Tag: book reviews
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Review: Stoessinger’s Why Nations Go To War
This, and many other reviews posted recently originally appeared on a now long defunct livejournal account. I am posting it here as part of a project to bring all my related writing (whether worthwhile or not) under one roof. Why Nations Go to War Richard Stoessinger This classic of the undergraduate international relations course (where…
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Review: Mieville’s Iron Council
Iron Council China Mieville This is the third book in Mieville’s works about the city of New Crobuzon, a vaguely steampunk alternative city populated by Mieville’s weird monsters and well drawn characters. Iron Council is, I think the most overtly political of the three, including section radical union organizing, issues of race, gender and…
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Review: Norton’s Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire
Ed note: Like the many, many other reviews I’ve been posting here lately, this one was written for a now defunct live journal account. Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire Anne Norton Though the neocon movement seems more and more like a thing of history, this is a nice quick and easy read…
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Review: Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel
Ed note: A version of this review was originally published on a now long defunct livejournal. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Jared Diamond There is a whole industry of books that explain why the world is the way it is. They are all by definition reductive and fail to grasp…
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Review: Oshinsky’s Worse Than Slavery
Ed note: this review originally appears in a now long defunct livejournal. Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice David M. Oshinsky This is the must read book on the faailures of reconstruction and the horrors of the Jim Crow era. When I was reading it, there were times I…
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Review: Iron’s A People’s History of the Supreme Court
A People’s History of the Supreme Court: The Men and Women Whose Cases and Decisions Have Shaped OurConstitution: Revised Edition Peter Irons A pretty well done progressive view of the Supreme Court. This one hits all the necessary rules (Dred Scott, Korematsu, Brown and so many more) while also covering some lesser known rulings like…
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Review: Brecher’s Strike!
Ed Note: This review was orginally written for a now long defunct livejournal account. I’m reposting it here as part of a project to collect all my various writings in one place. Strike! Jeremy Brecher Strike! is one of those texts that is much better as a research aid than it is as something to…
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Review: Fasman’s the Geographer’s Library
The Geographer’s Library Jon Fassman This is the kind of popular novel I generally like, a “literary page turner” that in the old days would have been compared to In the Name of the Rose but which is now compared to the Da vinci Code. Its plot driven, but with intellectual pretenses and is right…
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Review: Banksy’s Wall and Piece
Ed note: This was written for a now defunct livejournal in 2007. So funny to go through these old reviews and see that I wrote about things like Game of Thrones and Banksy before they became household words, covered int he New Yorker. I was once kinda withit I guess, fifteen years ago. Wall and…
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Review: Eichenwald’s the Informant
The Informant: A True Story Kurt Eichenwald I don’t want to say too much about this, because if you read it, you should really get the surprised as they come along. Let’s just say it is about a major price fixing scandal that brought down a bunch of powerful people at the powerful Archer Daniels…
Milo and the Calf 