en-US Mon, 25 Nov 2024 03:19:07 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 Greg 2 fiction 4.03 1997
author: Douglas Preston
name: Greg
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2005/06/01
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: fiction
review:
This is a bad sequel to Relic. It is essentially CHUD meets Re-animator. Only read it for completeness' sake in the Agent Pendergast series of novels by Preston and Child.
]]> 26255 768 Plotinus Greg 5 philosophy, mysticism 4.07 250
author: Plotinus
name: Greg
average rating: 4.07
book published: 250
rating: 5
read at: 2007/11/01
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: philosophy, mysticism
review:
This is an early complete interpretive translation of the Plotinus' Enneads. Plotinus is an extremely influential Neoplatonist. Neoplatonism is an important philosophic/religious stream that has influenced virtually all Western mystical traditions. Required reading for people interested in Western esotericism, kabbalah, Christian mysticism, and sufism. Because this is interpretive, for serious study you will need to supplement it with the Loeb Classical Library edition as well that is extremely literal and very difficult on its own to understand.
]]> 12951 nouvelles, which represent the author in both his early and late phases. From the apparitions of evil that haunt the governess in “The Turn of the Screw� to the startling self-scrutiny of an egotistical man in “The Beast in the Jungle,� the mysterious turnings of human behavior are coolly and masterfully observed—proving Henry James to be a master of psychological insight as well as one of the finest prose stylists of modern English literature.

Includes “The Turn of the Screw� � Daisy Miller � Washington Square � “The Beast in the Jungle� � “The Jolly Corner”]]> 527 Henry James 0553210599 Greg 4 fiction 3.80 1937
author: Henry James
name: Greg
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2009/06/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: fiction
review:
The period grammatical constructions of James are difficult to read, but Turn of the Screw is a truly great horror story.
]]> 371838 Still more useful supplementary material will be found in the book's introductory remarks, by its editor Evans-Wentz and by the eminent psychoanalyst C. G. Jung. The former presents a 100-page General Introduction that explains several key names and notions (such as Nirv=ana, for starters) with the lucidity, ease, and sagacity that are this scholar's hallmark; the latter offers a Psychological Commentary that weighs the differences between Eastern and Western modes of thought before equating the "collective unconscious" with the Enlightened Mind of the Buddhist. As with the other three volumes in the late Evans-Wentz's critically acclaimed Tibetan series, all four of which are being published by Oxford in new editions, this book also features a new Foreword by Donald S. Lopez.
"]]> 358 W. Y. Evans-Wentz 0195133153 Greg 0 to-read 3.89
author: W. Y. Evans-Wentz
name: Greg
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57972 376 Edgar Rice Burroughs 1846771153 Greg 3 scifi ]]> 4.01 1991
author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
name: Greg
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at: 2011/01/23
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: scifi
review:
Good chewing gum for the mind. The John Carter stories are a good romp through a fantastical Mars. The stories have added depth since they are allegory about Western Civilization's ills.

]]> 7843135
Sirantha Jax is a “Jumper,� a woman who possesses the unique genetic makeup needed to navigate faster than light ships through grimspace. With no tolerance for political diplomacy, she quits her ambassador post so she can get back to saving the universe the way she does best—by mouthing off and kicking butt.

And her tactics are needed more than ever. Flesh-eating aliens are attacking stations on the outskirts of space, and for many people, the Conglomerate’s forces are arriving too late to serve and protect them.

Now, Jax must take matters into her own hands by recruiting a militia to defend the frontiers � out of the worst criminals, mercenaries, and raiders that ever traveled through grimspace…]]> 356 Ann Aguirre 0441019412 Greg 4 scifi 4.06 2010
author: Ann Aguirre
name: Greg
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/09/01
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves: scifi
review:
This is a pretty addition to the Sirantha Jax series. It is basically a bridge to the next book, so don't expect to be satisfied with the ending which is a cliffhanger.
]]> 6539577 331 Michael Crichton 006178267X Greg 0 to-read 3.27 1972
author: Michael Crichton
name: Greg
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 833354
This anthology of tales by Rudyard Kipling contains some of the most memorable and popular examples of the genre of which he is an undisputed master. The Man Who Would Be King (later adapted as a spectacular film) is a vivid narrative of exotic adventure and disaster.

The other tales include the ironic, horrific, poignant and haunting. Here Kipling displays his descriptive panache and realistic boldness. Shrewd, audacious, abrasive and challenging, he remains absorbingly readable.

Contents of this Wordsworth Classics edition:
* The Education of Otis Yeere
* At the Pit's Mouth
* A Wayside Comedy
* The Hill of Illusion
* A Second-Rate Woman
* Only a Subaltern
* The Phantom 'Rickshaw
* My Own True Ghost Story
* The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
* The Man Who Would Be King
* Wee Willie Winkie
* Baa Baa, Black Sheep
* His Majesty the King
* The Drums of the Fore and Aft]]> 352 Rudyard Kipling 0192836293 Greg 4 fiction 3.63 1885
author: Rudyard Kipling
name: Greg
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1885
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/02
date added: 2022/06/27
shelves: fiction
review:
Good selection of Kipling's prose. It includes "The Phantom Rickshaw" and "The Man Who Would Be King" among other stories of India.
]]> 3018855
Psychoanalysis Comparable and Incomparable describes the rationale and ongoing development of a six year programme of highly original meetings conducted by the European Psychoanalytic Federation Working Party on Comparative Clinical Methods. The project comprises over seventy cases discussed by more than five hundred experienced psychoanalysts over the course of sixty workshops.

Authored by a group of leading European psychoanalysts, this book explores ways for psychoanalysts using different approaches to learn from each other when they present their work to fellow psychoanalysts, and provides tools for the individual practitioner to examine and improve his or her own approach. As described in detail in its pages, sticking to the task led to some surprising experiences, raising fundamental questions about the way clinical discussion and supervision are conducted in psychoanalysis.

Well known by many in the psychoanalytic community and the object of much interest and debate, this project is described by those who have had the closest contact with it and will satisfy a widely held curiosity in psychoanalysts and psychotherapists throughout the world.

David Tuckett is winner of the 2007 Sigourney Award.]]> 318 David Tuckett 0415451434 Greg 0 to-read 0.0 2011
author: David Tuckett
name: Greg
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 826704 This fourth edition features a new foreword, afterword, and suggested further reading list by Donald S. Lopez, author of Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Lopez traces the whole history of the late Evans-Wentz's three earlier editions of this book, fully considering the work of contributors to previous editions (C. G. Jung among them), the sections that were added by Evans-Wentz along the way, the questions surrounding the book's translation, and finally the volume's profound importance in engendering both popular and academic interest in the religion and culture of Tibet. Another key theme that Lopez addresses is the changing nature of this book's audience--from the prewar theosophists to the beat poets to the hippies to contemporary exponents of the hospice movement--and what these audiences have found (or sought) in its very old pages.
]]> 384 Padmasambhava 0195133129 Greg 4 buddhism, mysticism 3.96 1350
author: Padmasambhava
name: Greg
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1350
rating: 4
read at: 2005/09/01
date added: 2021/09/20
shelves: buddhism, mysticism
review:
This was the translation that Aldous Huxley used. It was the standard text for the theosophists of the first half of the twentieth century.
]]> 2113717 300 Robert Muggah 0415460549 Greg 0 to-read, phd 0.0 2008
author: Robert Muggah
name: Greg
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/07
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 846672 208 Douglas Allen 0813326745 Greg 3 religious-studies
The same criticism applies to a weak feminist criticism of Confucianism in Chapter 4, as if it were compatible with feminist sensibilities from 1990's America. The paper was frankly downright silly.

Chapter 2 is the strongest, perhaps because it is by a practicing psychoanalyst rather than an academic. It deals with the issue of whether psychoanalysis is even applicable to Eastern cultures, given its European Enlightenment version of the self as an autonomous unit.]]> 4.33 1997
author: Douglas Allen
name: Greg
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2007/12/01
date added: 2021/04/07
shelves: religious-studies
review:
This is an edited volume of papers that compares Eastern and Western philosophical and theological definitions of the self (ego). The introductory essay by the editor, Douglas Allen, is particularly weak. It begins strongly contrasting the Cartesian model of the self with Hindu and Buddhist conceptions o the self, then it descends into a facile New Left parody of Marxism and a superficial discussion of Feminist critiques. His conclusion reveals him to be a bourgeois arm-chair revolutionary crusading against -isms and -tions. He seems stuck in the academic world of 1974-2001.

The same criticism applies to a weak feminist criticism of Confucianism in Chapter 4, as if it were compatible with feminist sensibilities from 1990's America. The paper was frankly downright silly.

Chapter 2 is the strongest, perhaps because it is by a practicing psychoanalyst rather than an academic. It deals with the issue of whether psychoanalysis is even applicable to Eastern cultures, given its European Enlightenment version of the self as an autonomous unit.
]]> 11202549 by Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature. Its subject is the fate of one of the world's greatest civilizations over thirteen centuries - its rulers, wars and society, and the events that led to its disastrous collapse. Here, in volumes one and two, Gibbon charts the vast extent and constitution of the Empire from the reign of Augustus to 395 ad. And in a controversial critique, he examines the early Church, with fascinating accounts of the first Christian and last pagan emperors, Constantine and Julian.

For addition information on publishing your books on iBook,iPhone And iPad please visit ]]> 0 Edward Gibbon Greg 3 4.29 1776
author: Edward Gibbon
name: Greg
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1776
rating: 3
read at: 2012/08/20
date added: 2020/04/21
shelves: classics, international-relations
review:
This is one of those "must read for cultural literacy" chores. The book has its pleasures, among them Gibbon's use of language and ability to deliver a scathing rebuke without snark. On the other hand, as a history of Rome, it is not where someone should start. The most frustrating aspect of the book is the lack of dates. Who did what when is difficult to discern. Gibbon is assuming that you already know the chronology of the Roman Empire.
]]> 10264040 Wages of Appeasement explores the reasons why a powerful state gives in to aggressors. It tells the story of three historical examples of appeasement: the greek city-states of the fourth century b.c., which lost their freedom to Philip II of Macedon; England in the twenties and thirties, and the failure to stop Germany's aggression that led to World War II; and America's current war against Islamic jihad and the 30-year failure to counter Iran's attacks on the U.S. The inherent weaknesses of democracies and their bad habit of pursuing short-term interests at the expense of long-term security play a role in appeasement. But more important are the bad ideas people indulge, from idealized views of human nature to utopian notions like pacifism or disarmament. But especially important is the notion that diplomatic engagement and international institutions like the u.n. can resolve conflict and deter an aggressor––the delusion currently driving the Obama foreign policy in the middle east. Wages of Appeasement combines narrative history and cultural analysis to show how ideas can have dangerous and deadly consequences.]]> 352 Bruce S. Thornton 1594035199 Greg 0 to-read 3.33 2011
author: Bruce S. Thornton
name: Greg
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13763524 288 Andrew Sanders 0748646558 Greg 2 international-relations 2.67 2012
author: Andrew Sanders
name: Greg
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2019/11/04
date added: 2019/11/04
shelves: international-relations
review:
I picked this book up based on the Amazon recommendations for a good military history of the Troubles. Unfortunately it does not live up to the billing. Partly this is due to the type history I was looking for. I was looking for a history at the operational level-i.e., the perspective of the colonel or major, how they planned and how it did not go according to plan and how they adapted. Instead, this is a farrago of 'face of battle' style anecdotes of what it was like for the enlisted and junior officers to deploy to Northern Ireland divided into chapters based on where the units deployed: Belfast, Londonderry, etc.
]]> 9403549 Known and Unknown pulls no punches.

With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history: his experiences growing up during the Depression and World War II, his time as a Naval aviator; his service in Congress starting at age 30; his cabinet level positions in the Nixon and Ford White Houses; his assignments in the Reagan administration; and his years as a successful business executive in the private sector.

Rumsfeld addresses the challenges and controversies of his illustrious career, from the unseating of the entrenched House Republican leader in 1965, to helping the Ford administration steer the country away from Watergate and Vietnam, to bruising battles over transforming the military for the 21st century, to the war in Iraq, to confronting abuse at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

Along the way, he offers his plainspoken, first-hand views and often humorous and surprising anecdotes about some of the world's best known figures, from Margaret Thatcher to Saddam Hussein, from Henry Kissinger to Colin Powell, from Elvis Presley to Dick Cheney, and each American president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush.

Rumsfeld relies not only on his memory but also on previously unreleased and recently declassified documents. Thousands of pages of documents not yet seen by the public will be made available on an accompanying website.

Known and Unknown delivers both a fascinating narrative for today's readers and an unprecedented resource for tomorrow's historians.

