Nonfiction November Week 4: Worldview Changers

After taking last week off, I’m back with another post for Nonfiction November. This week our host is Rebekah of the blog She Seeks Nonfiction. Even though she’s been blogging since 2016 I discovered her blog only about a year ago. Since then I’ve been a huge fan, in no small part because I see her as a kindred spirit. Rebekah was raised in the “conservative Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod” even though she “never really believed in God”, and I’m an ex-evangelical Christian. If the books featured on Rebekah’s outstanding blog are any indication she’s a progressive individual who strongly embraces science, reason and intellectual honesty. With that in mind she’s the perfect book blogger to host our latest installment of Nonfiction November.

One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book (or books) has impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Do you think there is one book that everyone needs to read for a better understanding of the world we live in?

When first introduced to this week’s topic I was excited to participate even though wasn’t sure where to begin. I thought about limiting the scope solely to books critical of Christianity, the Bible or religion in general. I also considered discussing just various political books that have impacted me over the years. Or significant history books that did the same. But in the end I decided to throw caution to the wind and feature as many books as possible that significantly shaped my view of the world. They did this by overthrowing my previous beliefs or assumptions, or in some way or another making me look at things with a different perspective. If this project wasn’t ambitious (or foolhardy) enough, I’d also like to approach things somewhat chronologically, starting with books that impacted me as a young man. (But I’ll still mix things up here and there.)

The Early Years

• Democracy for the Few by Michael Parenti – An assigned text for my American Government 201 class in college, Parenti’s Marxist-inspired critical look at America’s political-economic system was an eye-opener to say the least. It would inspire me to read other works he’d written like The Sword and the Dollar: Imperialism Revolution and the Arms Race, Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media and finally, decades later God and His Demons. Looking for other authors like him, I followed renegade CIA officer Philip Agee’s advice and read Jerry Fresia’s Toward an American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution and Other Illusions.
• There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America by Alex Kotlowitz – Stumbled across this book at the public library a year or so after college graduation and was blown away by Kotlowitz’s intimate look at life in one of Chicago’s infamous public housing projects. Left wanting to learn more “how the other half lives” I’d go on to read Michael Harrington’s The Other America: Poverty in the United States and Gabriel Thompson’s Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do.
• Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano – After seeing this referenced in book after book I bought a used copy at some old bookstore. If you wanna understand Latin America start here.

Christianity and the Bible: A New and Critical Look 

• Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture by John Shelby Spong – First book I ever read that tried to interpret the Bible in more modern light.
• What Paul Really Said About Women: The Apostle’s Liberating Views on Equality in Marriage, Leadership, and Love by John Temple Bristow – An attempt to make the writings of Paul (or those impersonating him) less misogynistic while still staying within a Christian context.
• A Short History of Christianity by Martin E. Marty -First book I read that showed me how Christianity evolved as an institution over the last two thousand or so years.
• God: A Biography by Jack Miles – Miles treats God as a literary character tracing his development over the course of the Hebrew Bible.
• The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart by Peter J. Gomes – Another book like Spong’s that tries to proclaim a kindler, gentler Bible.
• The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart D. Ehrman – Based on Ehrman’s book early Christianity should be thought of competing “Christianities” as opposed to one, monolithic young Church.
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels – A novel look at one of those competing versions of early Christianity and its scriptures.
• The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times by David Kling – A cool look at how the Bible has been interpreted throughout history and how it’s influenced.
• The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible by Jonathan Kirsch – Fun look at those bizarre, frequently bawdy Bible stories you never heard in Sunday school.
• The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman – There is zero archeological evidence  supporting the Biblical narrative of the Hebrews’ wandering in the desert.
• Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane Fox – Trained classicist Lane Fox turns his highly educated critical eye upon the Bible.
• The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara R. Rossing – Remember all that rapture talk you might have heard in Sunday school? It’s all a recent evangelical construct.

