John's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 10 Apr 2025 09:06:04 -0700 60 John's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America]]> 40068724 Oren Cass John 0 to-read 3.84 2018 The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America
author: Oren Cass
name: John
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> All That Is Gone: Stories 1217149
Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a major figure in world literature, listed in John Major's rewrite of the famous Lifetime Reading Plan among the likes of James Baldwin, Bertolt Brecht, Graham Greene, and John Steinbeck as one of 100 authors everyone should read. A constant contender for the Nobel Prize, he recently won one of France's highest literary awards and has won the highest award in Asian letters.

In All That Is Gone , Pramoedya's semiautobiographical stories deal with life's major birth and death, sexual knowledge and love, compassion and revenge. Some stories are written from a child's point of view, others from that of an adult. But all are written in a style that quickly wraps the reader up in this master storyteller's narrative web. This is the first time Pramoedya's short fiction has been widely available to the English reading public; its publication represents a significant addition to the canon of world literature in translation.]]> 272 Pramoedya Ananta Toer 1401366635 John 4 3.97 1952 All That Is Gone: Stories
author: Pramoedya Ananta Toer
name: John
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1952
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Jews and the Military: A History by Derek J. Penslar (2013-10-06)]]> 132337024 0 Derek J. Penslar John 4 4.00 2013 Jews and the Military: A History by Derek J. Penslar (2013-10-06)
author: Derek J. Penslar
name: John
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Le Totalitarisme sans le goulag]]> 177706684 Nos sociétés veulent croire que ce qu'elles appellent "l'extrême-droite' les menace existen tiellement, comme si elle sortait des enfers pour les y ramener avec elle.
Cette catégorie politique fantomatique, in définissable, manipulée et instrumentalisée, sert essentiellement à étiqueter tous ceux qui s'opposent au régime diversitaire. Mais pas seulement : toute personnalité de gauche n'adhérant pas à la doxa ambiante est désormais frappée de cette marque de l'infamie.
La lutte contre la prétendue "extrême-droite' justifie aujourd'hui une suspension progressive des libertés, le retour de mécanismes d'ostracisme et un contrôle social croissant, prétendant éradiquer le mal du cœur de l'homme. En d'autres mots, ce n'est pas "l'extrême-droite' qui nous menace, mais la lutte contre "l'extrême-droite' qui nous conduit au totalitarisme. Je sais cette thèse contre-intuitive. Je me donne la mission ici de la démontrer. "
Mathieu Bock-Côté]]> 272 Mathieu Bock-Côté 2258201640 John 5 4.05 Le Totalitarisme sans le goulag
author: Mathieu Bock-Côté
name: John
average rating: 4.05
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rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Agente d’élite: le récit inspirant d’une enfant de Barbès - Témoignage (French Edition)]]> 55451601 271 Lakheal Nora 2315009766 John 0 to-read 3.20 Agente d’élite: le récit inspirant d’une enfant de Barbès - Témoignage (French Edition)
author: Lakheal Nora
name: John
average rating: 3.20
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History)]]> 123227130
Foreign policy is a tricky business. Typically, challenges and proposed solutions are perceived as disparate unless a leader can amass enough support for an idea that creates alignment. And because the prime minister is typically the one proposing that idea, Canadian foreign policy can be analyzed through the actions of these leaders.

Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats explores how prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau have shaped foreign policy by manipulating government structures, adopting and rejecting options, and imprinting their personalities on the process. Contributors consider the impact of a wide range of policy decisions—increasing or decreasing department budgets, forming or ending alliances, and pursuing trade relationships—particularly as these choices affected the bureaucracies that deliver foreign policy diplomatically and militarily.

This innovative focus is destined to trigger a new appreciation for the formidable personal attention and acuity involved in a successful approach to external affairs.
ձ> 384 Patrice Dutil 0774868554 John 0 to-read 4.40 Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy (The C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History)
author: Patrice Dutil
name: John
average rating: 4.40
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]]> <![CDATA[La Révolution racialiste, et autres virus idéologiques]]> 57741480 " On ne saurait segmenter une société sur une base raciale sans condamner chaque groupe à s'enfermer dans sa couleur de peau, qui devient dès lors l'ultime frontière au cœur de la vie sociale."L'essai sur le wokisme de l'année.La vision racialiste, qui pervertit l'idée même d'intégration et terrorise par ses exigences les médias et les acteurs de la vie intellectuelle, sociale et politique, s'est échappée de l'université américaine il y a vingt ans. Et la voilà qui se répand au Canada, au Québec et maintenant en France. Elle déboulonne des statues, pulvérisant la conscience historique, elle interdit de parler d'un sujet si vous n'êtes pas héritier d'une culture, et vous somme de vous excuser " d'être blanc ", signe de culpabilité pour l'éternité. Le racialisme sépare et exclut, n'apporte pas de libertés quoi qu'en disent ses hérauts, et, plus dangereux, modélise une manière de penser le monde.]]> 240 Mathieu Bock-Côté 2258196108 John 0 to-read 3.36 2021 La Révolution racialiste, et autres virus idéologiques
author: Mathieu Bock-Côté
name: John
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2021
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]]> The Return 28007895
When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar's father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime's most notorious prison. Now, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballa Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is "persistent and cunning".