]]> 815 Donald Rumsfeld 159523067X Greg 3 poli-sci 3.80 2011
author: Donald Rumsfeld
name: Greg
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/04
date added: 2019/11/04
shelves: poli-sci
review:
Like all diplomatic memoirs there is a huge dose of "it's not my fault." However, the main value of this book is to explain the response to 9-11. Rumsfeld puts it in context of the attack on the US and French peacekeepers in Beirut, and how there were no good options other than withdrawal back then. He discusses the limitations of international organizations, international law, and the laws of armed conflict in dealing with non-state actors in the Westphalian era, and how the solution they came up with was to impose a duty on sovereign states to police non-state actors within their borders, or else.
]]> 76679 Librarian's Note: Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Here, from a grand master of science fiction, is the long awaited final novel of the greatest series ever told. Completed just before his death, Forward The Foundation is the crowning achievement of a great writer's life, a stirring testament to the creative genius of Isaac Asimov.

As Hari Seldon struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory and ensure a place for humanity among the stars, the great Galactic Empire totters on the brink of apocalyptic collapse. Caught in the maelstrom are Seldon and all he holds dear, pawns in the struggle for dominance. Whoever can control Seldon will control psychohistory—and with it the future of the Galaxy.

Among those seeking to turn psychohistory into the greatest weapon known to man are a populist political demagogue, the weak-willed Emperor Cleon I, and a ruthless militaristic general. In his last act of service to humankind, Hari Seldon must somehow save his life's work from their grasp as he searches for his true heirs—a search the begins with his own granddaughter and the dream of a new Foundation.]]> 464 Isaac Asimov 0553565079 Greg 4 scifi 4.15 1993
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Greg
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/04
date added: 2019/11/04
shelves: scifi
review:
This was a better book than the preceding Foundation Prequel. It basically explained the reasons for the founding of the Foundation and the secret Second Foundation. It telescopes time through the various sections of the book, which is appreciated.
]]> 131675 Animal Poems to Zen Poems. Each book comes in an elegant 256-page pocket-sized hardcover edition (4 1/8" x 6 1/4"), with full-cloth covers, lovely illustrated and jewel-tone jackets, silk ribbon markers, and gold stamping. Perfect for your home library, or as a gift for any occasion.

This set includes one each of the following titles:

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry edited by Peter Washington
Animal Poems edited by John Hollander
Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova
Auden: Poems by W. H. Auden
Baudelaire: Poems by Charles Baudelaire
Beat Poets edited by Carmela Ciuraru
Blake: Poems by William Blake
Blues Poems edited by Kevin Young
Browning: Poems by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Byron: Poems by Lord Byron, G. Gordon
Chinese Erotic Poems edited by Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping
Christmas Poems edited by Peter Washington
Coleridge: Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Comic Poems edited by Peter Washington
Conversation Pieces by Kurt Brown
The Dance edited by Emily Fragos
Dickinson: Poems by Emily Dickinson
Doggerel edited by Carmela Ciuraru
Donne: Poems by John Donne
Eliot: Poems by T. S. Eliot
Emerson: Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emily Bronte: Poems by Emily Bronte
Erotic Poems edited by Peter Washington
Eugene Onegin and Other Poems by Alexander Pushkin
Fatherhood edited by Carmela Ciuraru
Friendship Poems edited by Peter Washington
Frost: Poems by Robert Frost
Garden Poems edited by John Hollander
The Great Cat edited by Emily Fragos
Haiku edited by Peter Washington
Hardy: Poems by Thomas Hardy
Herbert: Poems by George Herbert
Hopkins: Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Hughes: Poems by Langston Hughes
Indian Love Poems edited by Meena Alexander
Jazz Poems edited by Kevin Young
Keats: Poems by John Keats
Kipling: Poems by Rudyard Kipling
Letters by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Love Letters edited by Peter Washington
Love Poems edited by Peter Washington
Love Songs and Sonnets edited by Peter Washington
Love Speaks Its Name by J. D. McClatchy
Lullabies and Poems for Children edited by Diana Secker Larson
Marriage Poems edited by John Hollander
Marvell: Poems by Andrew Marvell
Milton: Poems by John Milton
Motherhood edited by Carmela Ciuraru
On Wings of Song by J. D. McClatchy
Persian Poets edited by Peter Washington
Plath: Poems by Sylvia Plath
Poe: Poems by Edgar Allen Poe
Poems Bewitched and Haunted edited by John Hollander
Poems by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Poems by Robert Burns
Poems of Mourning edited by Peter Washington
Poems of New York edited by Elizabeth Schmidt
Poems of Sleep and Dreams edited by Peter Washington
Poems of the American West edited by Robert Mezey
Poems of the Sea by J. D. McClatchy
Prayers edited by Peter Washington
Rilke: Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
Rimbaud: Poems by Arthur Rimbaud
The Roman Poets edited by Peter Washington
Rossetti: Poems by Christina Rossetti
Shakespeare: Poems by William Shakespeart
Shelley: Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Solitude edited by Carmela Ciuraru
Sonnets edited by John Hollander
Stevens: Poems by Wallace Stevens
Tennyson: Poems by Lord Alfred Tennyson
War Poems edited by Peter Washington
Whitman: Poems by Walt Whitman
Wordsworth: Poems by William Wordsworth
Zen Poems edited by Peter Harris

Everyman’s Library continues to maintain its original commitment to publishing the most significant world literature in editions that reflect a tradition of fine bookmaking. Everyman’s Library pursues the highest standards, utilizing modern prepress, printing, and binding technologies to produce classically designed books printed on acid-free natural-cream-colored text paper and including Smyth-sewn, signatures, full-cloth cases with two-color case stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, and European-style half-round spines.]]> 255 Robert Burns 0307266168 Greg 4 poetry
Burns was very popular in his day, a kind of primitive chic. His verse was bawdy and rollicking in a Scottish dialect. It pays close attention to form.

For those who don't know, he is the author of the song Auld Lang Syne. ]]> 4.00 2006
author: Robert Burns
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/03/01
date added: 2019/10/01
shelves: poetry
review:
I love these little pocket poetry editions from Everyman's Library. They are a convenient size for commute travel. This particular edition would have 5 stars rather than 4 if the glossary of Scottish dialect were better.

Burns was very popular in his day, a kind of primitive chic. His verse was bawdy and rollicking in a Scottish dialect. It pays close attention to form.

For those who don't know, he is the author of the song Auld Lang Syne.
]]> 6146412 of forbidden knowledge revealed how to make powerful talismans and protective amulets, and provided charms and conjurations for healing illness, finding love, and warding off evil. But other books promised the power to control innocent victims, even to call up the devil. Davies traces the history of
this remarkably resilient and adaptable genre, from the ancient Middle East to modern America, offering a new perspective on the fundamental developments of western civilization over the past two thousand years. Grimoires shows the influence magic and magical writing has had on the cultures of the
world, richly demonstrating the role they have played in the spread of Christianity, the growth of literacy, and the influence of western traditions from colonial times to the present.]]> 380 Owen Davies 0199204519 Greg 4
This is not a documentary history, getting into the details of differences in manuscripts, provenance, etc. If that is what you are looking for, you will feel that the book is extremely tedious, recounting this or that witch trial, this or that churchman who had a magical library, this or that academic.
]]> 4.02 2009
author: Owen Davies
name: Greg
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/04
date added: 2019/06/04
shelves:
review:
This is a social history of the books of Western magic. Davies covers ground from late antiquity to the modern era. The main message of the book is that there is tremendous continuity in the documents, the appear over and over again through the ages, repurposed for different types of magic.

This is not a documentary history, getting into the details of differences in manuscripts, provenance, etc. If that is what you are looking for, you will feel that the book is extremely tedious, recounting this or that witch trial, this or that churchman who had a magical library, this or that academic.

]]> 1246872 Camping with the Prince is an incisive and entertaining record of Bass' travels that reveals a land unknown to most Westerners—not a dark continent but one with bright promise.]]> Thomas A. Bass 1559212063 Greg 4
It is hard to categorize this book. It is basically an account of field science by a hanger-on. It is sort of journalistic, but it is also a political screed about the evils of colonialism. It is informative for scientists who will be going into the field for the first time. It shows the challenges of doing science in the field. It also gives a view into the politics of Africa in the 25 years after decolonization (most French and British decolonization was in the 1960s, but Portuguese decolonization was contemporary with the book). The politics of victimization and socialism are well represented, being the politics of the educated classes in Africa.

Note: A whole bunch of the science and the politics is very stale. Its main value is as a historical artifact.
]]> 3.80 1990
author: Thomas A. Bass
name: Greg
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/04
date added: 2019/06/04
shelves:
review:
This book sat on my shelf for 29 years. I had originally bought it because the scientists I worked for at NASA were all reading it at the time. Being a student, I didn't have time to read it, when it was new.

It is hard to categorize this book. It is basically an account of field science by a hanger-on. It is sort of journalistic, but it is also a political screed about the evils of colonialism. It is informative for scientists who will be going into the field for the first time. It shows the challenges of doing science in the field. It also gives a view into the politics of Africa in the 25 years after decolonization (most French and British decolonization was in the 1960s, but Portuguese decolonization was contemporary with the book). The politics of victimization and socialism are well represented, being the politics of the educated classes in Africa.

Note: A whole bunch of the science and the politics is very stale. Its main value is as a historical artifact.

]]> 3525297 118 Yehezkel Dror 0527251402 Greg 4
Dror offers up a classification system and a set of ideal types (Weberian analysis) that places states on a continuum of craziness. Five axes of analysis yield ideal types of craziness from normal to extreme craziness (i.e., a 'counterrational' martyr state would be a truly crazy state).

If the book has a defect, it is that its language is extremely pedantic and laden with neologisms. It is also begins poorly with a catalog of 'fallacies' that actually aren't logical fallacies that the US military, diplomatic, and intelligence communities are guilty of.

The book is important in the 21st century precisely because it is presents some useful guidance towards analysis of conflict between states. North Korea is not a crazy state, although Iran is. It is also useful for self-reflection. Is the United States trending away from being a normal state or actually becoming a more normal state as the global war on terror winds down?]]> 4.00 1980
author: Yehezkel Dror
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/24
date added: 2019/05/24
shelves: international-relations, poli-sci
review:
This book addresses an important problem in strategy games (i.e., two-player zero-sum game theory, not board games): the problem of incommensurable utilities. States and quasi-states (e.g., the PLO) interacting in international system do not behave in objectively rational ways from the perspective of the other player in a game. This is an early attempt (1971) to cover ground that would later be covered in depth by Robert Jervis.

Dror offers up a classification system and a set of ideal types (Weberian analysis) that places states on a continuum of craziness. Five axes of analysis yield ideal types of craziness from normal to extreme craziness (i.e., a 'counterrational' martyr state would be a truly crazy state).

If the book has a defect, it is that its language is extremely pedantic and laden with neologisms. It is also begins poorly with a catalog of 'fallacies' that actually aren't logical fallacies that the US military, diplomatic, and intelligence communities are guilty of.