History: A Deeper Understanding 

• The Twentieth Century: A People’s History by Howard Zinn – 20th century American history from the underside.
• East and West by C. Northcote Parkinson – According to Parkinson East and West are like an oscillating piston forever vying for supremacy.
• The Fifties by David Halberstam- Commonly thought of a conservative decade, the truth is rather otherwise.
• Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill – It’s amazing the degree that disease has impacted human history.
• Backgrounds of European Literature by Vincent F. Horton and Rod W. & Hopper – Classical, Hebrew and Gothic influences have all profoundly shaped European thought and expression.
• How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill – Who would have thought the Irish were so influential in preserving Classical knowledge?
• Medieval Europe: A Short History by Charles Warren Hollister – The Middle Ages weren’t uniformly the “Dark Ages.”
• Europe: A History by Norman Davies- Taught me Europe is merely a peninsula of Asia, and the 19th century was the true birth of the Modern Age.
• Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe – Think all the killing ended once Germany surrendered? Nope.
• The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth – Even after the conclusion of World War I the fighting especially in Eastern Europe continued.
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson- Blacks leaving the South for the North, Northern Midwest and California in the decades following World War I is a story needing to be told.
• The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan – Western Europe’s rise to prominence in the Early Modern age was fueled by trade with Central and East Asia.

Anti-Colonialism: At Home and Abroad 

• The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon – Why colonialism is so harmful and how to fight it.
• Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire – Colonialism is bad but you can fight it, and be proud if you don’t happen to be white.
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcom X and Alex Haley- Inspiring story of an man who went from convicted petty thief and prisoner to world-class civil rights leader. And he read like a scholar while in prison.
• Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. – Terrific history of one of America’s sadly forgotten political movements.

Developing a Post-Religious Worldview

• How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God by Michael Shermer – The book that made me start questioning things.
• The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris – Great critique of religion told using direct, accessible language.
• God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens – Hell of a writer. And persuasive.
• A Manual for Creating Atheists by Peter Boghossian – More of a manual for creating great critical thinkers.
• Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists by Dan Barker – What makes an evangelical minister walk away from religion?
• Fleeing Fundamentalism: A Minister’s Wife Examines Faith by Carlene Cross – Cross is a likable, intelligent woman, who for excellent reasons gradually left the faith. A highly underrated memoir.

The Middle East: A Deeper Understanding

• From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman- First book I read about the Middle East and it’s still a fave.
• Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen – Excellent first hand account of Cohen’s person to person contacts across the region.
• The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East by Neil MacFarquhar – Another excellent first hand account of an author’s person to person contacts across the Middle East.
• Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978 by Kai Bird – A memoir recalling the the “Golden Years” of the modern Middle East by a person who grew up there.
• We Look Like the Enemy: The Hidden Story of Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands by Rachel Shabi – Outside of Israel, few people are aware of a segment of the country’s Jewish population that hails from the Arab World, sharing many of that region’s cultural characteristics.
• Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas – One of the best books on the Middle East published this decade.
• The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future by Vali Nasr – Prescient and powerful.
• The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran by Hooman Majd – Required reading if you wanna understand Iran.
• Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East by Robin Wright – Wright is an expert on the Middle East and it shows.

East vs West and Nations Rich and Poor: Competing Explanations 

• Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson – Militarily speaking, the West has prevailed over the rest of the world thanks to a collection of shared concepts such as dissent, inventiveness, adaptation and citizenship. Too bad this author is now a big Trump supporter.
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond – Europe conquered the world not because Europeans are smarter. Favorable geography helped played a major role.
• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson – Unlike the above mentioned Guns, Germs, and Steel, authors Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson believe human institutions help determine whether a nation becomes rich or poor.
• Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate’s Defense of Liberal Democracy by Ibn Warraq – According to Warraq, Western values we take for granted like pluralism, individualism, freedom of thought and secularism are keys to our success and should be passionately defended.

Corruptions of Power

• Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer – Essential reading if you wanna understand the American political landscape.
• Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us by Brian Klaas – All of us at least once in our lives has encountered someone who abused his or her authority. Does power ultimately corrupt? The answer is nuanced to say the least.

Animals: Smarter Than You Think

• Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal – If there was ever a book that changed my worldview it’s this one. Frequently the cognition gap between human and beast is a lot narrower than you’d think.

That’s all for now. Enjoy Nonfiction November!