This book is a profoundly moving family memoir, a brilliant and affecting portrait of a country and a people on the cusp of immense change, and a disturbing and timeless depiction of the monstrous nature of absolute power.]]> 256 Hisham Matar 034580774X John 0 to-read 4.15 2016 The Return
author: Hisham Matar
name: John
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible]]> 13606183 320 Matti Friedman 1616200405 John 5 3.93 2012 The Aleppo Codex: The True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the International Pursuit of an Ancient Bible
author: Matti Friedman
name: John
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/09/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity]]> 35068947
The day after the 2015 Paris terror attacks, twenty-eight-year-old Canadian Jamil Jivani opened the newspaper to find that the men responsible were familiar to him. He didn’t know them, but the communities they grew up in and the challenges they faced mirrored the circumstances of his own life. Jivani travelled to Belgium in February 2016 to better understand the roots of jihadi radicalization. Less than two months later, Brussels fell victim to a terrorist attack carried out by young men who lived in the same neighbourhood as him.

Jivani was raised in a mostly immigrant community in Toronto that faced significant problems with integration. Having grown up with a largely absent father, he knows what it is to watch a man’s future influenced by gangster culture or radical ideologies associated with Islam. Jivani found himself at a he could follow the kind of life we hear about too often in the media, or he could choose a safe, prosperous future. He opted for the latter, attending Yale and becoming a lawyer, a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and a powerful speaker for the disenfranchised.

Why Young Men is not a memoir but a book of ideas that pursues a positive path and offers a counterintuitive, often provocative argument for a sea change in the way we look at young men, and for how they see themselves.]]> 264 Jamil Jivani 1443453218 John 0 3.55 2018 Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity
author: Jamil Jivani
name: John
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
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]]> <![CDATA[Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)]]> 55842126 352 Shay Hazkani 1503614654 John 0 to-read 4.11 Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)
author: Shay Hazkani
name: John
average rating: 4.11
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]]> <![CDATA[Once Around Algonquin: An Epic Canoe Journey]]> 45459341 154 Kevin Callan 1999528603 John 3 4.08 Once Around Algonquin: An Epic Canoe Journey
author: Kevin Callan
name: John
average rating: 4.08
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rating: 3
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date added: 2024/08/07
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Kevin Callan is not a gifted writer and could have used more help with his prose. Thankfully, the book is short enough and the material light enough for it not to matter a lot. If you’d like a first hand view of what it is like to travel around Algonquin Park in one of the most punishing loops that exist, then you will get it here along with some useful advice (e.g. what to do in a lightning storm, where not to defecate in the back country and what to do about bears swimming toward your island campsite). One of the biggest disappointments, though, with this book is that there are hardly any maps and very few photos. So many places are mentioned without any way to even situate them roughly. I like to put my phone away when I read, so Google Maps wasn’t an option. Aside from his account of tough paddling and portaging there is a fair bit of history in this book and commentary on outdoor education. I loved Kevin’s honesty, too. While bemoaning the decline of young people’s ability to manage in the outdoors, he also wonders aloud whether his concern is just a typical generational tendency. Also interesting are his pragmatic attitude toward issues such as use of technology and logging in the park. Kevin is clearly an outstanding outdoor pedagogue with interesting views on nature and useful advice.
]]> <![CDATA[The Closing of the American Mind]]> 75812 The Closing of the American Mind, a publishing phenomenon in hardcover, is now a paperback literary event. In this acclaimed number one national best-seller, one of our country's most distinguished political philosophers argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Allan Bloom's sweeping analysis is essential to understanding America today. It has fired the imagination of a public ripe for change.]]> 392 Allan Bloom 0671657151 John 0 to-read 3.74 1987 The Closing of the American Mind
author: Allan Bloom
name: John
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Default: The Landmark Court Battle Over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring]]> 131800008
Unlike individuals or corporations that become insolvent, nations do not have access to bankruptcy protection from their creditors. When a country defaults on its debt, the international financial system is ill equipped to manage the crisis. Decisions by key individuals � from national leaders to those at the International Monetary Fund, from holdout creditors to judges � determine the fate of an entire national economy. A prime example is Argentina's 2001 default on $100 billion in bonds, which stands out for its messy outcomes and outsized impact on sovereign debt markets, sovereign debt law, and IMF policy.

Default is the riveting story of Argentina's sovereign debt drama, which reveals the obscure inner workings of sovereign debt restructuring. This detailed case study describes the intense fight over the role of the IMF in Argentina's 2005 debt restructuring and the ensuing bitter decade of litigation with holdout creditors, demonstrating that outcomes for sovereign debt are determined by a complex interplay between financial markets, governments, the IMF, the press, and the courts.

This cautionary tale lays bare the institutional, political, and legal pressures that come into play when a country cannot repay its debts. It offers a deeper understanding of how global financial capitalism functions for those who work in or study debt markets, international finance, international relations, and international law.]]> 424 Gregory Makoff 1647123976 John 0 to-read 4.35 2024 Default: The Landmark Court Battle Over Argentina's $100 Billion Debt Restructuring
author: Gregory Makoff
name: John
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
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]]> <![CDATA[Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel]]> 37578115
The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel’s existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk, collecting intelligence, and sending messages back to Israel via a radio whose antenna was disguised as a clothesline. While performing their dangerous work these men were often unsure to whom they were reporting, and sometimes even who they’d become. Of the dozen spies in the Arab Section at the war’s outbreak, five were caught and executed. But in the end the Arab Section would emerge, improbably, as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency.

Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these young spies, but it’s also about Israel’s own complicated and fascinating identity. Israel sees itself and presents itself as a Western nation, when in fact more than half the country has Middle Eastern roots and traditions, like the spies of this story. And, according to Friedman, that goes a long way toward explaining the life and politics of the country, and why it often baffles the West. For anyone interested in real-life spies and the paradoxes of the Middle East, Spies of No Country is an intimate story with global significance.]]> 272 Matti Friedman 1616207221 John 4 3.87 2019 Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
author: Matti Friedman
name: John
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin]]> 6572270
Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.