The book is important in the 21st century precisely because it is presents some useful guidance towards analysis of conflict between states. North Korea is not a crazy state, although Iran is. It is also useful for self-reflection. Is the United States trending away from being a normal state or actually becoming a more normal state as the global war on terror winds down?
]]> 91885 1 � In a Season of Calm Weather � (1957) � short story by Ray Bradbury
7 � A Medicine for Melancholy � (1959) � short story by Ray Bradbury
16 � The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit � non-genre � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
39 � Fever Dream � (1948) � short story by Ray Bradbury
46 � The Marriage Mender � (1954) � short story by Ray Bradbury
51 � The Town Where No One Got Off � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
59 � A Scent of Sarsaparilla � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
66 � The Headpiece � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
74 � The First Night of Lent � [The Irish Stories] � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury
81 � The Time of Going Away � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury
88 � All Summer in a Day � (1954) � short story by Ray Bradbury
94 � The Gift � (1952) � short story by Ray Bradbury
97 � The Great Collision of Monday Last � [The Irish Stories] � (1958) � short story by Ray Bradbury
104 � The Little Mice � (1955) � short story by Ray Bradbury
109 � The Shore Line at Sunset � (1959) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of The Shoreline at Sunset)
118 � The Day It Rained Forever � (1957) � short story by Ray Bradbury
129 � Chrysalis � (1946) � short story by Ray Bradbury
150 � Pillar of Fire � (1948) � novelette by Ray Bradbury
188 � Zero Hour � (1947) � short story by Ray Bradbury
198 � The Man � (1949) � short story by Ray Bradbury
210 � Time in Thy Flight � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
215 � The Pedestrian � (1951) � short story by Ray Bradbury
220 � Hail and Farewell � (1953) � short story by Ray Bradbury
228 � Invisible Boy � (1945) � short story by Ray Bradbury
237 � Come Into My Cellar � (1962) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!)
254 � The Million-Year Picnic � [The Martian Chronicles] � (1946) � short story by Ray Bradbury (variant of The Million Year Picnic)
264 � The Screaming Woman � [Green Town] � (1951) � short story by Ray Bradbury
278 � The Smile � (1952) � short story by Ray Bradbury
284 � Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed � (1949) � short story by Ray Bradbury
299 � The Trolley � [Dandelion Wine] � (1955) � short story by Ray Bradbury
303 � Icarus Montgolfier Wright � (1956) � short story by Ray Bradbury]]> 307 Ray Bradbury Greg 5 scifi 4.16 1998
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Greg
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2009/06/15
date added: 2019/04/20
shelves: scifi
review:
Ray Bradbury's writing peaked in the late 40's through the 1950's. This collection is material from the mid to late 1950's. It includes some of his most famous stories like, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit", "The Town Where No One Got Off", "Dark They Were, and Golden-eyed" and "All Summer in a Day." I rate this volume just after The October Country as one of the finest collections of Ray's short stories.
]]> 770967 This fascinating and provocative book presents the fundamentals of two-person game theory, a mathematical approach to understanding human behavior and decision-making, Developed from analysis of games of strategy such as chess, checkers, and Go, game theory has dramatic applications to the entire realm of human events, from politics, economics, and war, to environmental issues, business, social relationships, and even "the game of love." Typically, game theory deals with decisions in conflict situations.
Written by a noted expert in the field, this clear, non-technical volume introduces the theory of games in a way which brings the essentials into focus and keeps them there. In addition to lucid discussions of such standard topics as utilities, strategy, the game tree, and the game matrix, dominating strategy and minimax, negotiated and nonnegotiable games, and solving the two-person zero-sum game, the author includes a discussion of gaming theory, an important link between abstract game theory and an experimentally oriented behavioral science. Specific applications to social science have not been stressed, but the methodological relations between game theory, decision theory, and social science are emphasized throughout.
Although game theory employs a mathematical approach to conflict resolution, the present volume avoids all but the minimum of mathematical notation. Moreover, the reader will find only the mathematics of high school algebra and of very elementary analytic geometry, except for an occasional derivative. The result is an accessible, easy-to-follow treatment that will be welcomed by mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike.]]> 240 Anatol Rapoport 0486406865 Greg 3 mathematics 3.76 1966
author: Anatol Rapoport
name: Greg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2019/04/05
date added: 2019/04/05
shelves: mathematics
review:
This is a very dated book on game theory, but it does have the advantage of being easy to understand and provides some crucial algorithms for solving two-person games, both zero-sum, and mixed strategy games. It covers games against nature as well. It also has the advantage of being very short. I recommend this book over Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction as a basic short introductory text for non-mathematicians, like business majors and political science majors.
]]> 16073181
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms—violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others—exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims� bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteenth century and forward to our own times. Entire convents of nuns in French, Italian, and Spanish towns, 30 boys in an Amsterdam orphanage, a small group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts—these are among the instances of demon possession in the United States and throughout Europe that Brian Levack closely examines, taking into account the diverse interpretations of generations of theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, physicians, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and historians. Challenging the commonly held belief that possession signals physical or mental illness, the author argues that demoniacs and exorcists—consciously or not—are following their various religious cultures, and their performances can only be understood in those contexts.]]> 346 Brian P. Levack 0300114729 Greg 4
The author approaches the phenomenon of demonic possession not using the typical scholarly explanations: medical conditions, mental illness, faking. Instead he treats it as a social performance phenomenon. He traces the origins in the Gospels and early Christianity to the early modern era. What came before became the model or script for demonic possession in the early modern period. Basically he is applying the social performance anthropology of Victor Turner to the phenomenon.

His explanation for the prevalence in the early modern period was increased anxiety in European society as a consequence of the transition from the medieval to the modern and the reformation.

The reformation figures prominently for another reason. It was an effective marketing method for Catholicism against the upstart Protestant denominations. Protestantism rejected the efficacy of ritual exorcism, and focused on fasting and prayer. Catholic exorcism is a dramatic ritual and appears efficacious.

I am not totally sold on the anxiety theory. Other periods in European history were revolutionary without triggering epidemics of exorcisms. The causal path is not fully established to account for it under some conditions and not others.]]> 3.57 2013
author: Brian P. Levack
name: Greg
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/04/01
date added: 2019/04/01
shelves: religious-studies, anthropology
review:
This book is a skeptical scholarly treatment of the phenomenon of demonic possession in the early modern era (16th and 17th centuries) in Western Europe. It does not accept possession as real, magic as real, so reader beware. If you are looking for a sympathetic history this is not it.

The author approaches the phenomenon of demonic possession not using the typical scholarly explanations: medical conditions, mental illness, faking. Instead he treats it as a social performance phenomenon. He traces the origins in the Gospels and early Christianity to the early modern era. What came before became the model or script for demonic possession in the early modern period. Basically he is applying the social performance anthropology of Victor Turner to the phenomenon.

His explanation for the prevalence in the early modern period was increased anxiety in European society as a consequence of the transition from the medieval to the modern and the reformation.

The reformation figures prominently for another reason. It was an effective marketing method for Catholicism against the upstart Protestant denominations. Protestantism rejected the efficacy of ritual exorcism, and focused on fasting and prayer. Catholic exorcism is a dramatic ritual and appears efficacious.

I am not totally sold on the anxiety theory. Other periods in European history were revolutionary without triggering epidemics of exorcisms. The causal path is not fully established to account for it under some conditions and not others.
]]> 1031931 426 David A. Lake 0521680468 Greg 4 international-relations
The introductory chapter is worth the book. For those uninitiated in principal-agent theory, there is a useful summary of it. This is especially helpful for people who study international relations as opposed to political science or organizational behavior. Some of the essays are really just repackaging of prior research by the authors of those, such as Thompson's essay on the UN Security Council having value to great powers to signal intentions by constraining their options (which extends Ikenberry's work on IOs). This can be found in Thompson's classic paper on the subject.]]> 3.53 2006
author: David A. Lake
name: Greg
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2019/03/19
date added: 2019/03/19
shelves: international-relations
review:
This is a pretty good edited volume on the question of why states, especially with outside options, choose to delegate to international organizations. It is based on principal-agent theory that is used in other bureaucratic contexts to explain the why's and wherefore's of delegation to IOs, and the consequences of that delegation based on the type of IO involved--i.e., how much autonomy is given.

The introductory chapter is worth the book. For those uninitiated in principal-agent theory, there is a useful summary of it. This is especially helpful for people who study international relations as opposed to political science or organizational behavior. Some of the essays are really just repackaging of prior research by the authors of those, such as Thompson's essay on the UN Security Council having value to great powers to signal intentions by constraining their options (which extends Ikenberry's work on IOs). This can be found in Thompson's classic paper on the subject.
]]> 9694081

Hood traces how the main forms of blame avoidance manifest themselves in presentational and "spin" activity, the architecture of organizations, and the shaping of standard operating routines. He analyzes the scope and limits of blame avoidance, and he considers how it plays out in old and new areas, such as those offered by the digital age of websites and e-mail. Hood assesses the effects of this behavior, from high-level problems of democratic accountability trails going cold to the frustrations of dealing with organizations whose procedures seem to ensure that no one is responsible for anything.


Delving into the inner workings of complex institutions, The Blame Game proves how a better understanding of blame avoidance can improve the quality of modern governance, management, and organizational design.]]> 224 Christopher Hood 0691129959 Greg 4 poli-sci 3.20 2010
author: Christopher Hood
name: Greg
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2019/03/10
date added: 2019/03/10
shelves: poli-sci
review:
This book presents a typology of blame avoidance strategies used by politicians and bureaucracies. This is critical background reading in the literature of blame avoidance political behavior.
]]> 112510
New to this edition is an introduction by Robert L. Mack that examines the reasons for the novels enduring popularity, as well as the critical debates over whether it is a straightforward novel of sentiment or a satire on the social and economic inequalities of the period and the very literary conventions and morality it seems to embody. This edition also includes a new, up-to-date bibliography and expanded notes, and contains reprints of Arthur Friedman's authoritative Oxford English Novels text of the corrected first edition of 1766.]]> 197 Oliver Goldsmith 0192805126 Greg 3 3.48 1766
author: Oliver Goldsmith
name: Greg
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1766
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/10
date added: 2019/03/10
shelves:
review:
This is a short comedy of manners. It is a sitcom. It has its moments. It mainly has historical value and is sometimes on a 'great books' syllabus.
]]> 10721979 The Rule of Saint Benedict offers guidance about both the spiritual and organizational dimensions, from the loftiest to the lowliest, of monastic life. This new Latin–English edition has features of interest for first-time readers of the Rule as well as for scholars of medieval history and language.

The Latin text is a transcription of manuscript 914 of the Abbey of St. Gall (Switzerland), an early ninth-century copy regarded as the version that most closely reproduces Benedict's style. The saint’s idiom was informal, sometimes conversational, and heavily influenced by the spoken Latin of the sixth century CE. In the Rule his voice and thought processes come through in all their strength and humanity. Readers will find background to the monastic life in the notes. This volume also includes texts and translations of two letters that explain the origins of the St. Gall version as well as an index to all the translated materials.]]> 304 Benedict of Nursia 0674053044 Greg 0 to-read 4.56 530
author: Benedict of Nursia
name: Greg
average rating: 4.56
book published: 530
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30013
Hari Seldon has come to Trantor to deliver his paper on psychohistory, his remarkable theory of prediction. Little does the young Outworld mathematician know that he has already sealed his fate and the fate of humanity. For Hari possesses the prophetic power that makes him the most wanted man in the Empire. . .the man who holds the key to the future—an apocalyptic power to be known forever after as the Foundation.]]> 464 Isaac Asimov Greg 3 scifi 4.16 1988
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Greg
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2019/02/05
date added: 2019/02/05
shelves: scifi
review:
I have to say that I enjoyed the world-building and adventure of the book but the last 20 pages ruined it. I could not suspend my disbelief. I can't say more without a spoiler. The book covers Hari Seldon's life after he presents an academic paper with a mathematical proof showing that psychohistory is possible.
]]> 1401439 784 Louis E. Boone 0324540523 Greg 2 business 3.67 1979
author: Louis E. Boone
name: Greg
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1979
rating: 2
read at: 2008/07/21
date added: 2019/01/21
shelves: business
review:
This is a lame text, suitable only for 17 year olds. No business textbook should trouble itself with questions of business etiquette and how to do a resume. It is essentially a comprehensive review of business vocabulary and basic principles. The most annoying thing about it appears that the publisher or authors were getting kickbacks from the companies profiled, since the profiles read more like commercials.
]]> 588497
When the Sirians couldn't find the capsule, they kidnapped Lucky and Bigman, bringing them to their secret military base on Titan. There the arrogant Sirian commander offered Lucky a terrible choice: turn traitor to Earth—or Bigman would die!

It was not an idle threat.]]> 144 Paul French 0450019993 Greg 3 scifi 3.74 1958
author: Paul French
name: Greg
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at: 1987/12/01
date added: 2019/01/07
shelves: scifi
review:

]]> 1471143 256 Michael J. Crotty 0761961062 Greg 3 poli-sci
Perhaps the most important elements you will learn from the book is that research in all traditions since philosophical pragmatism (Pierce, James, Dewey) and Marxism, which birthed the main paradigms, are implicitly or explicitly about affecting social change using research products. The book is strongest discussing paradigms from pragmatism and the Marxist legacy as interpreted in the Frankfurt School. It is weakest in discussing post-modernism.

Note: positivism, whether post-positivism, or not, gets a pretty bad rap in the book, which is probably true in some social science fields but not others. Positivism is utterly dead in anthropology, and there a huge division between behavioral and evolutionary/genetic psychologists and social psychologists. Positivism is still a dominant paradigm in political science in the United States, based on the number of quantitative papers published. ]]> 3.63 1998
author: Michael J. Crotty
name: Greg
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/26
date added: 2018/11/26
shelves: poli-sci
review:
This book is a decent introduction to the ideology of the social sciences. It provides, as the author puts it, a scaffolding that permits a new researcher to understand their own frame of reference and the frame of reference of others in the social sciences. It is not complete by any means and needs to be supplemented with other texts, but it does deal in outline with the various claims made by different philosophical traditions. The book starts with positivism and uses it as a foil for the rest of the book. It covers in outline all the major movements you will find in contemporary social science.