20 Books of Summer: Grand Hotel Abyss by Stuart Jeffries

Late one Sunday morning at the public library, a year or so before COVID hit I spotted a copy of Stuart Jeffries’s Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. Standing upright with its cover prominently displayed to all, I sensed it was some librarian’s official or unofficial recommendation. Knowing little about the Frankfort School, I had some vague recollection of its influence on mid-20th century leftist thought. So I made a mental note to someday read Jeffries’s book only later to forget.
Fast forward to earlier this summer, when, after telling one of my professor buddies who’s deep into the Frankfort School about the book he ran out and bought a copy. The next thing I knew he’d read the first two chapters and invited me to discuss Grand Hotel Abyss with him over wine at a local winery. Accepting his kind invitation I borrowed a Kindle edition of Jeffries’s 2016 book through Overdrive and went to work reading.

In the early 1920s a group of German Jewish intellectuals of the Marxist persuasion found themselves in a bit of a quandary. Within their ranks it had been a tenet of faith that when the time came for the working class to finally revolt against their capitalist masters it would begin in Germany. Lo and behold, much to their surprise when the revolution did break out it happened not in Germany, the birthplace of Karl Marx but in Russia. (On top of that, when Lenin and company did seize power it was more like a coup and not a workers’ uprising.) Adding insult to injury, in the following years the nation’s working class began showing its reactionary side, preferring to support conservative politicians and causes. Instead of embracing the communists or even the more moderate socialists many backed the Nazis.

With seed money from a wealthy grain merchant (no pun intended) the group founded an independent research agency in Frankfort to understand why capitalism, at least outside of Russia, survived even in the face of German hyperinflation and worldwide economic depression. Operating outside established academia, the organization’s highly-educated Marxist scholars (influenced as well by Freud, Proust and Weber) began their critique of not just capitalism but society as a whole. At first their influence, even in the rarefied realm of academia was minimal. Unable and unwilling to engage with members of the working class many saw them as nothing more than a high-minded talking club. György Lukács, the great Hungarian Marxist philosopher and historian called them “a hotel on the edge of the abyss”, voyeurs perched upon high watching the world slip into fascism.

Staffed by Jewish Marxists, the institute was firmly in the Nazi’s crosshairs when they seized power in 1933. With the unfortunate exception of Walter Benjamin, (who committed suicide after being denied entry into neutral Spain) members found sanctuary in either Britain or America, with several following their countrymen to Los Angeles. No strangers to academia, many landed positions at universities. During the Second World War several even went to work for the OSS as intelligence analysts thanks to their understanding of German society.

In latter years Frankfort School alumni and their disciples would shift their attention from fascist Europe to the capitalist West. Ironically, some adherents now saw unbridled American consumerism as dehumanizing as Nazism. Others helped inspire a new generation of radicals like Angela Davis, those committed to overthrowing oppression and ushering in a more egalitarian order.

This is a meaty book of considerable depth. True to the book’s subtitle much of it’s a biography of the individual Frankfort School thinkers, in addition to their ideas and the greater political and social contexts from which they sprung forth. Few can deny some of their more arcane criticisms, especially of jazz, movies and consumerism in general come across as downright loopy. But their ideas, or perhaps more importantly their questions have influenced countless individuals over the decades as they labored to understand, and ultimately change the dominant sociopolitical order. Please consider Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School highly recommended.

About Time I Read It: Postwar by Tony Judt

As some of you might know, as part of my ongoing research I’ve been reading books on 20th century European history. Although I’ve read some great stuff over the years like Ian Kershaw’s To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 and its sequel The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 as well as Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World and Keith Lowe’s Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II one particular book has eluded me. For well over a decade I’ve been meaning to read Tony Judt’s 2005 tour du force Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. I’m embarrassed to admit its 900 plus page length scared me off. Then, by a stroke of good luck my online book club decided to read it and that was all the encouragement I needed. Due to its length we tackled the first half of the book one session and the second half a month later during our follow-up. Postwar was well-received by all participants, myself included. As high as my expectations were Postwar did not disappoint me.

I always struggle whenever I write about an outstanding book and believe me, this is no exception. I feel there’s little, perhaps even nothing I could put in a review that could do this book justice. Alas, to not say anything would do even a worse injustice. I feel foolish  regurgitating a long litany of Postwar‘s highlights since  the book’s title alone tells you it’s a history of Europe since the end of the Second World War.  But I must say something.