From Booklist
If there is an explanation for the political killing perpetrated in eastern Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, historian Snyder roots it in agriculture. Stalin wanted to collectivize farmers; Hitler wanted to eliminate them so Germans could colonize the land. The dictators wielded frightening power to advance such fantasies toward reality, and the despots toted up about 14 million corpses between them, so stupefying a figure that Snyder sets himself three goals here: to break down the number into the various actions of murder that comprise it, from liquidation of the kulaks to the final solution; to restore humanity to the victims via surviving testimony to their fates; and to deny Hitler and Stalin any historical justification for their policies, which at the time had legions of supporters and have some even today. Such scope may render Snyder’s project too imposing to casual readers, but it would engage those exposed to the period’s chronology and major interpretive issues, such as the extent to which the Nazi and Soviet systems may be compared. Solid and judicious scholarship for large WWII collections.]]> 524 Timothy Snyder 0465002390 John 5 4.37 2010 Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
author: Timothy Snyder
name: John
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again]]> 18526683
Though the banking crisis captured the public’s attention, Mian and Sufi argue strongly with actual data that current policy is too heavily biased toward protecting banks and creditors. Increasing the flow of credit, they show, is disastrously counterproductive when the fundamental problem is too much debt. As their research shows, excessive household debt leads to foreclosures, causing individuals to spend less and save more. Less spending means less demand for goods, followed by declines in production and huge job losses. How do we end such a cycle? With a direct attack on debt, say Mian and Sufi. More aggressive debt forgiveness after the crash helps, but as they illustrate, we can be rid of painful bubble-and-bust episodes only if the financial system moves away from its reliance on inflexible debt contracts. As an example, they propose new mortgage contracts that are built on the principle of risk-sharing, a concept that would have prevented the housing bubble from emerging in the first place.

Thoroughly grounded in compelling economic evidence, House of Debt offers convincing answers to some of the most important questions facing the modern economy Why do severe recessions happen? Could we have prevented the Great Recession and its consequences? And what actions are needed to prevent such crises going forward?]]> 219 Atif Mian 022608194X John 4 4.27 2014 House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again
author: Atif Mian
name: John
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/10
date added: 2023/12/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business]]> 19283360 224 Arie De Geus John 0 to-read 4.06 1997 The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business
author: Arie De Geus
name: John
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> L'Enfant noir 31553613
Camara Laye nous raconte son enfance dans sa chère Guinée, son éveil à la vie et l'amour des siens, puis son départ pour la France.

L’édition Oeuvres & thèmes
Type : Oeuvre en extraits
L’appareil pédagogique comprend :
- des repères sur le contexte et les genres
- un questionnaire pour chaque texte, avec des « petites leçons » sur les notions en jeu
- des textes échos, pour construire une culture littéraire]]> 128 Camara Laye 2218751151 John 4 4.00 1953 L'Enfant noir
author: Camara Laye
name: John
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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]]> Man of My Time 48916105 From the bestselling author of The Septembers of Shiraz, the story of an Iranian man reckoning with his capacity for love and evil

Set in Iran and New York City, Man of My Time tells the story of Hamid Mozaffarian, who is as alienated from himself as he is from the world around him. After decades of ambivalent work as an interrogator with the Iranian regime, Hamid travels on a diplomatic mission to New York, where he encounters his estranged family and retrieves the ashes of his father, whose dying wish was to be buried in Iran. Tucked in his pocket throughout the trip, the ashes propel him into a first-person excavation—full of mordant wit and bitter memory—of a lifetime of betrayal, and prompt him to trace his own evolution from a perceptive boy in love with marbles to a man who, on seeing his own reflection, is startled to encounter “a beautiful, indignant thug.� As he reconnects with his brother and others living in exile, Hamid is forced to reckon with his past, with the insidious nature of violence, and with his entrenchment in a system that for decades ensnared him.

Politically complex and emotionally compelling, Man of My Time explores variations of loss—of people, places, ideals, time, and self. This is a novel not only about family and memory but about the interdependence of captor and captive, of citizen and country, of an individual and his or her heritage. With sensitivity and strength, Dalia Sofer conjures the interior lives of the “generation that had borne and inflicted what could not be undone.�

]]> 386 Dalia Sofer 0374721874 John 0 to-read 3.89 2020 Man of My Time
author: Dalia Sofer
name: John
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Spy of David: The Strange Case of Jonathan Pollard and the Two Decade Battle to Win His Freedom]]> 18767258 305 Elliot Goldenberg 1939521181 John 0 to-read 2.00 2014 Spy of David: The Strange Case of Jonathan Pollard and the Two Decade Battle to Win His Freedom
author: Elliot Goldenberg
name: John
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/13
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]]> The Pay Off 58477478
As you read this, technology is dismantling payment barriers and governments are erecting them; cash is on the way out, and crypto and BigTech are fighting their way in. The Europeans are heavily regulated, the Americans oddly backward, and the Chinese hoping to lead the way forward. Challenging our understanding about where financial power really lies, The Pay Off shows us that the most important thing about money is the way we move it.

Leibbrandt and De Terán shine a light on the hidden workings of the humble payment - and reveal both how our payment habits are determined by history as well as where we go from here. From national customs to warring nation states, geopolitics will shape the future of payments every bit as much as technology.]]> 320 Gottfried Leibbrandt John 0 to-read 4.67 The Pay Off
author: Gottfried Leibbrandt
name: John
average rating: 4.67
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]]> <![CDATA[The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good]]> 33513 From one of the world's best-known development economists--an excoriating attack on the tragic hubris of the West's efforts to improve the lot of the so-called developing world.