Perhaps the most important elements you will learn from the book is that research in all traditions since philosophical pragmatism (Pierce, James, Dewey) and Marxism, which birthed the main paradigms, are implicitly or explicitly about affecting social change using research products. The book is strongest discussing paradigms from pragmatism and the Marxist legacy as interpreted in the Frankfurt School. It is weakest in discussing post-modernism.

Note: positivism, whether post-positivism, or not, gets a pretty bad rap in the book, which is probably true in some social science fields but not others. Positivism is utterly dead in anthropology, and there a huge division between behavioral and evolutionary/genetic psychologists and social psychologists. Positivism is still a dominant paradigm in political science in the United States, based on the number of quantitative papers published.
]]> 31624584
The book also covers the more recent history of witchcraft and magic, from the Enlightenment to the present, exploring the rise of modern magic, the anthropology of magic around the globe, and finally the cinematic portrayal of witches and magicians, from The Wizard of Oz to Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Harry Potter.
]]> 320 Owen Davies 019960844X Greg 3 anthropology
Then the beginnings of humanism and scientific study happens at the end of the middle ages and scholarly elite, who study of ancient magical texts in translation from Arabic translations of originals, set the stage for the emergence of a rarefied magic that we see in our new religious movements and art. The persecution of witches by the Church is tied to institutional responses to heresy--e.g., the Cathar heresy. Doctrinal changes enabled the simultaneous study of high magic by clerics (exorcisisms, conjuring demons and controlling them with the name of God, etc.) and at the same time set the stage for persecution of women for alternative folk practices. (At the same time, it is abundantly clear that the Church itself had trouble getting convictions in witchcraft, because the claims were too fantastical.)

Fast forward to the modern era and we have the emergence of modern magic (Crowley, et al.) and the study of magic (religion) anthropologically. Modern magic is a set of new religious movements in this context. I would go further and apply Geertz's concept of ideologization of religion and say that modern magic is actually a form of scripturalism in response to modernity. The modern wiccans, et al. are really constructing based on texts produced in the high middle ages, a more "authentic" form of ancient religion, which of course never really existed, but assuages alienation caused by modernity.

Magic and witchcraft is a pretty narrow field of folklore studies in academia, and it is reflected in a spare selection of works in the bibliography. The book also is not footnoted, so it is difficult to know scholarly background for points made. For these reasons I knocked off a star.

The book is lavishly illustrated. What you will not find is how to practice magic. For those looking for an introduction to Wicca, look elsewhere. This is a dispassionate scholarly treatment of the subject. ]]> 3.84 2017
author: Owen Davies
name: Greg
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/26
date added: 2018/11/26
shelves: anthropology
review:
This is an eminently readable history of magic. Like so much scholarship in the humanities since the 1980s, the basic interpretive frame is power-who has it and who doesn't. The book begins with an overview of ancient religious practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Athens, and Rome, that is prelude to the story that will emerge. Popular religion becomes magic when it is defined by organized religion as alien (what begins in ancient Athens, since magic is religion practiced by foreigners by definition). Fast forward to late antiquity and the middle ages, and in Europe magic is all that folk religion prohibited by the Church, even as the Church domesticates certain rituals and ceremonies.

Then the beginnings of humanism and scientific study happens at the end of the middle ages and scholarly elite, who study of ancient magical texts in translation from Arabic translations of originals, set the stage for the emergence of a rarefied magic that we see in our new religious movements and art. The persecution of witches by the Church is tied to institutional responses to heresy--e.g., the Cathar heresy. Doctrinal changes enabled the simultaneous study of high magic by clerics (exorcisisms, conjuring demons and controlling them with the name of God, etc.) and at the same time set the stage for persecution of women for alternative folk practices. (At the same time, it is abundantly clear that the Church itself had trouble getting convictions in witchcraft, because the claims were too fantastical.)

Fast forward to the modern era and we have the emergence of modern magic (Crowley, et al.) and the study of magic (religion) anthropologically. Modern magic is a set of new religious movements in this context. I would go further and apply Geertz's concept of ideologization of religion and say that modern magic is actually a form of scripturalism in response to modernity. The modern wiccans, et al. are really constructing based on texts produced in the high middle ages, a more "authentic" form of ancient religion, which of course never really existed, but assuages alienation caused by modernity.

Magic and witchcraft is a pretty narrow field of folklore studies in academia, and it is reflected in a spare selection of works in the bibliography. The book also is not footnoted, so it is difficult to know scholarly background for points made. For these reasons I knocked off a star.

The book is lavishly illustrated. What you will not find is how to practice magic. For those looking for an introduction to Wicca, look elsewhere. This is a dispassionate scholarly treatment of the subject.
]]> 550610 144 Robert H. Bates 0393974014 Greg 4 poli-sci 3.76 2001
author: Robert H. Bates
name: Greg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2018/11/21
date added: 2018/11/21
shelves: poli-sci
review:
This is one of those key texts in political economy and economic history. It advances a theory of coevolution of institutions that support economic growth. Of course the focus is on why market economics emerged in Europe and England and how it was intertwined with the political institutions that developed along with it. The book then turns to the question of development in the Third World. There is a lot of literature that reasons analogically from Tilly's theory of state formation to say that the civil wars of the Third World are merely a process of state consolidation and will settle down into a stable configuration of states eventually (for example, Mohammad Ayoob has advocated this position). Bates says, not so fast. The reason is that international institutions (e.g., humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, etc.) and political inversion (e.g., kleptocratic elites) actually work against that outcome.
]]> 1622716
UN peacekeeping disasters in the 1990s occurred because world leaders failed to recognize the rules and precedents that allowed traditional peacekeeping to succeed during the Cold War. Although failed peacekeeping operations damaged the peacekeeping concept, it can still serve as a viable tool to promote international security and promote American interests abroad if used in the right circumstances. Carefully researched and supported by over two dozen maps, charts, and photos, Fleitz boldly challenges dozens of assumptions of the foreign policy establishment about the nature of the Cold War, post-Cold War peacekeeping, and 1990s peacekeeping deployments.]]> Frederick H. Fleitz Jr. 0275973670 Greg 3 phd
There are some quibbles with his analysis. For example, he sets too high of a bar for success in Cambodia (the complete disarmament of the Khmer Rouge), when most scholars consider it a qualified success. The same is true of East Timor. It is considered a qualified success by most, but Jett moves that into the failed column. Ditto Mozambique, since the full mandate was not achieved, like de-mining, when most scholars consider it a success.

This is an important perspective to read in order to cover the spectrum of scholarship on peacekeeping (there is a large contingent of scholars in the field who are nostalgic for the type of mission seen during the Cold War--truce supervision between states), but it is not the final word.]]> 3.17 2002
author: Frederick H. Fleitz Jr.
name: Greg
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2018/10/10
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: phd
review:
This is a comprehensive indictment of peacekeeping in the early 90s. It is a series of qualitative case studies on individual missions. The author is highly critical of peacekeeping beyond the traditional interposition missions and unarmed observer missions, since the use of force to deter spoilers, and humanitarian interventions violates the holy trinity of peacekeeping: neutrality, consent of the parties, and minimum use of force only in self defense, which were the terms under which the first peacekeeping mission, UNEF, deployed during the Suez Crisis.

There are some quibbles with his analysis. For example, he sets too high of a bar for success in Cambodia (the complete disarmament of the Khmer Rouge), when most scholars consider it a qualified success. The same is true of East Timor. It is considered a qualified success by most, but Jett moves that into the failed column. Ditto Mozambique, since the full mandate was not achieved, like de-mining, when most scholars consider it a success.

This is an important perspective to read in order to cover the spectrum of scholarship on peacekeeping (there is a large contingent of scholars in the field who are nostalgic for the type of mission seen during the Cold War--truce supervision between states), but it is not the final word.
]]> 1870575 254 Dennis C. Jett 0312239424 Greg 4 phd
While some reasons for the success of ONUMOZ were particular, such as a famine and withdrawal of South African support after the Apartheid regime fell, which forced the Renamo rebellion to agree to demobilize, he mainly highlights the following for success: large deployments to increase security (ONUMOZ was a huge armed peacekeeper deployment, UNAVEM II was a small unarmed observer mission), super power support for the peace settlement (which withdrew external support for the conflicting parties), and skilled Special Representatives of the Secretary General running the operations. Angola was run by a British UN bureaucrat who was a lifer and peter principled into position, who Jett describes as a spectator to events, whereas Mozambique was run by a stilled politician tapped to run it, who was skilled at negotiating a successful outcome and adapting to conditions on the ground rather than taking orders from UN headquarters in New York. That last aspect was highlighted as well in the case study done by Lise Howard in UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars.]]> 3.17 2000
author: Dennis C. Jett
name: Greg
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2018/08/10
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: phd
review:
Jett wrote one of the best qualitative studies of peacekeeping effectiveness. It is well organized and defensible in its conclusions. He selected two cases of multi-dimmensional peacekeeping similar in many respects (decades long civil wars, super powers intervening on both sides, and lusophone countries) and deduces why one failed (UNAVEM II in Angola) and one succeeded (ONUMOZ in Mozambique).

While some reasons for the success of ONUMOZ were particular, such as a famine and withdrawal of South African support after the Apartheid regime fell, which forced the Renamo rebellion to agree to demobilize, he mainly highlights the following for success: large deployments to increase security (ONUMOZ was a huge armed peacekeeper deployment, UNAVEM II was a small unarmed observer mission), super power support for the peace settlement (which withdrew external support for the conflicting parties), and skilled Special Representatives of the Secretary General running the operations. Angola was run by a British UN bureaucrat who was a lifer and peter principled into position, who Jett describes as a spectator to events, whereas Mozambique was run by a stilled politician tapped to run it, who was skilled at negotiating a successful outcome and adapting to conditions on the ground rather than taking orders from UN headquarters in New York. That last aspect was highlighted as well in the case study done by Lise Howard in UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars.
]]> 15209 144 Tom Wolfe 0553380621 Greg 4 poli-sci
Radical Chic is a tour de force of gonzo journalism. The background: Leonard Bernstein, the famous conductor, hosted a fundraising party for the Black Panthers in his Park Avenue co-op. Tom Wolfe then executes a hilarious piece of ethnographic research to explain why New York high society would hobnob with Maoist black separatists, who would if they could dispossess high society of everything. Along the way, he explains the absolute necessity of servants (and the challenge posed of the social norm to not have colored servants) and a summer home, why the left wing politics of Jews never moderated as they became wealthy, how New York high society turns over approximately every 40 years with new leading families emerging, and the editorial position of the New York Times.

Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers transports us to San Francisco, the San Francisco of the Mr. Tibbs movies, beset by class and racial strife. Here again with participant-observer ethnography, Wolfe in hilarious fashion explains the genetic relationship between anti-poverty programs, community organizing, and racial violence. Along the way, he describes in cultural anthropological terms the key figure in a government bureaucracy, the flak catcher. ]]> 3.81 1970
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Greg
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2018/11/12
date added: 2018/11/12
shelves: poli-sci
review:
Disclosure: I was born the year before Radical Chic appeared. I am not a baby boomer who lived the period, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the journalism.

Radical Chic is a tour de force of gonzo journalism. The background: Leonard Bernstein, the famous conductor, hosted a fundraising party for the Black Panthers in his Park Avenue co-op. Tom Wolfe then executes a hilarious piece of ethnographic research to explain why New York high society would hobnob with Maoist black separatists, who would if they could dispossess high society of everything. Along the way, he explains the absolute necessity of servants (and the challenge posed of the social norm to not have colored servants) and a summer home, why the left wing politics of Jews never moderated as they became wealthy, how New York high society turns over approximately every 40 years with new leading families emerging, and the editorial position of the New York Times.

Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers transports us to San Francisco, the San Francisco of the Mr. Tibbs movies, beset by class and racial strife. Here again with participant-observer ethnography, Wolfe in hilarious fashion explains the genetic relationship between anti-poverty programs, community organizing, and racial violence. Along the way, he describes in cultural anthropological terms the key figure in a government bureaucracy, the flak catcher.
]]> 20467944
Such unprecedented deployments show that peacekeeping is the most widely tolerated use of force in international affairs today. Far from signaling progress towards global governance, Legions of Peace argues that UN peacekeeping must be understood in the context of continuing economic inequality and the uneven distribution of global power. Philip Cunliffe contends that through UN peacekeeping Western states have used their domination of international institutions to harness the armed forces of the global South. In so doing, Western states seek to reduce the political and military costs of hegemony and stave off their inevitable, long-term decline in power. This strategy has profound political implications. Instead of transcending the "scourge of war," by globalizing peacekeeping the UN has made peace dependent on the extensive and sustained deployment of armed force--a development that bodes ill for the future.]]> 256 Philip Cunliffe 184904290X Greg 5 international-relations, phd
His thesis is that peacekeeping in post-Cold War conflicts, which are almost entirely civil wars, is a form of non-territorial imperialism. The United Nations functions to impose a Westphalian and liberal peace on the conflicts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Peacekeeping operations are used to manage conflict so that it does not upset the international order established after the Second World War. Essentially the UN uses illiberal means (military coercion) to achieve liberal ends (liberal democracies), because democratic peace theory, the idea that democracies do not war with one another, is a form of secular millenarianism.