Even though I’ve spent the last few years reading up on 20th century European history Postwar taught me a lot of things. I had no idea the Korean War led to heightened tensions in Europe, as America and it Western allies feared Soviet-led forces would similarly attack West German in hopes of reunifying the divided nation. I also was unaware formal neutral countries like Ireland and Portugal were offered aid under the Marshall Plan. (In his assessment on the Plan’s influence in keeping Western Europe from sliding into the Communist camp Judt takes a contrarian approach. According to him despite the Plan’s huge price tag its greatest benefits were symbolic rather than financial.) Nor did I know the Soviets once pitched the idea of a united Germany, provided the reunified German nation was banned from joining NATO and had to adhere to political neutrality.

I could also talk about the many things I liked. For 50 years Europe was a divided continent with its eastern half subjugated and cut-off from the rest of the Continent. Insulated for years from the political, economic and social developments that swept throughout Western Europe some historians are tempted to take a more cursory approach when discussing the region’s history after the Second World War. Thankfully, Judt doesn’t do that. He treats both halves with equal attention. As I’d hoped, he hit all the landmark developments: Yugoslavia leaving the Soviet orbit, the Hungarian uprising, the Berlin Crises leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Prague Spring, the rise and fall of Polish Solidarity and the eventual Fall of Communism. But he was keen to point out during the early postwar period there were Europeans who might have been thankful the Red Army held an iron grip over Poland and half of Germany because it prevented the Germans from reasserting themselves militarily and retaking territories lost after the war.

According to Judt, ironically it was this subjugation that helped bring while maybe not peace but an imposed stability to a region that had been highly volatile during the first third of the 20th century, supplying  the sparks that ignited not one, but two world wars. Unlike the more ethnically and religiously homogeneous nation states of Western Europe, those in the East that emerged after WWI were almost microcosms of the vanquished land-based empires that painfully birthed them. Either binational states like Czechoslovakia; multiethnic entities cobbled together and dominated by one party like Yugoslavia; or countries like Poland with a sizable non-Polish/non Catholic German, Ukrainian and Jewish populations.

But World War II and the period following it would unleash previously unimaginable horrors. Throughout Central and Eastern Europe Jewish communities were murderously destroyed. After the war ethnic Germans who’d been dwelling in the lands bordering Germany were forcibly deported and settled in a vanquished Germany. Poland and Soviet Ukraine swapped ethnic minorities in hopes of making their respective states ethnically homogeneous. The end result was a collection of linguistically, religiously and ethically homogeneous states unable to claim the territory of their neighbors in hopes of rescuing some oppressed nationality. Soviet troops and tanks imposed the peace and Socialist brotherhood, and the West being the new common enemy.

Other aspects of 20th century European history that many historians gloss over that Judt addressed in detail are both the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain, Portugal and Greece and the separatist/autonomy movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Basque region and Catalonia. In addition, his chapters on Thatcherite Britain, Gorbachev’s role pivotal in USSR’s implosion, and the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia were surprisingly good. (And by good I mean comprehensive while still being succinct.)

Postwar is an outstanding book and a must read for not just those interested in history but anyone wanting to understand contemporary European politics. Even though it’s just January I’m confident this book will easily make my year-end list of favorite nonfiction. Please consider Postwar highly recommended.

20 Books of Summer: Richistan by Robert Frank

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, even though I live in a rural area, I’m blessed by having not one, not two, but three surprisingly good public libraries all within a short drive. Like any good library, they’ve exposed me to books I’d might never have discovered had I not spent many a Saturday morning wandering about their shelves. One such book is Robert Frank’s Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. Every weekend for close to two years I’d see Frank’s 2007 book sitting on the shelf before a few weeks ago I finally decided to borrow it. I leisurely made my way through Richistan and upon finishing it concluded on one hand it’s one of those books that won’t make my year-end best list. But on the other hand, it’s one of those decently written, well researched pieces of investigative nonfiction that delivers the goods by serving up a detailed and intimate look at America’s superrich.

