Recently Mentioned Books

I feel the most guilt when eating the meat of intelligent animals raised under poor or tortured conditions.  I am not opposed to all meat-eating per se , but most meat-eating in today’s America does not meet satisfactory moral standards.  I still do it because I am not that good a person, at least not in this regard.  I am struck by the title of the forthcoming book by Frans de Waal: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Growth-Slowdown-Brink-Lindsey-ebook/dp/B0195OICJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449784012&sr=8-1&keywords=understanding+economic+slowdown

9. Take a day trip by cab or bus into Johor Bahru , in neighboring Malaysia, a thirty minute trip if there are no delays.  The food there is even better and you will learn some political science.  Read this book for background on both countries.  Read Lee Kuan Yew.

Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy

4. Karthik Ramanna, Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy .  Here is one opening summary bit: “With the financialization of the U.S. economy, particularly since the 1990s, we see a growing impact of investment banks and asset-management firms in accounting rule-making.  These groups are more likely to propose rules that accelerate financial-statement recognition of anticipated economic gains — that is, fair-val...

3. Peter Turchin, Ultra Society: how 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth : “The central idea of this book is that it was competition between groups, usually taking the form of warfare, that transformed humanity from small-scale foraging bands and farming villages into huge societies with elaborate governance institutions and complex and highly productive economic life.”  Basically true, in my view,and this book argues for that position persuasively.

2. Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome .  I have only browsed this one, but it does appear to be one of the best and most readable overall histories of Rome.  I’m keeping it in the basement and someday I’ll go back to it.

1. Michael Denning, Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution .  How recording began to revolutionize “world music” in the 1920s, a bit scattershot but still an interesting conceptual book about the history of music.

That is all from his new book Mysteries of the Mall and Other Essays , pp.188-192.

That is from Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed , an interesting read.

4. From Syria, I’ll again recommend Dabke: Sounds of the Syrian Houran and Omar Souleyman , both highly worthwhile.

3. The big box set of the year, which you might otherwise not think of buying, is Hulaland: The Golden Age of Hawaiian Music , excellent across all four discs and full of history.

2. Kamasi Washington’s The Epic was the jazz album I’ve enjoyed most.

That is all from the new and interesting Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style , by W. David Marx.  And here is New Yorker coverage of the book .

You can pre-order it here .

That is the new book by Claire Adida, David Laitin, and Marie-Anne Valfort .  Some parts are interesting, especially those showing both statistical and taste-based discrimination against Muslims in France .  But most of the book — above all the title — makes claims which are far too strong.  A better description would have been “Why France Has Not Integrated Its Muslims.”

That is from pp.187-188 of August Meier, Negro Thought in America 1880-1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington .  You can see that Du Bois did not “have it in” for Wilson.

A Brilliant Young Mind [ X + Y is the title of the original UK release], one of the better autism movies, nice scenes of Taipei too.

Elaine C. Kamarck, Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know About How America Nominates its Presidential Candidates .  From a quick glance, appears to be very useful.

Frank Trentmann, Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the 15th Century to the 21st .

Edward Lucas, Cyberphobia: Identity, Trust, Security and the Internet .

David E. Bernstein, Lawless: The Obama Administration’s Unprecedented Assault on the Constitution and the Rule of Law .

3. Simon Critchley, Memory Theater . Very short book, hard to explain, often brilliant, here is one bit: “Hegel’s philosophy is a mnemotechnic system in the ancient and Renaissance tradition.  The difference is that what Hegel adds to his memory theater is time , that is, the experience of becoming.”  Not for everyone.

2. Adam Sisman, John Le Carr é : The Biography .  Entertaining, and puts him in the proper context, deserves its strong reviews.

1.Shahab Ahmed, What is Islam?: The Importance of Being Islamic .  Too much hermeneutics for my taste, but intelligent and interesting throughout.  The authors downplays the prescriptive side of Islam and plays up the experiential and polyvalent aspects of the religion.  If you are reading books in this area, this one should be part of your program.