Milo and the Calf

Tag: recommended for the enthusiast

  • Review: Wolf’s Peasant Wars of the 20th Century

    Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century Eric Wolf Analysis of the revolutions in a bunch of peasant / developing countries seen through a pretty rigorous historical Marxist analysis. This is by one of the top dogs in Marxist anthropology and I really liked this book when I read it* It was the first sustained look…

  • Review: Sifry’s Spoiling for a Fight

    Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America Micah Sifry This is, I am pretty sure, the only thing close to a complete history of third parties in U.S. electoral politics. I picked it up because of a paper I was writing on fusion voting and the Working Families Party, but it was so interesting,…

  • Review: Stephenson’s The System of the World

    The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3) Neal Stephenson The third volume in Stephenson’s ambitious and fun recounting of the world events circa the late 18th century. This has got the birth of the royal society, the growing pains of international trade and the intrigues at Versailles for starters. As I remember,…

  • Review: Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed

    John Maynard Keynes: Volume 1: Hopes Betrayed 1883-1920 Robert Skidelsky The first volume of Skidelsky’s three volume telling of the life of the man who is arguably the 20th century’s most famous economist.* This covers birth and all that crap, and then the very juicy years of JMK at Cambridge. Besides his economic work (talked…

  • Review: Mann’s Rise of the Vulcans

    Rise Of The Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet James Mann The best book on the personalities that made up the first Bush term, and believe me, I have read a bunch of them. All the Woodward books and other beltway books of the season come and go, but Mann’s book I think will…

  • Review: Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy

    The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell It can feel ridiculous sometimes to review a foundational text such a Russell’s the Problem of Philosophy. Who am I to critique the work of one of the world’s greatest philosophers? I’m just a kid from a small town with a public education. Still, here’s my two cents. This…

  • Review: Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Savior

    John Maynard Keynes: Volume 2: The Economist as Savior, 1920-1937 Robert Skidelsky It is hard to believe there was a time in my life when I thought reading a three volume biography of JMK was a good idea*. But there is it. On a personal note, I read most of this, and the first volume…

  • Review: Eribon’s Michel Foucault

    Michel Foucault Didier Eribon There are, as far as I know, three Foucault biographies available in English. I have read all of them. Eribon’s was the first to appear (I believe) but the least interesting. The Passions of Michel Foucault is the most gossipy (and it still doesn’t really give up that much dirt) and…

  • Review: Prins Other People’s Money

    Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America Nomi Prins Often, left leaning books on finance are poorly informed. Not so with Prin’s awesome Other People’s Money. Prin is a former Goldman Sachs director turned think tank progressive and she knows her stuff. Her critique here of the excesses of finance capital is now a…

  • Review: Karnazes’s Ultra-Marathon Man

    Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner Dean Karnazes The book that spawned a thousand of ultra-runners, Dean Karnazes’s chronicle of his life from depressed businessman to Ultra running superstar is the ur-text of the modern ultra endurance memoir trade. When it came out, it was a deeply controversial book in the ultra-running world. Karnezes…