These are are not your grandfather’s superrich. Instead of an endless parade of robber barons and blue blood aristocrats in Richistan introduces us a mulitude of highly wealthy indivuals, most of them newly minted. According to Frank, as the world becomes more globalized it creates new oppportunities for financiers, hedge fund managers and the like to create unprecendented wealth. (Governmant deregulation, for good or for bad, both at home and abroad also helps.) Technologically speaking, those who are clever and lucky enough to build a better mouse trap in the Internet driven, high tech dominated world can profit handsomely through not only their inventions, but also if they’re able to start a company, orchestrate an IPO and then at the end sell out to the highest bidder.  As a result, the world has never seen so many recently created superrich.

And in many ways it’s changing America. Thanks to the exploding population of superrich there’s a huge demand for household staff to not just cook and serve meals but also pay bills, coordinate family outings and oversee support personnel like gardeners, maintenance people and tutors. Demand is so great there’s now a “butler school” in Denver run by a former military officer who spent years as a personal aid to high ranking Army generals. There’s also support groups modeled after the 12 step variety where the anxious wealthy can come together and commiserate about ungrateful children, underperforming finacial ventures and mid-life crises. For the young adults of the superwealthy there’s even seminars to help them handle everything from freeloading “friends” to prenuptial agreements.

Just as I mentioned at the onset, these aren’t your grandfather’s fat cat idle rich. Many are relatively young and not by any stretch politically conservative. Over a decade ago, four of them in Colorado set out to dethrown the state’s ruling Republican party and were ulitmately successful after a cascade of electoral victories.  Many are big Democratic Pary doners and a number are philanthropically active, giving generously in hopes of fighting poverty and disease throughout the world.

Again, this book won’t make my year-end best list. Heck, it probably won’t even earn an honorable mention. But I can say without reservation it’s a decent book. And that my friends is always a good thing.

A Trio of Political Books

I enjoyed doing my post A Trio of Books About China so much I thought I’d do another one and feature three books of a similar nature. This time, instead of focusing on China I’d like to spotlight three recently published books that look at the world-wide rise in populist-fueled authoritarianism and the threat it posses to the established democratic order.

• Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer-  I’ve been fan of Bremmer for years. I loved his 2010 book The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations ? and last February I reviewed his 2006 book  The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall. He’s probably the only “thought leader” I follow on social media. I’ve reposted tons of his Facebook posts and retweeted more than a few of his Twitter offerings. As soon as I heard he’d written a new book I requested my public library purchase a digital copy for Kindle download. Luckily for me I was the first in line to read it. In Us vs. Them, Bremmer looks at the impacts of “globalism”: increased trade, (not just in goods and services but also knowledge and ideology) immigration, mass refugee migrations, and the rise of supranational organizations the EU but also the backlash they create leading sometimes to authoritarian regimes at home and abroad.
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt – I couldn’t resist this one when I saw this one on the “New Books” shelf at my public library. Written by two Harvard professors, one an expert in European politics and the other Latin American, the authors take history and recent current events as their guides warning us of the risks facing democracy and how to protect it.
• Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright – A good friend of mine was kind enough to loan me her AUTOGRAPHED copy, purchased the night she saw Albright speak on her recent speaking tour. This is the second book by Albright I’ve featured on my blog. Back in early 2013 I briefly reviewed her Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948. Much like How Democracies Die it’s a warning that democracy is under attack in America and around the world and what to do about it.

So similar are these three books it’s probably easier to write about what they have in common as opposed to their differences. To these writers authoritarianism, or as Albright calls it fascism comes gradually and not overnight. It might begin with a tough-talking nationalist leader claiming to speak for the ignored and pure hearted, who might ban a rival political party but goes on to ban the others. The leader, calling a newspaper or a TV network a threat to the nation will force its shutdown or worse, make it a propaganda organ for the state. Judges are forced to retire and courts are packed with the leader’s hand-picked judicial replacements. A constitutions is rewritten and presidential term limits are abolished. Eventually, you wind up with a dictator for life unaccountable to no one.

There’s also the potential for things to get even worse in the future. In Us vs. Them, Bremmer predicts advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and 3D printing will lead to widespread unemployment in both the developed and developing world, causing unprecedented political and economic instability. Governments around the globe will be forced by their citizens to address crippling problems of unemployment, income disparities, public unrest and mass migrations.

Us vs. Them, How Democracies Die and Fascism: A Warning are all good books and must reading for the civic-minded. Since they compliment each other so well I can’t encourage you enough to read all three. If, as these four writers claim democracy is under pressure, if not under attack around the world then it’s best to educate oneself. Reading these three books would be a great step in that direction.