Brilliant at diagnosing the failings of Western intervention in the Third World. --BusinessWeek

In his previous book, The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly criticized the utter ineffectiveness of Western organizations to mitigate global poverty, and he was promptly fired by his then-employer, the World Bank. The White Man's Burden is his widely anticipated counterpunch--a brilliant and blistering indictment of the West's economic policies for the world's poor. Sometimes angry, sometimes irreverent, but always clear-eyed and rigorous, Easterly argues that we in the West need to face our own history of ineptitude and draw the proper conclusions, especially at a time when the question of our ability to transplant Western institutions has become one of the most pressing issues we face.]]> 448 William Easterly 0143038826 John 0 to-read 3.84 2006 The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
author: William Easterly
name: John
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty]]> 12158480 Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories.

Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including:

- China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed andoverwhelm the West?
- Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority?
- What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More
philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions?

Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.]]> 529 Daron Acemoğlu 0307719219 John 0 to-read 4.06 2012 Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
author: Daron Acemoğlu
name: John
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
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]]> <![CDATA[The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme]]> 275833 The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at 'the point of maximum danger'. It examines the physical conditions of fighting, the particular emotions and behaviour generated by battle, as well as the motives that impel soldiers to stand and fight rather than run away.

In his scrupulous reassessment of three battles, John Keegan vividly conveys their reality for the participants, whether facing the arrow cloud of Agincourt, the levelled muskets of Waterloo or the steel rain of the Somme.]]> 352 John Keegan 1844137481 John 0 to-read 4.14 1976 The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme
author: John Keegan
name: John
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Blockchain: An Illustrated Guidebook to Understanding Blockchain]]> 43106363 285 Xu Mingxing 1510744851 John 0 to-read 3.05 Blockchain: An Illustrated Guidebook to Understanding Blockchain
author: Xu Mingxing
name: John
average rating: 3.05
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rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion]]> 11324722 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780307377906 can be found here.

Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding.

His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all have about other people and the things they do. These intuitions feel like self-evident truths, making us righteously certain that those who see things differently are wrong. Haidt shows us how these intuitions differ across cultures, including the cultures of the political left and right. He blends his own research findings with those of anthropologists, historians, and other psychologists to draw a map of the moral domain. He then examines the origins of morality, overturning the view that evolution made us fundamentally selfish creatures. But rather than arguing that we are innately altruistic, he makes a more subtle claim—that we are fundamentally groupish. It is our groupishness, he explains, that leads to our greatest joys, our religious divisions, and our political affiliations. In a stunning final chapter on ideology and civility, Haidt shows what each side is right about, and why we need the insights of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to flourish as a nation.]]> 419 Jonathan Haidt John 0 to-read 4.18 2012 The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: John
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Ethnic America: A History 699670 353 Thomas Sowell 0465020755 John 0 to-read 4.32 1975 Ethnic America: A History
author: Thomas Sowell
name: John
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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]]> The Thomas Sowell Reader 12048825
These selections from the many writings of Thomas Sowell over a period of a half century cover social, economic, cultural, legal, educational, and political issues. The sources range from Dr. Sowell's letters, books, newspaper columns, and articles in both scholarly journals and popular magazines. The topics range from late-talking children to "tax cuts for the rich," baseball, race, war, the role of judges, medical care, and the rhetoric of politicians. These topics are dealt with by sometimes drawing on history, sometimes drawing on economics, and sometimes drawing on a sense of humor.

The Thomas Sowell Reader includes essays Social Issues* Economics* Political Issues* Legal Issues* Race and Ethnicity* Educational Issues* Biographical Sketches* Random Thoughts

"My hope is that this large selection of my writings will reduce the likelihood that readers will misunderstand what I have said on many controversial issues over the years. Whether the reader will agree with all my conclusions is another question entirely. But disagreements can be productive, while misunderstandings seldom are." -- Thomas Sowell]]> 464 Thomas Sowell 0465022502 John 0 to-read 4.47 2011 The Thomas Sowell Reader
author: Thomas Sowell
name: John
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/25
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]]> <![CDATA["Trickle Down Theory" and "Tax Cuts for the Rich"]]> 16056451 20 Thomas Sowell 0817916156 John 0 to-read 4.38 2012 "Trickle Down Theory" and "Tax Cuts for the Rich"
author: Thomas Sowell
name: John
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Intellectuals and Race 16280863 Thomas Sowell's incisive critique of the intellectuals' destructive role in shaping ideas about race in America

Intellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense of one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light.

The views of individual intellectuals have spanned the spectrum, but the views of intellectuals as a whole have tended to cluster. Indeed, these views have clustered at one end of the spectrum in the early twentieth century and then clustered at the opposite end of the spectrum in the late twentieth century. Moreover, these radically different views of race in these two eras were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were very similar in both eras.

Intellectuals and Race is not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, economic and statistical evidence -- all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially intellectuals at the highest levels. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. The impact of intellectuals' ideas and crusades on the larger society, both past and present, is the ultimate concern. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to "social justice" and multiculturalism.

In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, the visions and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups, but for societies as a whole.]]> 139 Thomas Sowell 0465058728 John 0 to-read 4.33 2013 Intellectuals and Race
author: Thomas Sowell
name: John
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Black Rednecks and White Liberals]]> 3040 372 Thomas Sowell 1594030863 John 0 to-read 4.34 2005 Black Rednecks and White Liberals
author: Thomas Sowell
name: John
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Inventing Bitcoin: The Technology Behind The First Truly Scarce and Decentralized Money Explained]]> 43607503
No technical expertise required! Read it, then share it with your loved ones.