That the bulk of peacekeepers come from the Global South (8 of the 10 largest troop contributing countries were former British or French colonies) is explained as a historical continuity with the experience of imperial policing during empire. For example, the army in Kenya was formed from the African Rifles that deployed all over the British empire to fight small wars. The British Indian Army was likewise deployed all over the empire, which explains why India and Pakistan are two of the largest contributors to peacekeeping operations. They staff peacekeeping operations because it is in their DNA.

Peacekeepers from the developing world are a bargain in both blood and treasure for the Americans and Europeans on the UN Security Council since they can be maintained in the field at a fourth the cost of a developed world soldier. This is the same reason why the Europeans maintained colonial troops for colonial policing. They were cheaper than forces from the metropole.]]> 4.67 2014
author: Philip Cunliffe
name: Greg
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/10
date added: 2018/11/10
shelves: international-relations, phd
review:
This is a truly excellent critical take on why peacekeeping in the post war period is dominated by peacekeepers from the Global South. While it fits in the critical tradition of international relations, this is not a typical exercise is navel gazing and phantasmagorical logical absurdities that characterized "research" labeled "critical" in the social sciences. Nor is it a typical exercise in third world solidarity that characterizes the research in neo-colonialism.

His thesis is that peacekeeping in post-Cold War conflicts, which are almost entirely civil wars, is a form of non-territorial imperialism. The United Nations functions to impose a Westphalian and liberal peace on the conflicts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Peacekeeping operations are used to manage conflict so that it does not upset the international order established after the Second World War. Essentially the UN uses illiberal means (military coercion) to achieve liberal ends (liberal democracies), because democratic peace theory, the idea that democracies do not war with one another, is a form of secular millenarianism.

That the bulk of peacekeepers come from the Global South (8 of the 10 largest troop contributing countries were former British or French colonies) is explained as a historical continuity with the experience of imperial policing during empire. For example, the army in Kenya was formed from the African Rifles that deployed all over the British empire to fight small wars. The British Indian Army was likewise deployed all over the empire, which explains why India and Pakistan are two of the largest contributors to peacekeeping operations. They staff peacekeeping operations because it is in their DNA.

Peacekeepers from the developing world are a bargain in both blood and treasure for the Americans and Europeans on the UN Security Council since they can be maintained in the field at a fourth the cost of a developed world soldier. This is the same reason why the Europeans maintained colonial troops for colonial policing. They were cheaper than forces from the metropole.
]]> 494164 Following the Equator
So begins this classic piece of travel writing, brimming with Twain's celebrated brand of ironic, tongue-in-cheek humor. Written just before the turn of the century, the book recounts a lecture tour in which he circumnavigated the globe via steamship, including stops at the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, India, South Africa and elsewhere.
View the world through the eyes of the celebrated author as he describes a rich range of experiences � visiting a leper colony in Hawaii, shark fishing in Australia, tiger hunting, diamond mining in South Africa, and riding the rails in India, an activity Twain enjoyed immensely as suggested by this description of a steep descent in a hand-car:
"The road fell sharply down in front of us and went corkscrewing in and out around the crags and precipices, down, down, forever down, suggesting nothing so exactly or so uncomfortably as a crooked toboggan slide with no end to it. . . . I had previously had but one sensation like the shock of that departure, and that was the gaspy shock that took my breath away the first time that I was discharged from the summit of a toboggan slide. But in both instances the sensation was pleasurable � intensely so; it was a sudden and immense exaltation, a mixed ecstasy of deadly fright and unimaginable joy. I believe that this combination makes the perfection of human delight."
A wealth of similarly revealing observations enhances this account, along with perceptive descriptions and discussions of people, climate, flora and fauna, indigenous cultures, religion, customs, politics, food, and many other topics. Despite its jocular tone, this book has a serious thread running through it, recording Twain's observations of the mistreatments and miseries of mankind. Enhanced by over 190 illustrations, including 173 photographs, this paperback edition � the only one avai1able � will be welcomed by all admirers of Mark Twain or classic travel books.]]> 712 Mark Twain 0486261131 Greg 4 3.96 1897
author: Mark Twain
name: Greg
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1897
rating: 4
read at: 2018/09/10
date added: 2018/11/10
shelves:
review:
This is a really fun romp around the world with Mark Twain. His adventures in Australia and India are priceless. This is also the source of so many quotes from "puddin' head Wilson's new calendar".
]]> 25655119
Traces the historical development of peace operations from their origins in the early 20th century through the development of modern peacebuilding missions and multiple simultaneous peace operations. Tracks changes over time in the size, mission and organization of peace operations. Analyses different organizational, financial, and troop provisions for peace operations, as well as assessing alternatives. Lays out criteria for evaluating peace operations and details the conditions under which such operations are successful.
Drawing on a wide range of examples from those between Israel and her neighbours to more recent operations in Bosnia, Somalia, Darfur, East Timor, and the Congo, this new edition brings together the body of scholarly research on peace operations to address those concerns. It will be an indispensable guide for students, practitioners and general readers wanting to broaden their knowledge of the possibilities and limits of peace operations today.]]> 258 Paul F. Diehl Greg 0 to-read, phd 4.00 2008
author: Paul F. Diehl
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/14
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 28528690 C.P. Snow 1139196944 Greg 5 philosophy, poli-sci 4.29 1959
author: C.P. Snow
name: Greg
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at: 2018/06/07
date added: 2018/07/25
shelves: philosophy, poli-sci
review:
Five stars because this is a classic example of a common argument: as knowledge and knowledge production has become more and more specialized, there is an unbridgeable gulf between the arts and humanities on one side and the sciences on the other. The book is basically an attack on any epistemological position other than positivism. The author's test of whether an intellectual can rightly call him/herself an intellectual is whether they can explain the second law of thermodynamics is frankly condescending. That said, it is really true. One reason why politics is so shrill in the United States today is that activists are unable to access the policy making machinery of government without engineering public moral outrage. Government is now exceedingly technocratic and beholden to the social science outlook that unless an activist can master the literature in a given policy area, they are excluded from debate. You have to either take the think tank advocacy research route or the community organizing route.
]]> 688348
Amid his detailed introductory and explanatory notes for this text, Evans-Wentz also reveals compelling similarities between the life and thought of Milarepa and those of Jesus, Gandhi, and "saints...in ancient China, or India, or Babylonia, or Egypt, or Rome, or in our own epoch." In composing this translation from the original Tibetan, the late L=ama Kazi Dawa-Samdup, who was Evans-Wentz's guru for many years, aimed to show Western readers "one of our great teachers as he actually lived...much of which is couched in the words of his own mouth, and the remainder in the words of his disciple Rechung, who knew him in the flesh." For this third edition, Donald S. Lopez, author of Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West, has written a critical foreword that updates and contextualizes this crucial part of Evans-Wentz's scholarship within the yoga tradition.
]]> 346 Tsangnyön Heruka 0195133137 Greg 5 buddhism, mysticism 4.59 1488
author: Tsangnyön Heruka
name: Greg
average rating: 4.59
book published: 1488
rating: 5
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2018/07/13
shelves: buddhism, mysticism
review:
This text assumes an understanding of Buddhist doctrine.
]]> 16182409 important, so quickly, and that touches so many, that remains so poorly understood.

In Cybersecurity and What Everyone Needs to Know® , New York Times best-selling author P. W. Singer and noted cyber expert Allan Friedman team up to provide the kind of easy-to-read, yet deeply informative resource book that has been missing on this crucial issue of 21st century life. Written in a lively, accessible style, filled with engaging stories and illustrative anecdotes, the book is structured around the key question areas of cyberspace and its how it all works, why it all matters, and what can we do? Along the way, they take readers on a tour of the important (and entertaining) issues and characters of cybersecurity, from the "Anonymous" hacker group and the Stuxnet computer virus to the new cyber units of the Chinese and U.S. militaries. Cybersecurity and What Everyone Needs to Know® is the definitive account on the subject for us all, which comes not a moment too soon.

What Everyone Needs to Know® is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.]]> 320 P.W. Singer 0199918112 Greg 4
The book is a primer for non-technical policy makers. It is broken into three parts, each laid out in a FAQ type format. The first part sets a foundation of knowledge in the history of computers, networking, and the Internet and how the Internet works at a high level. It then goes into some basic concepts of information security. Being technical, I was frustrated with how things were simplified, but they have to be for the target non-technical audience. The second part deals with the types of conflict in cyberspace and how analogies from real warfare are applied and misapplied to understand the cyber domain. There is a wealth of stories of cyber attacks in the book. The third part is a catalog of policy prescriptions.

The book's main weakness is that it is completely unfootnoted, which is maddening. I know the papers and conference presentations that quotes are drawn from and to not see them properly footnoted is a problem for using the book in an academic setting. Otherwise, it would have been a good choice for a lower division class.]]> 3.83 2013
author: P.W. Singer
name: Greg
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/07
date added: 2018/06/07
shelves:
review:
Caveat: I work in the field and have been in computer security for two decades. I read the book to see if I would use it as a textbook for a class on cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare.

The book is a primer for non-technical policy makers. It is broken into three parts, each laid out in a FAQ type format. The first part sets a foundation of knowledge in the history of computers, networking, and the Internet and how the Internet works at a high level. It then goes into some basic concepts of information security. Being technical, I was frustrated with how things were simplified, but they have to be for the target non-technical audience. The second part deals with the types of conflict in cyberspace and how analogies from real warfare are applied and misapplied to understand the cyber domain. There is a wealth of stories of cyber attacks in the book. The third part is a catalog of policy prescriptions.

The book's main weakness is that it is completely unfootnoted, which is maddening. I know the papers and conference presentations that quotes are drawn from and to not see them properly footnoted is a problem for using the book in an academic setting. Otherwise, it would have been a good choice for a lower division class.
]]> 34272701 With his trademark blend of political history, social science, economics, and pop culture, two-time NYT bestselling author, syndicated columnist, National Review senior editor, and American Enterprise Institute fellow Jonah Goldberg makes the timely case that America and other democracies are in peril as they lose the will to defend the values and institutions that sustain freedom and prosperity. Instead we are surrendering to populism, nationalism and other forms of tribalism.

Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history--in 18th century England when we accidentally discovered the miracle of liberal democratic capitalism.

As Americans we are doubly blessed that those radical ideas were written into the Constitution, laying the groundwork for our uniquely prosperous society:
- Our rights come from God not from the government.
- The government belongs to us; we do not belong to the government.
- The individual is sovereign. We are all captains of our own souls.
- The fruits of our labors belong to us.

In the last few decades, these political virtues have been turned into vices. As we are increasingly taught to view our traditions as a system of oppression, exploitation and "white privilege," the principles of liberty and the rule of law are under attack from left and right.

At a moment when authoritarianism, tribalism, identity politics, nationalism, and cults of personality are rotting our democracy from within, Goldberg exposes the West's suicidal tendencies on both sides of the ideological aisle. For the West to survive, we must renew our sense of gratitude for what our civilization has given us and rediscover the ideals that led us out of the bloody muck of the past - or back to the muck we will go.