About Time I Read It: The J Curve by Ian Bremmer

Back in 2010 while channel surfing I happened to land on PBS in the middle of Charlie Rose interviewing a geopolitical thinker/writer named Ian Bremmer. Bremmer had just written a book called The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations ? and the two of them discussed recent global economic developments and China’s rise as an international power. As I sat watching the interview I found myself intrigued by Bremmer’s insights and vowed to read his recently published book. Later that year I did. But sadly, as much as I valued Bremmer’s take on the state of the world I never got around to reading more of his stuff.

Fast forward to this past summer, I happened to stumble across Bremmer’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. Watching his posted videos and reading his tweets rekindled my appreciation of him. (He’s also probably the only international mover and shaker with a muppet created in his own likeness.) So much so when I discovered my public library had an available copy of his book The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall I snatched it up. Unfortunately, it took me a bit longer than it should had for me to make it through his book because I kept getting distracted by other books I was reading at the time. Eventually, I  made my way through it. Overall, I enjoyed it even though I did have one minor problem with it.

That problem, which believe me isn’t a fault of Bremmer’s. The J Curve was published in 2006, making it a decade old. Therefore, the whole time I was reading the J Curve I kept asking myself how relevant his book could be. After all, much has changed since 2006. We’ve seen both the Arab Spring and the coming of ISIS. Dictators like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il have all passed away. (Chavez and Castro’s deaths could lead to greater openness in their respective countries. On the other hand, it looks like Kim Jong-il’s death has led to even more oppression and insanity.) Lastly, in recent years we’ve experienced a global rise in old school nationalism with the passing of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. But in spite of all this, happily, I can say yes, The J Curve is still relevant to today’s world.

The J Curve – Stability versus Openness

Bremmer addresses that age-old question we, especially those involved in the fields of international politics and diplomacy have been asking for years: how does an authoritarian regime liberalize without becoming so unstable it descends into chaos resulting in political fragmentation or worse, yet another authoritarian regime. According to Bremmer, it’s no easy challenge. (Throughout the book he refers to this relationship between political stability and openness as something that can be plotted on a graph, hence the term “J Curve.”)  Over the years, Western nations like the United States has preferred to isolate authoritarian regimes like Iran, Cuba and North Korea with sanctions and censure in hopes of promoting regime change. In Bremmer’s opinion such measures end up being counter productive because the more isolated and impoverished the citizens are in these countries become, the easier it is for those running these regimes to manipulate the masses and thus stay in power. In The J Curve Bremmer looks at different authoritarian countries which succesful liberalized like South Africa, imploded like Yugoslavia and Iraq, and liberalized, imploded and then returned to authoritarianism like the Soviet Union/Russia.

My only knock on this book, really in reality is an unfair one in that it’s 10 years old. But like I said earlier, for a book a book that was published a decade ago it still feels relevant. The portions discussing challenges facing Saudi Arabia, Israel, and especially China look spot on even 10 years after he wrote them. Perhaps because of it’s relevancy after reading the J Curve I’m now inspired to read more of Bremmer’s stuff. So with that in mind, don’t be surprised if you see more of his stuff like Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World and Every Nation for Itself: What Happens When No One Leads the World reviewed on my blog.

Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment

Ever go in search of particular book and instead end up buying something else? I once went to a bookstore to buy a copy of Hans Zinnser’s 1934 classic Rats, Lice and History and came home with William McNeill’s just as classic Plagues and Peoples. (Since McNeill’s book went on to be one of my favorites of all time I never doubted once I chose the right book). Recently, my book club chose Colin Renfrew’s Prehistory: The Making of the Human Mind as our monthly selection. I was all set to read it but after reading the book’s reviews and reader comments on Amazon I was less than excited. What did excite me was the available selection of Kindle format Modern Library Chronicles for only $2.99. While they all looked like great deals one particular title caught my eye. Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment by Stephen Kotkin looked quite promising. So for less than the price of a pint of good beer, I bought it. And just like years ago when I choose Plagues and Peoples over Rats, Lice and History I have no regrets.