“It was much quicker and easier to understand than I expected [...] After reading it I sold some of my alts for more bitcoin. I’m on the edge of becoming a maximalist because of you.� - Nako Mbelle, Around The Coin Podcast

"Inventing Bitcoin's been getting buzz recently for good reason. @skwp wrote possibly the easiest, most informative intro to Bitcoin."- @cryptograffiti, Crypto Artist]]> 112 Yan Pritzker John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.45 2019 Inventing Bitcoin: The Technology Behind The First Truly Scarce and Decentralized Money Explained
author: Yan Pritzker
name: John
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/02/04
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]]> <![CDATA[21 Lessons: What I've Learned from Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole]]> 50376693 157 Gigi John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.03 21 Lessons: What I've Learned from Falling Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole
author: Gigi
name: John
average rating: 4.03
book published:
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]]> The Internet of Money 31869077 200 Andreas M. Antonopoulos John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.06 2016 The Internet of Money
author: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
name: John
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Internet of Money Volume Two]]> 36804136 Introduction to Bitcoin;

Blockchain vs Bullshit;

Fake News, Fake Money;

Currency Wars;

Bubble Boy and the Sewer Rat;

Rocket Science and Ethereum's Killer App;

and many more;
Volume Two also includes an all new frequently asked questions section!
In 2013, Andreas M. Antonopoulos started publicly speaking about bitcoin and quickly became one of the world's most sought-after speakers in the industry. To date, he has delivered more than 75, TED-style talks in venues ranging from the Henry Ford Museum to packed-out Bitcoin Meetups in the Czech Republic to New Zealand and every talk is completely different.
In these performances, Antonopoulos walks onto the stage and delivers a live, unscripted talk. Without a deck in sight, he unleashes his latest insights into the lightning-fast changes surrounding bitcoin. Combining the knowledge of one of the world's leading blockchain technologists, with cultural context, comedy, and the flair of a performance artist, Antonopoulos conveys an up-to-the-second understanding of bitcoin to live audiences worldwide.
Many of these talks were so visionary, their content so educational, that they were curated and refined into a book form. On 7 September 2016, The Internet of Money Volume One was launched on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (the interview has since been viewed more than 300,000 times). With its genesis in the lived, human experience, The Internet of Money offered something that was desperately an explanation of the philosophy, economics, politics, poetics, and technologies of bitcoin and open blockchains set within the historical context of millennia of human civilization.
During its first year, Volume One quickly became a hit in the global crypto-currency community-appealing to audiences from fields as diverse as the arts, sciences, and humanities. As one reader It provides a uniquely accessible take on a mind-bendingly abstract system.
The Internet of Money Volume Two builds on that momentum and offers readers an opportunity to experience more these inspiring and thought-provoking talks in print. Volume Two also includes a bonus question and answer section, where Andreas answers some of the most frequently asked questions from audience members. The Internet of Money Volume Two is a sequel that rivals, even exceeds, the first, in content, scope, and vision. Make this book part of your collection and see why Andreas M. Antonopoulos is considered the most powerful and engaging voice in the crypto-currency and blockchain space.]]> Andreas M. Antonopoulos John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.23 The Internet of Money Volume Two
author: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
name: John
average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Internet of Money Volume Three: A Collection of Talks by Andreas M. Antonopoulos]]> 48830254 162 Andreas M. Antonopoulos 1947910175 John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.29 The Internet of Money Volume Three: A Collection of Talks by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
author: Andreas M. Antonopoulos
name: John
average rating: 4.29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking]]> 36448501 Bitcoin is the newest technology for money—find out how it fits in the future.
Bitcoin is the digital age's novel, decentralized, and automated solution to the problem of money: accessible worldwide, controlled by nobody. Can this young upstart money challenge the global monetary order? Economist Saifedean Ammous traces the history of the technologies of money to seashells, limestones, cattle, salt, beads, metals, and government debt, explaining what gave these technologies their monetary role, what makes for sound money, and the benefits of a sound monetary regime to economic growth, innovation, culture, trade, individual freedom, and international peace.

The monetary and historical analysis sets the stage for understanding the mechanics of the operation of Bitcoin, the reasons for its initial success, and the role it could play in an information economy. Rather than serving as a currency and network for consumer purchases, the author argues Bitcoin is better suited as a store of value and network for settlement between large financial institutions. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin's true importance may just lie in providing a decentralized, neutral, free-market alternative to national central banks.]]> 304 Saifedean Ammous 1119473861 John 0 to-read, crypto-want-to-read 4.14 2018 The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
author: Saifedean Ammous
name: John
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ethics of Money Production]]> 6520108 280 Jörg Guido Hülsmann 1933550090 John 0 to-read 4.39 2007 The Ethics of Money Production
author: Jörg Guido Hülsmann
name: John
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy]]> 58130529
It all has to do with who our news media is written by―and who it is written for. In Bad How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy , Batya Ungar-Sargon reveals how American journalism underwent a status revolution over the twentieth century―from a blue-collar trade to an elite profession. As a result, journalists shifted their focus away from the working class and toward the concerns of their affluent, highly educated peers. With the rise of the Internet and the implosion of local news, America’s elite news media became nationalized and its journalists affluent and ideological. And where once business concerns provided a countervailing force to push back against journalists� worst tendencies, the pressures of the digital media landscape now align corporate incentives with newsroom crusades.