Suicide is painless, liberty takes work.]]> 0 Jonah Goldberg 0525498788 Greg 5 poli-sci 4.01 2018
author: Jonah Goldberg
name: Greg
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/06/07
date added: 2018/06/07
shelves: poli-sci
review:
This book is having a major impact on political discourse now (May-June 2018). How many times have you seen the terms "tribe" or "tribal" in print or mentioned on TV/radio? Spoiler alert: The basic thesis of the book: Western civilization is abnormal, when approached from the perspective of evolutionary biology. While there are not comprehensive accounts for why it happened (there is some truth in all claims from Weber to North) but Western civilization emerged in the late 16th century. Liberalism co-evolved with industrialization. The Western ethos and worldview (in the technical anthropological sense--cf. Clifford Geertz's The Interpretation of Cultures) is contrary to human nature which evolved my natural selection over millennia as "semi-hairless apes in small bands foraged and fought over food". Thus, any anti-liberal political movement, whether it is identity politics on the Left or nationalism on the Right, is merely a reassertion of human nature's need to tribal affiliation. Thus, liberalism is in fact very fragile and not some Hegelian culmination of History with a capital H, but just as likely to collapse or at least regress, not progress, precisely because it is at odds with human nature.
]]> 444944 287 E.E. "Doc" Smith 1882968093 Greg 3 3.64 1934
author: E.E. "Doc" Smith
name: Greg
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1934
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2018/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 275420 510 Stathis N. Kalyvas 0521670047 Greg 4 international-relations, phd
A great challenge is that denunciation is often for local reasons (feuds, etc.) rather than part of the master cleavage characterizing the war. It can be a challenge for authorities. The master cleavage ends up becoming a master narrative with little to do with the real reason why a person denounces another. ]]> 4.19 2002
author: Stathis N. Kalyvas
name: Greg
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/07
date added: 2018/05/07
shelves: international-relations, phd
review:
This is an important study of the reasons for variation in violence in civil wars. Crucial to the model is the political economy of defection. Violence tends to be indiscriminate when a combatant is unable to control a territory, because the desire to to use punitive actions to force population compliance (or force migration). Violence becomes more discriminate when control is higher. The key to defeating a combatant in an unconventional war is to elicit civilian cooperation with you. You want the populace denouncing guerrillas and sympathizers. Thus violence needs to appear discriminate so as not to alienate potential sympathizers. When an area is contested, paradoxically violence against civilians is at a minimum, since neither side want to alienate potential sympathizers.

A great challenge is that denunciation is often for local reasons (feuds, etc.) rather than part of the master cleavage characterizing the war. It can be a challenge for authorities. The master cleavage ends up becoming a master narrative with little to do with the real reason why a person denounces another.
]]> 1363259
Walter argues that for negotiations to succeed it is not enough for the opposing sides to resolve the underlying issues behind a civil war. Instead the combatants must clear the much higher hurdle of designing credible guarantees on the terms of agreement--something that is difficult without outside assistance. Examining conflicts from Greece to Laos, China to Columbia, Bosnia to Rwanda, Walter confirms just how crucial the prospect of third-party security guarantees and effective power-sharing pacts can be--and that adversaries do, in fact, consider such factors in deciding whether to negotiate or fight. While taking many other variables into account and acknowledging that third parties must also weigh the costs and benefits of involvement in civil war resolution, this study reveals not only how peace is possible, but probable.]]> 216 Barbara F. Walter 0691089310 Greg 4 phd, international-relations 3.71 2001
author: Barbara F. Walter
name: Greg
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/07
date added: 2018/05/07
shelves: phd, international-relations
review:
This is a larger treatment of her article "The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement". The findings indicate that security guarantees are the crucial determinant of a successful settlement of a civil war. It relies on rational choice theories of conflict and is heavy on game theory. The quantitative analysis seems to support the theory that in the absence of third-party security guarantees, civil wars are unlikely to end.
]]> 9862345 1200 George P. Shultz 1451623119 Greg 0 to-read 3.91 1993
author: George P. Shultz
name: Greg
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 22812709
Sardanis was a minister at the heart of the government and later a highly successful entrepreneur. As a friend and colleague of many of the most prominent names in post-independence Zambia � from the presidencies of founding leader Kenneth Kaunda to the incumbent Michael Sata � he uses his unique eyewitness experience to provide an inside view of a country in transition. He looks at the highs and lows of Zambia's political a purposeful beginning followed by many blunders; confusion, at times bordering on chaos, interspersed with flashes of sensible action and good work.

This book provides a detailed examination of the major events in Zambia's history since independence and their effect on the country's development and progress, based on Sardanis's in-depth knowledge of Zambia and its people and the inner workings of its government.]]> 336 Andrew Sardanis 1780768222 Greg 0 currently-reading 3.69 2014
author: Andrew Sardanis
name: Greg
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/04/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 352781 498 Jack McDevitt 0441012108 Greg 3 scifi 3.85 2003
author: Jack McDevitt
name: Greg
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/29
date added: 2018/04/29
shelves: scifi
review:
I didn't care for the direction of the series. It was too realistic in its depiction of institutional decay. I read Sci Fi to be uplifted not presented with a downer.
]]> 16926360
The first part of the study offers an in-depth assessment of the military cultural preferences and characteristics of the British and American militaries. It shows that Britain's geography, its regimental system, and a long history of imperial policing have helped embed a small-war predilection in British military culture. This distinguishes it from American military culture, which has exhibited a preference for the big-war paradigm since the second half of the 19th century. The second part of the book examines how cultural preferences influenced the conduct of operations and the development of the first post-Cold War doctrine for peace operations.]]> 284 Robert M Cassidy 1282410199 Greg 3 phd 3.00 2004
author: Robert M Cassidy
name: Greg
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/24
date added: 2018/04/24
shelves: phd
review:
This is a mid-90s book on peacekeeping. It uses two cases, the British Army experience in Bosnia (UNFROFOR) and the US Army experience in Somalia (UNOSOM II), to show how organizational culture determines doctrine for military operations other than war and peacekeeping. The British Army, with a past rooted in colonial policing and the regimental system, is much better equipped to do peacekeeping, than the US Army with its history rooted in total war during the Civil War, Clausewitz and Jomini, and failure in Vietnam, plus an organizational structure around a division, that leaves the US Army unable to conduct peacekeeping effectively.
]]> 2268187 418 Lise Morjé Howard 0521707676 Greg 4 phd 3.93 2007
author: Lise Morjé Howard
name: Greg
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2018/04/24
date added: 2018/04/24
shelves: phd
review:
This is an unusual book on peacekeeping in civil wars in that it focuses on the few positive case studies instead of dwelling on the numerous failures. The key to success according to Howard is the peacekeeping operation's capacity for institutional learning in the field.
]]> 4600490 225 Thomas G. Weiss 1555875270 Greg 4 phd, international-relations 4.50 1995
author: Thomas G. Weiss
name: Greg
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/10
date added: 2018/01/31
shelves: phd, international-relations
review:
This is an important book in the history of theory about third party intervention in civil war. It is an edited volume broken into three sections: history, theory, and case studies. It generally dwells on the failures of the early 1990s and serves as a backdrop to the UN Secretariat's An Agenda for Peace.
]]> 790171 Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure - a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.

On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a balsa log raft. After three months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, whales, and sharks, they sighted land - the Polynesian island of Puka Puka.

Translated into over sixty languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage - a magnificent saga of men against the sea.]]> 240 Thor Heyerdahl 0671726528 Greg 4 anthropology 4.15 1948
author: Thor Heyerdahl
name: Greg
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1948
rating: 4
read at: 2017/12/31
date added: 2018/01/31
shelves: anthropology
review:
This is a great adventure story and a testament to the determination of an amateur anthropologist to prove his theory of Polynesian ethnic origins (they came originally from Peru). I have no idea what the scholarly consensus these days is, but the author constructed a raft with the technology available at the time and sailed it with a crew across the Pacific. Pretty amazing.
]]> 433797
The first edition of Defeat Into Victory , published in 1956, was an immediate sensation selling 20,000 copies within a few days. This is an updated version with a new introduction by David W. Hogan Jr.]]> 616 William Slim 0815410220 Greg 5 international-relations 4.37 1956
author: William Slim
name: Greg
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/31
date added: 2018/01/31
shelves: international-relations
review:
This is probably the finest battlefield memoir. I began reading this book because one of my relatives had been in theater during World War II. Slim is critical of himself. Most memoirs are hit pieces against rivals and puff pieces regarding the author. This book is far from it. I highly recommend how an under-resourced Anglo-Colonial-American-Chinese force handled defeat, regrouped and rearmed and then successfully challenged the Japanese in Burma.
]]> 8123502
In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis and ensuing credit crunch, the world of finance is returning to the fundamentals of valuation and critical due diligence. This involves the use of more realistic assumptions governing approach to risk as well as a wide range of value drivers. While valuation has always involved a great deal of "art" in addition to time-tested "science," the artistry is perpetually evolving in accordance with market developments and conditions. In this sense, this book is particularly topical--in addition to detailing the technical fundamentals behind valuation, the authors infuse practical judgment skills and perspective to help guide the science.]]> 416 Joshua Rosenbaum 0470478195 Greg 4 business 4.24 2009
author: Joshua Rosenbaum
name: Greg
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/26
date added: 2018/01/04
shelves: business
review:
This is a fantastic book to teach a novice what investment bankers do. It covers the basics of company valuation, LBOs and M&A. I recommend this for anyone who is emerging from business school and planning a career in investment banking. It will give you a head start on your career, since business school gives you tools (time value of money problems) but not the application of those tools. This book fills the gap.
]]> 173659
Ragin argues that fuzzy sets allow a far richer dialogue between ideas and evidence in social research than previously possible. They let quantitative researchers abandon "homogenizing assumptions" about cases and causes, they extend diversity-oriented research strategies, and they provide a powerful connection between theory and data analysis. Most important, fuzzy sets can be carefully tailored to fit evolving theoretical concepts, sharpening quantitative tools with in-depth knowledge gained through qualitative, case-oriented inquiry. This book will revolutionize research methods not only in sociology, political science, and anthropology but in any field of inquiry dealing with complex patterns of causation.
]]> 370 Charles C. Ragin 0226702774 Greg 4 phd, poli-sci
This book deals with the application of fuzzy-set logic to QCA, that is set membership has gradations rather than a crisp definition. Male-female is a crisp set. Rich or poor is a fuzzy set. This is an extended dissertation on the value of QCA and the weakness of regression for studying social phenomena, therefore, quantitative researchers beware, you will be put of by Ragin's confrontational tone.]]> 3.75 2000
author: Charles C. Ragin
name: Greg
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/28
date added: 2017/11/28
shelves: phd, poli-sci
review:
Charles Ragin invented qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) as a tool for dealing with multiple conjoint causation--intersectionality to use the fashionable term--that is, the intersection of multiple factors results in the observed phenomenon. It is an important tool in the political scientist's and sociologist's arsenal for studying social phenomena in addition to the usual regression methods. It is able to handle interactions without having to a priori specify the interactions as with regression.

This book deals with the application of fuzzy-set logic to QCA, that is set membership has gradations rather than a crisp definition. Male-female is a crisp set. Rich or poor is a fuzzy set. This is an extended dissertation on the value of QCA and the weakness of regression for studying social phenomena, therefore, quantitative researchers beware, you will be put of by Ragin's confrontational tone.
]]> 3307678 440 Samuel Eliot Morison 0785813047 Greg 5 navy 4.40 1948
author: Samuel Eliot Morison
name: Greg
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1948
rating: 5
read at: 2017/11/01
date added: 2017/11/17
shelves: navy
review:
This is a classic of World War II history. Morison writes with verve and brings the figures like MacArthur and Halsey to life. With respect to the attack on Pearl Harbor, he pretty much gives a 9/11 style report on all the failures that led to the attack. Highly recommended. My grandmother's brother-in-law served in the India-China-Burma theater in WWII. It was interesting read about the actions around Java that opened Rangoon to invasion.
]]> 17077029 228 Alan Bryden 3643801327 Greg 4 international-relations, phd 3.50 2012
author: Alan Bryden
name: Greg
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2015/10/09
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: international-relations, phd
review:
This book features a number of case studies on the success and failure of DDR. In some instances the conclusions have been taken over by events.
]]> 769159 182 Paul Richards 0435074067 Greg 0 to-read-phd, to-read, phd 3.89 1996
author: Paul Richards
name: Greg
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read-phd, to-read, phd
review:

]]> 14803589
Demobilizing Militias is the first comprehensive introduction to DDR in the contemporary world. Examining regions as varied as Africa, Asia and Central America, it guides readers through the different stages of the DDR process as well as assessing competing perspectives surrounding its implementation. Attentive to the problems faced by practitioners, Eric Shibuya argues against a 'one size fits all' approach, emphasizing the importance of social and psychological contexts in fostering the trust that is necessary for DDR to succeed. Accessible and incisive, it will be an ideal resource for students of politics, security and conflict studies, as well as anyone interested in the dynamics of peacebuilding today.]]> 208 Eric Shibuya 074564886X Greg 3 international-relations, phd 2.67 2012
author: Eric Shibuya
name: Greg
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2015/10/09
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: international-relations, phd
review:
This is a nice summary of the state of DDR research. It is written in plain English for military officers. It features some nice short case studies and make a good text for a war college setting. It does feature many of the key papers in the field.
]]> 837001 430 Jeremy M. Weinstein 0521677971 Greg 0 to-read, phd 3.75 2006
author: Jeremy M. Weinstein
name: Greg
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 2053880
“To write a summary of Third World Politics is a nearly impossible task. . . . Professor Clapham has been able to present a challenging analysis that is worthy of attention. . . . This book is recommended to any Latin Americanist who wishes to put Latin America in the context of the Third World. It is written in clear English without complex statistical data.”� Latin America in Books