Published in 2009, Uncivil Society is part of the Modern Library Chronicles. It’s a series of compact but nevertheless informative books, probably crafted for introductory and/or supplementary purposes. Over the years I’ve read at two least books from series, namely Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History and Milton Viorst’s Storm from the East: The Struggle Between the Arab World and the Christian West. Both were decent and left me wanting to read others from the series.

In Uncivil Society, Kotkin (with help from Jan Gross) tries to explain not just why the Communist nations of Eastern Europe collapsed, but why it happened so quickly. (Kotkin uses the term “bank run” to describe this rapid implosion.) By looking at the last few decades leading up to the fall of Communism in Poland, East Germany and Romania, according to Kotkin several factors caused the demise of the old Eastern Block. One was those countries’ inability to economically compete the not only with the capitalist nations of Europe and North America, but also the upstart Asian economies of South Korea and Taiwan. Unable to provide their citizens with consumer goods without borrowing money from the West, they soon found themselves drowning in debt with nothing valuable to export. As things started to spiral out of control Gorbachev refused to prop-up the failing regimes. By then it was over for the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe.

Since I’ve had pretty good luck with three different books from the Modern Library Chronicles, I wouldn’t mind exploring a few others. Michael Sturmer’s The German Empire: A Short History, Tim Blanning’s The Romantic Revolution: A History, Richard Bessel’s Nazism and War and Robert S. Wistrich’s Hitler and the Holocaust all look promising. All economically priced and easily available through Amazon, I have a feeling I’ll be reading more from the Modern Library Chronicles.

Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

After years, no, make that decades of reading books I finally did it. I joined a book club. You would think with all the reading I do that at some point in my life I would have been in at least one book club, even for the briefest period of time. The truth is, I’ve always wanted to be in one, but I just never got around to doing it. But thanks to the magic of Meet Up, I recently joined the Badass Book Club PDX. And my first book with this group: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain. Last month, about eight of us sat down over pints of beer at a local watering hole and talked about Levitt and Dubner’s newest book.

Published in May of this year, Think Like a Freak marks the third collaboration between Levitt and Dubner of Freakonmics fame. (Their second book, SuperFreakonomics I reviewed back in 2011.) Instead presenting a collection of interesting case studies like they did with their previous two books, this time around the authors have written a kind of “how to” book for us lowly mortals on how to solve life’s problems by disregarding long-held assumptions, popular opinions and conventional logic. Instead, we are encouraged to look at these challenges from radically new perspectives: fresh and inquisitive like a child, open and non-judgmental thanks to a suspended personal moral compass and lastly, with the knowledge that all of us respond in some way or another to incentives.  Interestingly enough, in much the same way I felt about SuperFreakonomics, there are things my new book club liked about Think Like a Freak, and things we didn’t.

Let’s start with the things we liked. To varying degrees we found the book interesting and definitely worth talking about. Think Like a Freak is very readable and at times even entertaining. With a business book kind of feel about it, Think Like a Freak should lend itself well for practical application. Generally, we liked the many examples and case studies discussed throughout the book. We also found the footnotes incredibly rich.

As for the negative, more than a few book club participants thought the book was a bit superficial and lacking in hard analysis. Just has many critics have accused Malcolm Gladwell of cherry picking his supporting evidence in order to make his claims, so also did several book club participants accuse the authors of Think Like a Freak of doing much the same. Lastly, two participants felt a bit cheated after buying the book because according to them, a lot of the stuff covered in Think Like a Freak is also available for free via podcasts on the Freakonomics website.

Looking back, I’m glad I joined this book club. It’s fun to talk about a book we’ve all read, not to mention hearing everyone’s opinions. The next book I’ll be reading for this group is Steven Pinker’s 2002 bestseller The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. So look for a review of that much-talked about book in about a month or two. Can’t wait to hear what my new book club friends have to say about this one.

Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

We hear all the time about “failed states.” Usually located in somewhere in the developing world, these national basket cases tend to share a common set of attributes: endemic corruption, political instability, widespread poverty, high unemployment, gun violence, population outflow and economic dependence on one particular manufactured product, cash crop or extractive industry (crude oil, copper, rare earth minerals, etc.). But are there also cities that possess these same unenviable qualities? After reading Charlie LeDuff’s 2013 book Detroit: An America Autopsy I can tell you without any doubt that yes, there are. Sadly, the city LeDuff writes about it is not in Somalia, Haiti or Afghanistan. It’s Detroit, located right here in the good old USA.