The truth is, the moral panic around race, encouraged by today’s elite newsrooms, does little more than consolidate the power of liberal elites and protect their economic interests. And in abandoning the working class by creating a culture war around identity, our national media is undermining American democracy. Bad News explains how this happened, why it happened, and the dangers posed by this development if it continues unchecked.]]> 312 Batya Ungar-Sargon 1641772069 John 0 to-read 4.03 2021 Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy
author: Batya Ungar-Sargon
name: John
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation]]> 57941227
In Get It Done , psychologist and behavioral scientist Ayelet Fishbach presents a new theoretical framework for self-motivated action, explaining how With fascinating research from the field of motivation science and compelling stories of people who learned to motivate themselves, Get It Done illuminates invaluable strategies for pulling yourself in whatever direction you want to go—so you can achieve your goals while staying healthy, clearheaded, and happy.
ձ> 304 Ayelet Fishbach 0316538345 John 0 to-read 3.54 Get It Done: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation
author: Ayelet Fishbach
name: John
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future of the United States-Australia Alliance: Evolving Security Strategy in the Indo-Pacific]]> 55825513 Scott D. McDonald 0429317522 John 0 to-read 0.0 The Future of the United States-Australia Alliance: Evolving Security Strategy in the Indo-Pacific
author: Scott D. McDonald
name: John
average rating: 0.0
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rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War]]> 56668328 An exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war

ANew York Times Book Review Editors� Choice

In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.

Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,� asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?

In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?�

Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.]]> 256 Malcolm Gladwell 0316296619 John 0 to-read 3.98 2021 The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: John
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
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date added: 2021/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos]]> 52090762 One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters—a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.

Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. With courage, guile, and nerves of steel, these “ghetto girls� paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with German soldiers, bribed them with wine, whiskey, and home cooking, used their Aryan looks to seduce them, and shot and killed them. They bombed German train lines and blew up a town’s water supply. They also nursed the sick and taught children.

Yet the exploits of these courageous resistance fighters have remained virtually unknown.

As propulsive and thrilling as Hidden Figures, In the Garden of Beasts, Band of Brothers, and A Train in Winter, The Light of Days at last tells the true story of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time. Judy Batalion—the granddaughter of Polish Holocaust survivors—takes us back to 1939 and introduces us to Renia Kukielka, a weapons smuggler and messenger who risked death traveling across occupied Poland on foot and by train. Joining Renia are other women who served as couriers, armed fighters, intelligence agents, and saboteurs, all who put their lives in mortal danger to carry out their missions. Batalion follows these women through the savage destruction of the ghettos, arrest and internment in Gestapo prisons and concentration camps, and for a lucky few—like Renia, who orchestrated her own audacious escape from a brutal Nazi jail—into the late 20th century and beyond.

Powerful and inspiring, featuring twenty black-and-white photographs, The Light of Days is an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds.


]]> 560 Judy Batalion 0062874217 John 0 to-read 4.07 2021 The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos
author: Judy Batalion
name: John
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America]]> 58133534 People of good will on both the left and the right are secretly asking themselves the same question: how has the conversation on race gone so crazy?

Bestselling author and acclaimed linguist John McWhorter argues that an illiberal neoracism, disguised as antiracism, is hurting black communities and weakening the social fabric.

We're told to read books and listen to music by people of colour but that wearing certain clothes is 'appropriation.' We hear that being white automatically gives you privilege and that being black makes you a victim. We want to speak up but fear we'll be seen as unwoke, or worse, labelled a racist. According to John McWhorter, the problem is that a well-meaning but pernicious form of antiracism has become, not a progressive ideology, but a religion - and one that's illogical, unreachable, and unintentionally neoracist.

In Woke Racism, McWhorter reveals the workings of this new religion, from the original sin of 'white privilege' and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervour of the 'woke mob.' He shows how this religion that claims to 'dismantle racist structures' is actually harming his fellow black Americans by infantilizing black people, setting black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage black communities. The new religion might be called 'antiracism, ' but it features a racial essentialism that's barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.

Fortunately, for all of us, it's not too late to push back against woke racism. McWhorter shares scripts and encouragement with those trying to deprogramme friends and family. And most importantly, he offers a roadmap to justice that actually will help, not hurt, black people.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER]]> 224 John McWhorter 0593423062 John 0 to-read 3.87 2021 Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
author: John McWhorter
name: John
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/31
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]]> Kukum 48657691


Ce roman raconte l'histoire d'Almanda Siméon, une orpheline amoureuse qui va partager la vie des Innus de Pekuakami. Elle apprendra l'existence nomade et la langue, et brisera les barrières imposées aux femmes autochtones. Relaté sur un ton intimiste, le parcours de cette femme exprime l'attachement aux valeurs ancestrales des Innus et le besoin de liberté qu'éprouvent les peuples nomades, encore aujourd'hui.]]> 224 Michel Jean 2764813449 John 0 to-read 4.52 2019 Kukum
author: Michel Jean
name: John
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/27
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]]> Homeland Elegies 50358133 Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of belonging and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque adventure -- at its heart, it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

Akhtar forges a new narrative voice to capture a country in which debt has ruined countless lives and our ideals have been sacrificed to the gods of finance, where a TV personality is president and immigrants live in fear, and where the nation's unhealed wounds of 9/11 wreak havoc around the world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from a heartland town in America to palatial suites in Central Europe to guerilla lookouts in the mountains of Afghanistan, and spares no one -- least of all himself -- in the process.]]> 368 Ayad Akhtar 0316496421 John 3 4.11 2020 Homeland Elegies
author: Ayad Akhtar
name: John
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/09/12
date added: 2021/10/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change]]> 49556729 A brilliant condemnation of political hobbyism—treating politics like entertainment—and a call to arms for well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news, but do not take political action.

Who is to blame for our broken politics? The uncomfortable answer to this question starts with ordinary citizens with good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly “engage� by consuming politics as if it’s a sport or a hobby. We soak in daily political gossip and eat up statistics about who’s up and who’s down. We tweet and post and share. We crave outrage. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime.

Instead, we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. But most of us who are spending time on politics today are focused inward, choosing roles and activities designed for our short-term pleasure. We are repelled by the slow-and-steady activities that characterize service to the common good.

