Milo and the Calf

Tag: books

  • Review: Battelle’s The Search

    This and the many more reviews I’ve been posting lately originally appeared in a now long defunct livejournal.   The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business andTransformed Our Cultu re John Battelle This book is two things – first, it is a detailed and interesting look at how searching online…

  • Review: Hegel’s On Art, Religion, and the History of Philosophy

    This and so many more reviews I’ve been posting lately originally appeared in a now long defunct livejournal. On Art, Religion, and the History of Philosophy: Introductory Lectures (Hackett Classics) G.W.F. Hegel I read a pretty big chunk of Hegel in my first undergrad philosophy class. He scared the living shit out of me. I…

  • Review: Trento’s Secret History of the CIA

    One of many, many book reviews I wrote for a livejournal account long, long ago. The Secret History of the CIA Joseph Trento If you want a trashy, gossipy, book full of stories of drunks and mistresses and bat-shit crazy people in charge of our nation’s espionage, then this is your book. It’s a one…

  • Review: Tannenbaum’s Badge of the Assassin

    Badge of the Assassin Robert Tannenbaum Philip Rosenberg For a while there, I was deeply interested in the history of armed struggle / terrorism in America, especially as undertaken in the 1970s by groups like the Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army and others. Much of this era was still shrouded in secrecy and misrepresentation…

  • Review: Braudel’s Perspective of the World

    This review originally appeared in a now long defunct livejournal sometime around 2007. The Perspective of the World: Civilization and Capitalism 15Th-18th Century, Vol. 3 Fernand Braudel The final volume of this magnum opus tracing in minute, painful, detail the creation of capitalism in the west, and the precursors and repercussions of that creation in the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Review: Appiah’s Cosmopolitianism

    Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Issues of Our Time) Kwame Anthony Appiah I read a fair number of think-piece-next-big-idea type books. Most of these have little to no staying power, either in the culture at large, or in my own head. Appiah’s conception of cosmopolitanism as described in this little book is different.…

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    Dah fuck with all the book reviews?

    I had coffee with an old friend earlier this week and he asked what was up with all the book reviews I’ve been posting. Perhaps a brief explanation is in order. Over the years, I’ve written short (and sometimes not so short) book reviews for a number of different livejournals, blogs, and websites. As part…

  • 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…