“It is precisely Christopher Clapham’s sense of the essence of politics that commends his useful little book. Although not specifically devoted to Africa, his first love does show through in many of the examples chosen. The essential practicality of his approach is well demonstrated in the fact that a third of the book is given over to three chapters �Managing the Statel,� �Managing the Economy,� and �Managing the External Political
Arena.� ”—Richard Rathbone, The International Journal of African Historical Studies]]> 206 Christopher Clapham 029910334X Greg 0 phd, to-read 3.31 1985
author: Christopher Clapham
name: Greg
average rating: 3.31
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: phd, to-read
review:

]]> 8305729 225 Charles C. Ragin 0226702790 Greg 0 phd 3.75 2008
author: Charles C. Ragin
name: Greg
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: phd
review:

]]> 1623011 218 Charles C. Ragin 0520066189 Greg 4 3.59 1987
author: Charles C. Ragin
name: Greg
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2016/09/22
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: international-relations, mathematics, phd
review:
This is a classic in political science research. It is the book on how to do Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA).
]]> 1187691 Martin Wight 0140220461 Greg 0 phd 4.11 1946
author: Martin Wight
name: Greg
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: phd
review:

]]> 209180 “This pioneering volume, examining as it does the relation between development and stability, is an interesting and exciting addition to the literature.”�American Political Science Review
“’Must� reading for all those interested in comparative politics or in the study of development.”—Dankwart A. Rustow, Journal of International Affairs

]]> 488 Samuel P. Huntington 0300116209 Greg 0 to-read, phd 4.06 1968
author: Samuel P. Huntington
name: Greg
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1968
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 860002 424 Michael W. Doyle 069112275X Greg 0 to-read, phd 3.76 2006
author: Michael W. Doyle
name: Greg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 251010 342 Michael I. Handel 0714640530 Greg 0 to-read, phd 3.58 1986
author: Michael I. Handel
name: Greg
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 117031 On War is the most significant attempt in Western history to understand war, both in its internal dynamics and as an instrument of policy. Since the work’s first appearance in 1832, it has been read throughout the world, and has stimulated generations of soldiers, political leaders, and intellectuals. First published in 1976 and revised in 1984, Michael Howard and Peter Paret’s Princeton edition of Clausewitz’s classic work has itself achieved classic status and is widely regarded as the best translation and standard edition of On War in English. This feature-rich edition includes an essay by Paret on the genesis of Clausewitz’s book, an essay by Howard on Clausewitz’s influence, and an essay by Bernard Brodie on the continuing relevance of On War. In addition, Brodie provides a lengthy and detailed commentary on and guide to reading On War, and the edition also includes a comprehensive index.]]> 732 Carl von Clausewitz 0691018545 Greg 0 phd 3.98 1832
author: Carl von Clausewitz
name: Greg
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1832
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: phd
review:

]]> 26262632
Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations.

The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.]]> 944 Joachim Koops 0199686041 Greg 0 to-read, phd 4.75 2015
author: Joachim Koops
name: Greg
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 7146104

Much of the thinking in this area has centered on third parties presiding over the maintenance of negotiated settlements, but the problem with this focus is that fewer than a quarter of recent civil wars have ended this way. Furthermore, these settlements have been precarious, often resulting in a recurrence of war. Toft finds that military victory, especially victory by rebels, lends itself to a more durable peace. She argues for the importance of the security sector--the police and military--and explains that victories are more stable when governments can maintain order. Toft presents statistical evaluations and in-depth case studies that include El Salvador, Sudan, and Uganda to reveal that where the security sector remains robust, stability and democracy are likely to follow.


An original and thoughtful reassessment of civil war terminations, Securing the Peace will interest all those concerned about resolving our world's most pressing conflicts.]]> 248 Monica Duffy Toft 0691141460 Greg 0 to-read-phd, to-read, phd 3.30 2009
author: Monica Duffy Toft
name: Greg
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read-phd, to-read, phd
review:

]]> 17681751 276 Lars-Erik Cederman 1107603048 Greg 0 to-read, phd 4.18 2013
author: Lars-Erik Cederman
name: Greg
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: to-read, phd
review:

]]> 33770945 364 John Gerring 1316632504 Greg 4 international-relations 4.00 2006
author: John Gerring
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2017/10/10
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: international-relations
review:
The latest printing of this book is a little nicer than the previous. The book is the standard text on how to conduct case study research in political science.
]]> 770989 evolutionary biology and economics, and is beginning to revolutionize other disciplines from psychology to political science.

About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, and Literary Theory to History. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given topic. Every Very Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how it has developed and influenced society. Whatever the area of study, whatever the topic that fascinates the reader, the series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.]]> 208 Ken Binmore 0199218463 Greg 3 mathematics 3.19 2007
author: Ken Binmore
name: Greg
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2017/10/10
date added: 2017/10/10
shelves: mathematics
review:
This is a good short introduction to Game Theory for non-mathematicians. Not as challenging as Myerson or von Neumann and Morgenstern. Game theory is so crucial to understand strategic interaction. Folks in business, military, or diplomats should understand it.
]]> 25862683


The book:

Is specifically focussed on research methods used in International Relations. Spans the entire research process from choosing a research question to writing up. Provides practical research methods guidance. Introduces you to broader methodological debates and brings together contemporary research from empirical and interpretive traditions. Is packed with examples and suggestions for further reading.

Research Methods in International Relations is essential reading for both undergraduate and postgraduate students taking Research Methods courses in International Relations, Politics, Security and Strategic Studies.]]> 189 Christopher Lamont 1446286053 Greg 4 international-relations 4.00 2015
author: Christopher Lamont
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2017/10/04
date added: 2017/10/04
shelves: international-relations
review:
This is a good text for a basic research methods course in international relations. The focus is on qualitative methods, not quantitative methods. It does have really good advise for conducting a research project from start to finish.
]]> 17764935 342 Paul M. Kellstedt 1107621666 Greg 3 mathematics, poli-sci 3.29 2008
author: Paul M. Kellstedt
name: Greg
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2017/10/04
date added: 2017/10/04
shelves: mathematics, poli-sci
review:
This is a pretty good text for a basic research methods course. It is a quantitative text and needs to be supplemented with another text on qualitative methods. The training in regression in the text is only enough to be dangerous, but not enough to actually be able to do it properly. It is a start however.
]]> 150027 432 Dante Alighieri 0195004124 Greg 4 poetry 4.21 1320
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Greg
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1320
rating: 4
read at: 2017/10/01
date added: 2017/10/04
shelves: poetry
review:
This is my favorite edition of the Divine Comedy. It is an Italian text and prose English translation on facing pages. The English translation is glossed with note on names that the average reader would not know. Each canto features a concluding essay on the structure, style and theology.
]]> 22608582 The harrowing, true account from the brave men on the ground who fought back during the Battle of Benghazi.

13 Hours presents, for the first time ever, the true account of the events of September 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked the US State Department Special Mission Compound and a nearby CIA station called the Annex in Benghazi, Libya. A team of six American security operators fought to repel the attackers and protect the Americans stationed there. Those men went beyond the call of duty, performing extraordinary acts of courage and heroism, to avert tragedy on a much larger scale. This is their personal account, never before told, of what happened during the thirteen hours of that now-infamous attack.

13 Hours sets the record straight on what happened during a night that has been shrouded in mystery and controversy. Written by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff, this riveting book takes readers into the action-packed story of heroes who laid their lives on the line for one another, for their countrymen, and for their country.

13 Hours is a stunning, eye-opening, and intense book--but most importantly, it is the truth. The story of what happened to these men--and what they accomplished--is unforgettable.]]> 432 Mitchell Zuckoff 1455530093 Greg 4 4.26 2014
author: Mitchell Zuckoff
name: Greg
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/09/25
date added: 2017/09/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 28503844
A civilian contractor who had spent years training U.S. military members to resist interrogation should they be captured, Mitchell, aware of the urgent need to prevent impending catastrophic attacks, worked with the CIA to implement "enhanced interrogation techniques"--which included waterboarding.

In Enhanced Interrogation , Mitchell now offers a first-person account of the EIT program, providing a contribution to our historical understanding of one of the most controversial elements of America's ongoing war on terror.  Readers will follow him inside the secretive "black sites" and cells of terrorists and terror suspects where he personally applied enhanced interrogation techniques.

Mitchell personally questioned thirteen of the most senior high-value detainees in U.S. custody, including Abu Zubaydah; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the amir or "commander" of the USS Cole bombing; and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, terror attacks--obtaining information that he maintains remains essential to winning the war against al-Qa'ida and informing our strategy to defeat ISIS and all of radical Islam.

From the interrogation program's earliest moments to its darkest hours, Mitchell also lifts the curtain on its immediate effects, the controversy surrounding its methods, and its downfall. He shares his view that EIT, when applied correctly, were useful in drawing detainees to cooperate, and that, when applied incorrectly, they were counter-productive.  He also chronicles what it is like to undertake a several-years-long critical mission at the request of the government only to be hounded for nearly a decade afterward by congressional investigations and Justice Department prosecutors.

Gripping in its detail and deeply illuminating, Enhanced Interrogation argues that it is necessary for America to take strong measures to defend itself from its enemies and that the country is less safe now without them than it was before 9/11.]]> 320 James E. Mitchell 1101906847 Greg 0 to-read 4.08 2016
author: James E. Mitchell
name: Greg
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1110295 744 N.A.M. Rodger 0393319601 Greg 5 navy 4.18 1997
author: N.A.M. Rodger
name: Greg
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2017/09/14
date added: 2017/09/14
shelves: navy
review:
This is a magisterial work of naval history--part of a two volume set. The book begins with medieval England and ends with the English Civil War. Rodger covers technological innovation, how the navy was raised, and places naval engagement in wider historical context. In later chapters, the book addresses given periods in separate chapters on social history, administration, and operational history. The structure allows the reader to get a coherent picture of not only the Navy Royal but also the life of the sailor. The author focuses a lot of energy on administration, because it was a major source of power beginning with Henry VIII. The Island nation was able to out organize its more powerful continental rivals.
]]> 6477418 Redesigning Social Inquiry, he continues his campaign to revitalize the field, challenging major aspects of the conventional template for social science research while offering a clear alternative.

Redesigning Social Inquiry provides a substantive critique of the standard approach to social research—namely, assessing the relative importance of causal variables drawn from competing theories. Instead, Ragin proposes the use of set-theoretic methods to find a middle path between quantitative and qualitative research. Through a series of contrasts between fuzzy-set analysis and conventional quantitative research, Ragin demonstrates the capacity for set-theoretic methods to strengthen connections between qualitative researchers� deep knowledge of their cases and quantitative researchers� elaboration of cross-case patterns. Packed with useful examples, Redesigning Social Inquiry will be indispensable to experienced professionals and to budding scholars about to embark on their first project.]]> 225 Charles C. Ragin 0226702758 Greg 4 4.20 2008
author: Charles C. Ragin
name: Greg
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2017/09/12
date added: 2017/09/12
shelves: international-relations, mathematics
review:
Ragin developed the Qualitative Comparative Method back in the 1980s as a tool for social scientists to deal with the problem of multiple conjunct causation (the interaction of multiple qualities that cause a given outcome). Standard regression-based quantitative methods cannot handle those types of scenarios, but instead treat each cause as independent. The set-theoretic approach allows the researcher to capture which causes are necessary and which causes are sufficient to produce an outcome. This book is essentially a manual for applying the method for both crisp sets (i.e., true or false) and fuzzy sets (i.e., gradations of in or out of a set). Of particular utility are the discussions for calibrating fuzzy set membership for interval and ratio variables.
]]> 55764
He's silent, invisible. He lies in one position for days, barely twitching a muscle, able to control his heartbeat and breathing. His record has never been matched: 93 confirmed kills. This is the story of Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper, legend of military lore.]]> 336 Charles Henderson 0425181650 Greg 3
One interesting thing I took from the book is that it seems most of Hollywood's conventions for snipers are taken from Hathcock's life--e.g., the shot down the other sniper's scope in a counter sniper operation.]]> 4.29 1986
author: Charles Henderson
name: Greg
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/11
date added: 2017/09/12
shelves:
review:
This is a short readable biography of Carlos Hathcock, the famous Marine Corps sniper. The book has a nice balance of background, family life, and events from Vietnam. I don't give it a higher number of stars, because Charles Henderson is not much of a prose stylist and there could have been more license taken with Hathcock's internal dialog to make it more interesting.