In Politics Is for Power, pioneering and brilliant data analyst Eitan Hersh shows us a way toward more effective political participation. Aided by political theory, history, cutting-edge social science, as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.]]> 288 Eitan D. Hersh 1982116781 John 0 to-read 4.09 2020 Politics Is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change
author: Eitan D. Hersh
name: John
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance]]> 56988244 A cutting-edge look at how accelerating financial change, from the end of cash to the rise of cryptocurrencies, will transform economies for better and worse.

We think we’ve seen financial innovation. We bank from laptops and buy coffee with the wave of a phone. But these are minor miracles compared with the dizzying experiments now underway around the globe, as businesses and governments alike embrace the possibilities of new financial technologies. As Eswar S. Prasad explains, the world of finance is at the threshold of major disruption that will affect corporations, bankers, states, and indeed all of us. The transformation of money will fundamentally rewrite how ordinary people live.

Above all, Prasad foresees the end of physical cash. The driving force won’t be phones or credit cards but rather central banks, spurred by the emergence of cryptocurrencies to develop their own, more stable digital currencies. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies themselves will evolve unpredictably as global corporations like Facebook and Amazon join the game. The changes will be accompanied by snowballing innovations that are reshaping finance and have already begun to revolutionize how we invest, trade, insure, and manage risk.

Prasad shows how these and other changes will redefine the very concept of money, unbundling its traditional functions as a unit of account, medium of exchange, and store of value. The promise lies in greater efficiency and flexibility, increased sensitivity to the needs of diverse consumers, and improved market access for the unbanked. The risk is instability, lack of accountability, and erosion of privacy. A lucid, visionary work, The Future of Money shows how to maximize the best and guard against the worst of what is to come.]]> 496 Eswar S. Prasad 0674258444 John 0 to-read 3.80 2021 The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance
author: Eswar S. Prasad
name: John
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers]]> 42940498 CAROL DWECK, author of Mindset

“Jo Boaler is one of the most creative and innovative educators today. Limitless Mind marries cutting-edge brain science with her experience in the classroom, not only proving that each of us has limitless potential but offering strategies for how we can achieve it.”—�LAURENE POWELL JOBS

“A courageous freethinker with fresh ideas on learning.� —�BOOKLIST

In this revolutionary book, a professor of education at Stanford University and acclaimed math educator who has spent decades studying the impact of beliefs and bias on education, reveals the six keys to unlocking learning potential, based on the latest scientific findings.

From the moment we enter school as children, we are made to feel as if our brains are fixed entities, capable of learning certain things and not others, influenced exclusively by genetics. This notion follows us into adulthood, where we tend to simply accept these established beliefs about our skillsets (i.e. that we don’t have “a math brain� or that we aren’t “the creative type�). These damaging—and as new science has revealed, false—assumptions have influenced all of us at some time, affecting our confidence and willingness to try new things and limiting our choices, and, ultimately, our futures.

Stanford University professor, bestselling author, and acclaimed educator Jo Boaler has spent decades studying the impact of beliefs and bias on education. In Limitless Mind , she explodes these myths and reveals the six keys to unlocking our boundless learning potential. Her research proves that those who achieve at the highest levels do not do so because of a genetic inclination toward any one skill but because of the keys that she reveals in the book. Our brains are not “fixed,� but entirely capable of change, growth, adaptability, and rewiring. Want to be fluent in mathematics? Learn a foreign language? Play the guitar? Write a book? The truth is not only that anyone at any age can learn anything, but the act of learning itself fundamentally changes who we are, and as Boaler argues so elegantly in the pages of this book, what we go on to achieve.

ձ> 247 Jo Boaler 0062851772 John 0 to-read 4.11 2019 Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers
author: Jo Boaler
name: John
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/03
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]]> L'étrange Destin de Wangrin 1739318 384 Amadou Hampâté Bâ 2264017589 John 4 4.19 1973 L'étrange Destin de Wangrin
author: Amadou Hampâté Bâ
name: John
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/09/15
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]]> I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow 15791972 I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow is the story of Jonathan Goldstein's journey to find some great truth on his road to forty.

In a series of wonderfully funny stories, the host of CBC's WireTap recounts the highs and lows of his last year in his thirties. Throughout the year, Goldstein asks weighty questions that would stump a person less seasoned. For example: What is it about a McRib that drives people crazy? Can we replace extending an olive leaf with extending an olive jar? How much wisdom can we glean from episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter? His friends and family, many of them known through their appearances on WireTap, weigh in with hilarious results as Goldstein eats, sleeps, and watches bad TV all the way to his date with destiny.]]> 256 Jonathan Goldstein 014317388X John 4 3.71 2012 I'll Seize the Day Tomorrow
author: Jonathan Goldstein
name: John
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/31
date added: 2021/09/10
shelves:
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I had so many laugh out loud moments when reading this book. Jonathan and his family are probably just as weird as the rest of us are in private, but he has a great gift for capturing and probably exaggerating their traits in short little stories. There is so much wit throughout the book, in Jonathan’s own musings and in his characters. There are also some short stories that are weird takes on common motifs or parodies of well known stories. Some of these were brilliant, others less so, in my view.
]]> <![CDATA[The Great Rupture: Three Empires, Four Turning Points, and the Future of Humanity]]> 54282791
The lessons of the last five centuries were unequivocal—without freedom, there could be no prosperity or happiness. However, does this still hold true in the Information Age?

Modern technologies are disrupting our societies, altering every facet of our lives, from the nature of work and what we intrinsically value, to how we are informed, entertained, and educated—it promises to be a far deeper disruption than Industrial Revolutions. Humanity is at a major turning point, and how we respond to the merger of technology and financialization will decide our future. Will it be capitalism or communism, feudalism or despotism?

