bloggers by their books. (it's a tie for first)
2. The defining books of recent French literature? (in French, useful list in any case)
3. Richard Thaler: trading up in the NFL draft isn't worth it.
The iPad
Could this be the medium through which the fabled convergence finally occurs?
Most of all, think of it as a substitute for your TV.
It has the all-important quality of allowing you to bend your head and body as you wish (more or less), as you use it. By bringing it closer or further, you control the "real size" of the iPad, so don't fixate on whether it appears "too big" or "too small."
The pages turn faster than those of Kindle. The other functions are also extremely quick and the battery feels eternal.
So far my main complaint is how it uses "auto-correct" to turn "gmu" into "gum."
While I will bring it on some trips, most of all it feels too valuable to take very far from the house.
On YouTube I watched Chet Atkins, Sonny Rollins, and Angela Hewitt.
Note all the categories on this short post!
A Korean most influential books list
The list is here, I especially liked the first selection:
1. Fisher-Price Toy Catalog (Age 6)
Yes, I'm serious. Laugh all you want for being childish, but heck, I was a child. At around age 6 while living in Korea, I somehow came to have a spiffy catalog from America that listed all Fisher-Price toys that were available for mail-order. The catalog had all these incredible toys that neither I nor any of my friends have ever seen. I read that catalog so many times, imagining playing with those toys, until the catalog eventually disintegrated in my hands one day.
The catalog was the book that confirmed to me — who was six, mind you — that America must be the best and the greatest country in the world. Later when I came to America, my faith was validated.
Explaining the United States to German graduate students
I'll be teaching a class at the Freie Universität this summer on this topic, in the North American Studies department. I am wondering what I should have them read. So far I am considering:
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
2. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, by Paul Fussell.
3. The American Religion, by Harold Bloom.
4. John Gunther, Inside U.S.A.; a longstanding favorite of mine.
5. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey.
6. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, by Seymour Martin Lipset.
7. Peter Baldwin, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How American and Europe are Alike. I disagree with the premise of this book but nonetheless it may shake them out of their dogmatic slumbers.
8. Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America.
Albion's Seed is an excellent book but it is too long. What have I forgotten? Should I have more on Mormons?
Strengthening the public option
Benoit Maison writes to me:
I am the developer of the free iPhone app pic2shop that is the subject of the release. It lets you scan the barcode of a book and check availability in public libraries near you.
Book review cliches
Here is a list of them, via Graham Farmelo and others on Twitter. Here is one example of many of the cliches in action:
Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science fiction tour de force: it is at once a rollicking comedy, a fully realized fantasy, and a highly readable yet nuanced page-turner. Willis' deceptively simple prose follows a group of futuristic time-travellers as they attempt to recover "the Bishop's bird stump" for their patroness, Lady Schrapnell, and get embroiled in a riveting adventure in the process. The sweeping story dips into the Victorian era, Medieval Britain, and World War II in a haunting yet timely look at the consequences of tampering with the fabric of history.
By the way, it should be "Willis's." And I am a fan of her scintillating, unputdownable work.
“Alternatively, thoughts on Margaret Atwood or Arundhati Roy.”
That was a reader request. My thoughts are simple:
I am a fan of Atwood's Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, both of which are well constructed and compelling on virtually every page. Many of her other books seem meritorious to me (The Blind Assassin, Robber's Bride), but I don't enjoy finishing them and my attention ends up wandering. The failing may be mine. I don't think I would find her non-fiction book on debt very interesting but I haven't tried it.
Roy's The God of Small Things impressed me as I was reading it, but since then it has vanished from my mind. Her musings on economics, or for that matter politics, are under-informed to say the least. I view her as a "one hit wonder" and I am not even sure the one hit stands up. I admire Atwood's humanity and universality and scope of vision, even when I think her work is failing to connect; I don't have a similar response to Roy.
Review copies waiting in my pile
1. Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, by Stuart Buck.
2. Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creation Destruction, by Thomas McCraw, new in paperback. I loved this book, you can Google back to my previous reviews.
3. Anthony de Jasay, Political Philosophy, Clearly: Essays on Freedom and Fairness, Property and Equalities. This one is a Liberty Fund edition.
4. The Great Reset: How New Ways of Working and Living Drive Post-Crash Prosperity, by Richard Florida.
5. 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, by Simon Johnson; a public choice analysis of the unholy alliance between finance and politics.
6. Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades, by Jonathan Phillips.
There are others, too. All of these appear to have merits.
*The Future History of the Arctic*
I loved this book, which is written by Charles Emmerson. Here is one short bit:
Despite the prominence of the colors of Norway on Svalbard — and the firm insistence from any government representative that Svalbard is an integral part of the kingdom of Norway — there are reminders that the archipelago is both something more and something less than that. Russians and Ukrainians live here, some in Longyearbyen, though most are at the Russian settlement at Barentsburg. The girls at the supermarket checkout counter speak Thai. Somewhere in town is an Iranian who came here six years ago and, under the terms of the Spitsbergen Treaty, was able to settle here. If he were to return south to the Norwegian mainland, he would almost definitely be forced to leave the country, his asylum claims having been refused. Import duties are nonexistent on Svalbard: Cuban cigars cost less in Longyearbyen, at 78 degrees North, than they do in Oslo, three hours' flight to the south.
Here is Wikipedia on Svalbard.
This book covers why and how Greenland might become independent, what kind of presence in the Arctic Canada can realistically expect to have, the changing historical fortunes of Vladivostock, what the Law of the Sea really means, and why Norway manages its fossil fuel revenues so well, among other matters. The Future History of the Arctic has fun and useful information on just about every page.
*A Brief History of Liberty*
That is the new book by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan. It is ideal for anyone looking for a broad overview of human history from a classical liberal point of view. Self-recommending, as they say. Buy it here. Here are Schmidtz and Brennan on CatoUnbound.