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Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukuyama
- Continuing his analysis of modern society
in the aftermath of the Cold War, Fukuyama follows up his book
The End of History and the Last Man with a detailed view
of the role that trust plays in a number of societies. He identifies
the concept of trust as one of the basic ingredients of civil
society, labeling it the essential element of what he calls "social
capital" -- a resource that can be cultivated and squandered,
depending on the choices made by a society's leaders and institutions.
Highly Recommended.
The Search for Modern China, Jonathan D. Spence
- This is an excellent one-volume history
from the late Ming (early 16th century) through the current time.
It is very readable and extremely comprehensive. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
Life and Death in Shanghai,
Cheng Nien.
- A personal account of an elderly Chinese
woman's account of the Cultural Revolution. Cheng Nien was relatively
unique in being a mature, completely "bi-cultural"
observer of the events that rocked China between 1966 and 1976.
She spent the worst years of the Cultural Revolution in cruel
solitary confinement, but she tells the story in alternating
passages that address her own personal story and the larger events
in the country. The middle part of the book, recounting her time
in solitary confinment is a very good "prison story,"
detailing how she maintained her sanity and moral integrity in
the face of psychological and physical torment by the Red Guards.
Recommended.
Reflections
on a Ravaged Century, Robert
Conquest
- Robert Conquest is a noted British "sovietologist"
(and was a foreign policy advisor and speechwriter to Margaret
Thatcher - and also is a noted science fiction writer!). In this
book he looks back on the roots and development of totalitarian
ideologies in the 20th century and discusses at length the contrasts
between societies that fell prey to those ideological contagions
and ones that proved largely immune to them. Especially engaging
is Conquest's informed depiction of the thorough corruption of
civic society under Soviet communism in Russia. Very well written:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Countdown: A History of Space Flight, T. A. Heppenheimer
- A good overview history of space flight,
from the early pioneers of rocketry through the International
Space Station and Beyond. Primarily a history of engineers, programs
and institutions, this book is not a detailed history of specific
space flights. Recommended.
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson,
and the Opening of the American West,
Stephen E Ambrose
- A very readable account of one of the
great expeditions of discovery and adventure of all time, and
its origins and aftermath. Ambrose puts Lewis and Jefferson and
their great project of discovery into the context of the Enlightenment,
a theme I find to be very appropriate in light of my recent thinking
and reading. Highly recommended.
The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas.
- Described as "a liberal education
in one volume", this is a very readable history of Western
thought from the pre-Socratic Greeks through "post-modernism".
The book concentrates mainly on the history of metaphysics and
epistemology (as the ground for the great story of the Copernican
revolution), and suffers from a less well-developed treatment
of moral and political thought. Recommended.
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Bernard Bailyn
- This volume won Bailyn the Pulitzer Prize
for history. Bailyn here expands his exhaustive technical scholarship
on the pamphlet literature of the American Revolution to a wider
discussion of the currents of thought in which the Founders conceived
the republic. Recommended to the serious student of Anglo-Amercian
Enlightenment political theory and practice.
Franklin of Philadelphia,
Esmond Wright
- A very well-written biography of Benjamin
Franklin, a figure who bears out as well as any other my thesis
that the 18th century is a valuable text-book for our age of
fundamental progress and potentially revolutionary change in
every sphere of human life. Recommended.
Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, Fawn M. Brodie
- This is the very well-written book that
fully set out the evidence for TJ's brief affair with the English
painter Maria Cosway during his period as ambassador to France
and also his long relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings.
Highly recommended.
The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution, Barbara Tuchman
- Tuchman follows one small thread in the
fabric of the history of the American revolution, the first recognition
of an American warship as that of a sovereign state (at the Dutch
island of St. Eustatius in the Carribean), into a rambling but
entertaining and informative discussion of the naval and "great
power" context of the beginnings of the U.S. Recommended.
Witness to Gettysburg,
Richard Wheeler
- Wonderful re-telling of the battle primarily
through first-person accounts
Cities in Civilization,
Peter Geoffrey Hall
- A very large book looking at the city
as a focus of civilization from various perspectives, such as
the city as cultural and artistic crucible, cities as locations
for and causes of technological and social innovation and the
city as organizational challenge for the societies that have
built them. Despite its breadth, the book suffers somewhat for
its lack of perspectives from cultures outside the European tradition.
A well-researched and well-written book, recommended to the serious
student of history.
Citizens, Simon
Schama.
- One of the best "literary histories"
I've ever read; excellent way to fill a hole, if you haven't
studied the French Revolution. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
Buried Mirror,
Carlos
Fuentes.
- Beautiful book-length historical essay
of Spain and Latin America; my most highly-recommended single
book on Latin America. HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
The New World of the Gothic Fox : Culture and Economy
in English and Spanish America,
Claudio Veliz
- Recommended to me by Jim Bennett, this
book is an extended musing on the differences between what Veliz
calls "the two great transplanted cultures": Castille
and England in the New World. The value of this book is in its
deep exploration of rich metaphors as aids to understanding the
fundamental differences between these two "global cultures",
and especially the significant disparity in their successes in
supplying what people want from a culture. The book does tend
to bog down in its academic tone, but is nevertheless a valuable
addition to the literature on the subject. RECOMMENDED
The Flayed God: The Mesoamrican Mythological Tradition, Roberta H. And Peter T. Markman.
- Not particularly well edited collection
of mesoamerican myths; well-illustrated.
A Brief History of the Caribbean : From the Arawak
and the Carib to the Present,
Jan Rogozinski
- A good broad overview of the region's
history. I was particularly struck by learning new details of
the horrifying brutality of slavery in the Caribbean, as well
as the further study of Spain's amazing ineptitude as an imperial
power and its inability to creatively adapt its social system
to local conditions. Recommended as a quick, easy guide to the
colorful and diverse story of the region.
Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now, Jan Wong
- Canadian-born journalist Jan Wong's witty
and poignant personal account of her experiences in China, from
her days as one of the first foreign students at Beijing University
during the later stages of the Cultural Revolution to her coverage
of the reforms since then as a newspaper correspondent. This
book makes me nostalgic for a China I barely knew, but loved
in a strange way.
The Army of the Caesars,
Michael Grant
- Mainly political history of the Roman
army from Julius to the end of the empire. Full of detail and
texture, a good book for the committed student of Roman history.
Julius Caesar,
Michael Grant
- A short but dense biography of Caesar
by the pre-eminent popular historian of Rome in our generation.
A chilling account of ambition in a bloody era.
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James
- Magnum opus overview from the first exploits
of the sea dogs through the end of empire; a very good introductory
history; highly recommended
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of
the Great War, Robert
K. Massie
- Kaiser Bill is a very bad boy; why monarchy
is a bad idea; the first arms race of the 20th century; very
entertaining example of history as a series of interlocking biographical
sketches
On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace, Donald Kagan
- Kagan explores the causes of war by looking
at specific examples: The Peloponnesian War, the Second Punic
War, the First and Second World Wars and a war that didn't happen,
the Cuban Missile Crisis. Includes a well-written critique of
the diplomatic strategy of appeasement.
A History of Warfare,
John
Keegan.
- Keegan takes on Clausewitz and wins: The
natural history of warfare as an anthropological phenomenon in
actual history; contains Keegans "taxonomy" of army-types.
RECOMMENDED
Skunk Works, Ben
R. Rich and Leo Janos
- Ben Rich ran Lockheed's secret projects
division from the early 1970s to the early 90s, the era of the
F-117 Stealth Fighter. The book also recounts the history of
the U-2, the SR-71 and other, less well-known projects. Highly
recommended for any aerospace or Cold War history buff.
