Recently Mentioned Books

Recommended, informative and interesting throughout.  And I am very happy to recommend all of Toby’s books, including his latest The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra .

Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Richard does have a new book coming out, Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster .  While I liked the book (and blurbed it), I do not feel our conversation about the book would be that interesting — too much beating up on the stupidities of other people, which is an activity not in short supply.  So we agreed to (mostly) discuss Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo instead.  Given that, what should I ask Richard?

That is the new Soumaya Keynes book , out today.  I was happy to have blurbed this book, and here is an essay , on export restrictions, based on the book.

5. Suzy Hansen, From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan . An insightful look into Erdoğan, Turkish Islamism, parts of Istanbul, and most of all how Turkey slid into autocracy.  One of the best case studies I know of on how a fragile democracy can go away.

4. Frank Callanan, James Joyce: A Political Life .  An excellent, lengthy study, I now see Joyce as intensely political whereas I did not before.  “His fiercely Parnellian critique of Ireland and Irish nationalism is only politically intelligible as written from within Irish nationalism.  It is an argument addressed to Irish nationalists.  The paradox of Joyce’s nationalism is that it is in his critique of nationalism that his nationalism is most evident.”  As Italo Svevo once stated: “Joyce is ...

3. Malachi Haim Hacohen, Karl Popper: The Formative Years 1902-1945 .  Such an excellent and high-level work.  And the author is not afraid to accuse Popper of making everything about himself, and also writing on topics (Plato, Hegel, Marx) where he was less than well-informed.  I had not known that Popper hated Toulmin’s Wittgenstein’s Vienna book, feeling that the actual Viennese environment at the time was far more positive and forward-looking than most intellectual historians were inclined t...

2. Robert C. Austin and Artan R. Hoxha, Enver Hoxha: Twentieth-Century Tyrant .  How did this strange story end up happening?  This book offers the best set of explanations I have seen.  But Hoxha himself remains a psychological cipher at the end of it all?  It turns out he never thought Mao was much of an ideologue, being too influenced by Chinese culture and thought.  Also I had not previously realize how much Albania’s growing youth population — with the most natalist demographics in Europe a...

1. Paul Mendes-Flohr, Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent .  A beautifully written, first-rate intellectual biography of Buber.  It is hard to imagine finding a better book on him.

The subtitle is The Politics of Feasible Liberalism , and the author is Deirdre Nansen McCloskey.  The author wishes to argue for liberalism as opposed to statism , a very good book.  And unlike many authors, Deirdre also tells you what she thinks of everyone else’s views.  Due out in November.

The subtitle is Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning , due out June 23.

Yes I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Chase and Charles Koch have a new book out, namely Becoming a Principle-Driven Leader: 41 Principles to Build an Enduring Business .  And for background here is Wikipedia on Chase Koch .  So what should I ask him?

That is from Frank Fukuyama’s forthcoming memoir , recommended of course.

3. Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus , a new translation by Ritchie Robertson.  An imperfect, problematic work, too caught up with its own Germanness, and lacking dramatic tension.  Still, an important work and this new translation is much better than the old one.

2. Siri Hustvedt. Ghost Stories: A Memoir .  About her history with her now-deceased husband Paul Auster, and how she dealt with his death.  Moving and insightful, recommended.

1. Mikhail Fishman, The Successor: Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Putin, and the Decline of Modern Russia .  One of the best books to read on how Russia moved from “had some democratic elements in place” to autocracy, on a step-by-step basis.  The story is told using the career of Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2014, as a lens.  The author has biases of his own, but they do not detract from what is valuable here.

Bob was excellent throughout, and I very much enjoyed his new biography of the Rolling Stones .

6. I am enjoying the new Elizabeth Strout novel The Things We Never Say .  It is arguably “too American” for me, and also “too New England,” still it is quite good.

2. Steven Nadler, Spinoza, Atheist .  A good and very readable introduction to the Dutch philosopher.

There is also Devon Cox, Beyond Beauty: A Portrait of John Singer Sargent .

Thomas Asbridge, The Black Death: A Global History of Humanity’s Most Devastating Pandemic is a good overview.

If you wish to think about the Roman Empire more, there is Pliny & Co., How to Make Money: An Ancient Guide to Wealth Management .

3. Jim Windolf, Where the Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other — and the World .  An excellent and engaging book, which even serious fans can learn from.  The first time Paul McCartney heard the music of Bob Dylan he called it “folk crap,” to his brother Mike.  Dylan and McCartney grew closest in 1971, when Paul was making the Ram album in NYC. Music from Big Pink is one of Paul’s favorite albums of all time. Thingumybob , first composed by Paul in 1968, later receiv...

2. Boyd van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions .  A very good look at the negotiations behind the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and just how driven by national self-interest they were, including colonial motives from the major colonial powers, who wished to retain stronger rights to put down uprisings.  The Soviets wanted strong protections against torture (!), as they thought this might limit the power of the United States to bomb their population into submission.  Yet n...

1. David Narrett, The Cherokees in War & at Peace 1670-1840 .  An excellent book, one of the two best books on a single Native American tribe I have read.  The book actually aims at explaining the Cherokees and enlightening the reader – how rare.  In 1700, there were no more than 20,000 Cherokees, mostly in the southeast, so it is amazing what the author was able to come up with.  Will make the year’s best of non-fiction list.

Yes, I will be doing a Conversation with her.  Most of all focusing on her recent book The Republic of Love: Opera and Political Freedom .