One interesting thing I took from the book is that it seems most of Hollywood's conventions for snipers are taken from Hathcock's life--e.g., the shot down the other sniper's scope in a counter sniper operation.
]]> 5665 190 Richard M. Weaver 0226876802 Greg 3 poli-sci
His solutions are that much more implausible: deindustrialization, a return to chivalry, Platonic metaphysics. Western Civilization is not returning to the middle ages.]]> 4.13 1948
author: Richard M. Weaver
name: Greg
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/05
date added: 2017/09/05
shelves: poli-sci
review:
This is a classic in the conservative literature. Weaver wrote a jeremiad in 1946 about the decline of Western civilization due to the inherent contradictions of liberalism (in the classical sense, not the New Deal). Nothing much has changed. Social media is now part of his "stereopticon" that creates mass sentiment. The gentleman is still an endangered species. Specialization has continued to fragment knowledge. Utilitarianism, materialism, and empiricism are still the dominant philosophical paradigms. (Although he neglected the effects of radical skepticism, which is that much more influential today than in 1946.) The rot of the linguistic turn continues, only more so in post-structuralism.

His solutions are that much more implausible: deindustrialization, a return to chivalry, Platonic metaphysics. Western Civilization is not returning to the middle ages.
]]> 797049 432 William H. McRaven 0891416005 Greg 3 navy 4.19 1996
author: William H. McRaven
name: Greg
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2016/01/01
date added: 2017/09/05
shelves: navy
review:
This is a series of case studies on special operations. It is an academic text whose main message is how speed and surprise contribute to success. For the general reader, the book's value is in its narratives of the missions depicted. Daring and close run things.
]]> 31423133

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university's slogan, "What starts here changes the world," he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better.

Admiral McRaven's original speech went viral with over 10 million views. Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honor, and courage. Told with great humility and optimism, this timeless book provides simple wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement that will inspire readers to achieve more, even in life's darkest moments.]]> 2 William H. McRaven Greg 3 navy
]]> 3.99 2017
author: William H. McRaven
name: Greg
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2017/09/03
date added: 2017/09/05
shelves: navy
review:
This is a cute little book and quick read based on the themes from his University of Texas commencement speech. Essentially, he summarizes the lessons he learned while at BUD/S and commanding Navy SEALs.


]]> 138306 The stereotypes of globalization--characterized as American imperialism on the one hand, and as an economic panacea on the other--fall apart under close scrutiny. Surveying globalization from individual countries of the five major continents, Many Globalizations shows that an emerging global culture does indeed exist. While globalization is American in origin and content, the authors point out that it is far from a centrally directed force like classic imperialism. They examine the currents that carry this culture, from a worldwide class of young professionals to non-governmental organizations, and define globalization's many variations as well as sub-globalizations that bind regions together.
Analytical, incisive and stimulating, Many Globalizations offers rare insight into perhaps the central issue of modern times, one that is changing the West as much as the developing world.
"Provocative.... Taken together, the trenchant, well-written essays included in this collection provide indisputable evidence that an identifiable global culture is indeed emerging."-- World Policy Journal
"Analytical and penetrating, belongs...on the desks of anyone with an abiding interest in the forces shaping the world."-- Publishers Weekly]]> 384 Peter L. Berger 0195168828 Greg 3 3.62 2002
author: Peter L. Berger
name: Greg
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2017/08/28
date added: 2017/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 174057
"Unlike puppets," he notes, "we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step towards freedom." Professor Berger discusses this consciousness in detail, in relation to one's own biography, to the operations of social institutions, and to the makeup of an individual as a product of this institutions. In each instance, he outlines the major contributions to sociology of such classical sociologists as Weber, Pareto, and Drukheim in Europe; Veblen, Cooley, and Mead in the United States; and some of the most important names in the field today.]]> 208 Peter L. Berger 0385065299 Greg 4 3.93 1963
author: Peter L. Berger
name: Greg
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/28
date added: 2017/08/28
shelves:
review:
This is a really nice survey of sociology as a discipline. It is dated, but relevant. If anything it helps recenter the discipline.
]]> 18555040 338 Hew Strachan 1107047854 Greg 4 international-relations 4.05 2013
author: Hew Strachan
name: Greg
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/23
date added: 2017/08/23
shelves: international-relations
review:
This is a really good summary of the state of strategy as a discipline in the twenty-first century. Each chapter can be read independently. He addresses various contested issues like grand strategy versus strategy versus operational levels of analysis, maritime versus naval strategy, new versus old wars, the obsolescence of major wars, and the continued relevance of Clausewitz. There is an Anglo-American bias, which is to be expected.
]]> 18427473
This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.]]> 576 Hew Strachan 0199688001 Greg 0 to-read 4.11 2011
author: Hew Strachan
name: Greg
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/08/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6693298 Have globalization, virulent ethnic differences, and globally operating insurgents fundamentally changed the nature of war in the last decades? Interpretations of war as driven by politics and state rationale, formulated most importantly by the nineteenth century practitioner Carl von Clausewitz, have received strong criticism. Political explanations have been said to fall short in explaining conflicts in the Balkans, Africa, Asia and the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States.

This book aims to re-evaluate these criticisms by not only carefully scrutinizing Clausewitz's arguments and their applicability, but also by a careful reading of the criticism itself. In doing so, the contributions on this book present empirical evidence on the basis of several case studies, addressing various aspects of modern war, such as the actors, conduct and purposes of war.

The book concludes that while the debate on the nature of war has far from run its course, the interpretation of war as postulatedby Clausewitz is not as inapplicable as some have claimed. Furthermore, the label a war receives, such as civil war, does not necessarily say much about the way this war is fought. Civil wars are not always irregular or unconventional wars. Changes in the conduct of war have unmistakably occurred but change should not overshadow the important continuities that exist in the nature of war and warfare.

]]> 262 Jan Angstrom Greg 4 4.00 2004
author: Jan Angstrom
name: Greg
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/25
date added: 2017/07/25
shelves: to-read-phd, international-relations
review:
This is a nice collection of essays that contribute significantly to the "new" war versus "old" war debate. It also highlights the enduring relevance of Clausewitz to modern war.
]]> 18210744
In The Tyranny of Experts, economist William Easterly, bestselling author of The White Man’s Burden, traces the history of the fight against global poverty, showing not only how these tactics have trampled the individual freedom of the world’s poor, but how in doing so have suppressed a vital debate about an alternative approach to solving poverty: freedom. Presenting a wealth of cutting-edge economic research, Easterly argues that only a new model of development—one predicated on respect for the individual rights of people in developing countries, that understands that unchecked state power is the problem and not the solution —will be capable of ending global poverty once and for all.
]]> 416 William Easterly 0465031250 Greg 4
The criticism has something in common with Joseph Stiglitz--incentives for bureaucrats are all wrong--but from a different ideological frame of reference. Structural adjustment programs are immoral and benefit creditors to the detriment of the poor, but rather focusing on strictly welfare gains/losses and equity, Easterly focuses on the loss of individual rights.

]]> 3.84 2014
author: William Easterly
name: Greg
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/19
date added: 2017/07/19
shelves: international-relations, poli-sci
review:
This is a classical liberal critique of technocracy as it applies to international development. The basic idea is that the managerial state and bureaucrats in IGOs are bound to fail in their efforts to promote development. Outsiders lack the local knowledge necessary for success. There is inadequate appreciation of the necessary preconditions for development: secure property rights, rule of law, impersonal and fair bureaucracy, etc. In other words, a state needs to be liberal to be successful in developing the economy.

The criticism has something in common with Joseph Stiglitz--incentives for bureaucrats are all wrong--but from a different ideological frame of reference. Structural adjustment programs are immoral and benefit creditors to the detriment of the poor, but rather focusing on strictly welfare gains/losses and equity, Easterly focuses on the loss of individual rights.


]]> 7884006 432 Thomas Oatley 0205723772 Greg 3 3.92 2011
author: Thomas Oatley
name: Greg
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2017/07/19
date added: 2017/07/19
shelves: international-relations, poli-sci
review:
This is a decent textbook on IPE. It is dated and needs a major refresh with more current literature cited. It is neoliberal in outlook, so if you are looking for a Marxist text to use in your class, this is not it. The book is strongest when discussing trade and weakest when discussing finance. There also is no math in the book. It needs to be supplemented with an economics text.
]]> 18695374
In The System Worked, Drezner, a renowned political scientist and international relations expert, contends that despite the massive scale and reverberations of this latest crisis (larger, arguably, than those that precipitated the Great Depression), the global economy has bounced back remarkably well. Examining the major resuscitation efforts by the G-20 IMF, WTO, and other institutions, he shows that, thanks to the efforts of central bankers and other policymakers, the international response was sufficiently coordinated to prevent the crisis from becoming a full-fledged depression. Yet the narrative about the failure of multilateral economic institutions persists, both because the Great Recession affected powerful nations whose governments managed their own economies poorly, and because the most influential policy analysts who write the books and articles on the crisis hail from those nations. Nevertheless, Drezner argues, while it's true that the global economy is still fragile, these institutions survived the "stress test" of the financial crisis, and may have even become more resilient and valuable in the process.

Bucking the conventional wisdom about the new "G-Zero World," Drezner rehabilitates the image of the much-maligned international institutions and demolishes some of the most dangerous myths about the financial crisis. The System Worked is a vital contribution to our understanding of an area where the stakes could not be higher.]]> 278 Daniel W. Drezner 0195373847 Greg 4 ]]> 3.73 2014
author: Daniel W. Drezner
name: Greg
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/18
date added: 2017/07/18
shelves: international-relations, poli-sci
review:
This book is an excellent corrective to the editorial line of the punditocracy on the Left and Right. The essential argument is that for all their faults, and there are many, the institutions and regimes that govern international economics, performed adequately to avert a second Great Depression in the wake of the sub prime mortgage crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. The book assumes a basic understanding of micro and macro economics. There is no math in the books, but a wealth of graphs and charts.

]]> 551371 Argonautica, composed in the 3rd century BCE, is the epic retelling of Jason’s quest for the golden fleece. Along with his contemporaries Callimachus and Theocritus, Apollonius refashioned Greek poetry to meet the interests and aesthetics of a Hellenistic audience, especially that of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic period following Alexander’s death. In this carefully crafted work of 5,835 hexameter verses in four books, the author draws on the preceding literary traditions of epic (Homer), lyric (Pindar), and tragedy (especially Euripides) but creates an innovative and complex narrative that includes geography, religion, ethnography, mythology, adventure, exploration, human psychology, and, most of all, the coming of age and love affair of Jason and Medea. It greatly influenced Roman authors such as Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid, and was imitated by Valerius Flaccus.]]> 544 Apollonius of Rhodes 0674990013 Greg 4 classics 3.71 -250
author: Apollonius of Rhodes
name: Greg
average rating: 3.71
book published: -250
rating: 4
read at: 2017/07/10
date added: 2017/07/10
shelves: classics
review:
The Argonautica is a epic pastiche. For that, 4 stars. Apollonius Rhodius cannot match Homer. That said, there is a great wealth of material here. Medea is a fantastic character (Books 3 and 4). The final trial of the crew carrying the Argo across the Libyan desert is well told. You get thirsty just reading it. The translation an apparatus are good. I am biased towards Loeb, because I can read Greek. I would rate this translation superior to the Penguin edition.
]]> 32868428
A lot more than you might think, as Nick Spencer reveals in this fresh exploration of our cultural origins.

Looking at the big ideas that characterize the West, such as human dignity, the rule of law, human rights, science � and even, paradoxically, atheism and secularism � he traces the varied ways in which many of our present values grew up and flourished in distinctively Christian soil.

Always alert to the tensions and the mess of history, and careful not to overstate the Christian role in shaping our present values, Spencer shows how a better awareness of what we owe to Christianity can help us as we face new cultural challenges.]]> 252 Nick Spencer Greg 0 currently-reading 3.74
author: Nick Spencer
name: Greg
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 335789 180 Douglass C. North 0521290996 Greg 3 international-relations 3.76 1973
author: Douglass C. North
name: Greg
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at: 2017/07/03
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves: international-relations
review:
This is a classic work in IPE. It is an economic perspective on the rise of Western Civilization, as opposed to a history of ideas, which is usually where theories of Western Civilization start. North and Thomas' basic contention is that changes in economic conditions, beginning in the 16th century allowed Britain and Netherlands to break free of the Malthusian cycle. It was economics that changed ideas and institutions, not the other way around. The real answer is that they co-evolved. By hey, this is an economic perspective and therefore biased towards materialist explanations.
]]> 3448011 317 Martin Wight 0826461743 Greg 0 to-read 4.20 1946
author: Martin Wight
name: Greg
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 741704 159 Douglass C. North 0521397340 Greg 0 to-read 4.13 1990
author: Douglass C. North
name: Greg
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1308229 234 Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier 0521546737 Greg 0 to-read-phd, to-read 4.38 2004
author: Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier
name: Greg
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/14
shelves: to-read-phd, to-read
review:

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