LeDuff’s book had been on my radar since the end of last year, after several book bloggers mentioned it during the Nonfiction November Project. When I saw a copy on display at my public library I grabbed it, hoping it would live up to my expectations. Holy cow, it sure did – and then some. Detroit: An American Autopsy is an extremely gritty, uncompromising and unforgiving look at America’s biggest failed city. It’s a city where mayors wind up in prison, arson is a spectator sport, police doctor crime stats to hide the true murder rate, 1 in 30 residents are homeless, 40 per cent of the city is vacant and 911 response times can run two hours. For over a century Detroit depended on the American auto industry, but thanks to executive mismanagement, inflexible unions and foreign competition the city’s vibrant economic engine is a shadow of its former self. Instead the new growth industries are drug dealing, graft, public assistance, arson and illegally harvesting scrap metal.

LeDuff, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, is no stranger to the mean streets of Detroit. Not only did he grow up there, but his sister, also a Detroit resident, was heavily involved in drugs and died a violent death. His brother, another city resident, lost his job and then later his home due to foreclosure (sadly fitting because Detroit is also America’s foreclosure capital). Detroit is LeDuff’s city, he knows it well and as a result he throws himself head-first into his book. His mission to show the world the true face of Detroit is passionate, reckless and tenacious. (Kim, from Sophisticated Dorkiness, in her brief but excellent review mentioned LeDuff’s utilizing the “gonzo” style of journalism in writing his book. Considering Detroit is such a train wreck, I’m guessing LeDuff knew what he was doing.)

This is one of the best pieces of nonfiction I’ve read this year. Don’t be surprised if it makes my Best Nonfiction List for 2014. Highly recommended.

The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change by Al Gore

Sometimes it takes me a long time to review a book. The reasons tend to be as varied as the books I read. Sometimes, I enjoyed the book so much it’s hard for me to articulate all the positive things I wanna say. Other times, I can’t motivate myself to write about a book I that left me disappointed. Then there are times when other writing projects took priority and pushed things aside. Lastly, there are times when I just procrastinate. When it came to writing my little review of Al Gore’s The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, this was a classic case of procrastination. But enough excuses! On to Gore’s book.

This isn’t the first book by Al Gore I’ve featured on this blog. Mere months after I made to move to WordPress, I wrote about Gore’s 2007 book The Assault on Reason. Whereas The Assault on Reason was a modest little manifesto of around 300 pages, The Future is an expansive, content-heavy tome and roughly double the page size of his 2007 book. It’s ambitious, detailed and covers a heck of a lot of ground. It can also be a bit overwhelming. But that’s OK. Considering what the future might hold for all of us, maybe it’s only fitting one could be a bit overwhelmed.

In order to forecast the future, Gore has identified six emerging “drivers” that will shape the our world’s destiny. They are:

1. A hyper connected global economy
2. The dominance of robotics, artificial intelligence and nimble, cheap, decentralized forms of production like 3-D printers
3. A planet-wide power shift from not just West to East, but also from nation-states to nonstate actors
4. Rising population growth and resource consumption leading to pollution, climate change and ecological destruction
5. The growing ability to manipulate lifeforms, alter DNA and even create new forms of life
6. A new understanding of humankind’s ongoing relationship with the global ecosystem

Like I said, this book covers a lot of ground and there’s a ton of information. In places it reads like something from a think tank or policy institute. But that’s OK. If you can make it through this book you’ll have a pretty good handle on where we might be going. And how best to prepare for it.

If I were advising a candidate for public office I’d tell that individual to read this book. (Of course, I’d recommend other books too. Paul Kennedy’s Preparing for the Twenty-First Century would be the first one. From there I’d suggest The Next Decade: Where We’ve Been….and Where We’re Goingand The Next 100 years: A Forecast for the 21st Century, both by George Friedman. Topping it all off, I’d also recommend Robert D. Kaplan’s Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. Let’s face it, with me as your political adviser, you’re going to read a lot of stuff!) While no one’s crystal ball is 100 percent accurate, Gore’s looks quite impressive. And therefore worth the read.