By learning from the past and projecting into the future, global market strategist Viktor Shvets explores the weakening nexus between freedom and prosperity and what that means for the future of humanity. From the birth of our modern world, pivotal events in human history have led to the collapse of non-Western civilizations—Mongol warriors sweeping across Eurasian steppes; the Black Death and a re-awakening of human spirit; Zheng He’s voyages and the collapse of Novgorod republic; and finally, the ban on printing in Arabic. What can we learn from these events to better prepare ourselves for the future?

As we hurtle toward that uncertain future, we must decide whether our cherished individual freedoms are still necessary for success and prosperity, or if in adapting to new technologies, non-Western civilizations are now better positioned for this new world, creating illiberal orders that might no longer suffer from stagnation of ideas. For the first time in at least five centuries, we have an opportunity and tools to build a different society and economy. Will we embrace the challenge?]]> 356 Viktor Shvets John 0 to-read 4.24 The Great Rupture: Three Empires, Four Turning Points, and the Future of Humanity
author: Viktor Shvets
name: John
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/09/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Asian Financial Crisis 1995�98: Birth of the Age of Debt]]> 57283124
In this economic crisis hundreds of people died in rioting, political strong men were removed and hundreds of billions of dollars were lost by investors.

This crisis saw the US dollar value of some Asian stock markets decline by ninety percent. Why did almost no one see it coming?

The Asian Financial Crisis 1995�98 charts Russell Napier’s personal journey during that crisis as he wrote daily for institutional investors about an increasingly uncertain future. Relying on contemporaneous commentary, it charts the mistakes and successes of investors in the battle for investment survival in Asia from 1995�98.

This is not just a guide for investors navigating financial markets, but also an explanation of how this crisis created the foundations of an age of debt that has changed the modern world.]]> 388 Russell Napier 0857199145 John 0 to-read 3.80 The Asian Financial Crisis 1995–98: Birth of the Age of Debt
author: Russell Napier
name: John
average rating: 3.80
book published:
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date added: 2021/07/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Carl Menger and the Evolution of Payments Systems: From Barter to Electronic Money]]> 3742908 191 Stefan W. Schmitz 1840649186 John 0 to-read 4.00 2002 Carl Menger and the Evolution of Payments Systems: From Barter to Electronic Money
author: Stefan W. Schmitz
name: John
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism]]> 50155421 The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, professor, and historian offers an expert guide to understanding the appeal of the strongman as a leader and an explanation for why authoritarianism is back with a menacing twenty-first century twist.

Across the world today, from the Americas to Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege while populism and nationalism are on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum offers an unexpected explanation: that there is a deep and inherent appeal to authoritarianism, to strongmen, and, especially, to one-party rule--that is, to political systems that benefit true believers, or loyal soldiers, or simply the friends and distant cousins of the Leader, to the exclusion of everyone else.

People, she argues, are not just ideological; they are also practical, pragmatic, opportunistic. They worry about their families, their houses, their careers. Some political systems offer them possibilities, and others don't. In particular, the modern authoritarian parties that have arisen within democracies today offer the possibility of success to people who do not thrive in the meritocratic, democratic, or free-market competition that determines access to wealth and power.

Drawing on reporting in Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, and Brazil; using historical examples including Stalinist central Europe and Nazi Germany; and investigating related phenomena: the modern conspiracy theory, nostalgia for a golden past, political polarization, and meritocracy and its discontents, Anne Applebaum brilliantly illuminates the seduction of totalitarian thinking and the eternal appeal of the one-party state.]]> 224 Anne Applebaum 0771005857 John 5 3.87 2020 Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
author: Anne Applebaum
name: John
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/07/24
date added: 2021/07/24
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]]> A Bubble that Broke the World 53601102
This book blows away the conventional interpretations, not only in its contents but that the book exists at all. The Bubble that Broke the World was written in 1931. Author Garet Garrett ascribes the crash to the pileup of debt, which in turn was made possible by the Federal Reserve's printing machine. This created distortions in the production structure that cried out for correction. So what is the answer? Let the correction happen and learn from our mistakes.

Such is the thesis of the great Garet Garrett. But take note: this book was a big seller in 1931. In other words, two years before FDR arrived with his destructive New Deal, ascribing the Depression to capitalism and speculation, Garrett had already explained what was really behind the correction.

We are still fighting an uphill battle to explain the true causes of stock-market crashes and economic recessions, especially the Great Depression. But here in this wonderful book is an actual contemporary account that spelled it out plainly for the world to see.

No more can we say that people back then could not have understood. Garrett told them. And thanks to this new edition of this classic and important work, he is telling us again today.]]> Garet Garrett John 0 to-read 3.57 1997 A Bubble that Broke the World
author: Garet Garrett
name: John
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior)]]> 36738680 The lasting effects of slavery on contemporary political attitudes in the American South

Despite dramatic social transformations in the United States during the last 150 years, the South has remained staunchly conservative. Southerners are more likely to support Republican candidates, gun rights, and the death penalty, and southern whites harbor higher levels of racial resentment than whites in other parts of the country. Why haven't these sentiments evolved or changed? Deep Roots shows that the entrenched political and racial views of contemporary white southerners are a direct consequence of the region's slaveholding history, which continues to shape economic, political, and social spheres. Today, southern whites who live in areas once reliant on slavery--compared to areas that were not--are more racially hostile and less amenable to policies that could promote black progress.

Highlighting the connection between historical institutions and contemporary political attitudes, the authors explore the period following the Civil War when elite whites in former bastions of slavery had political and economic incentives to encourage the development of anti-black laws and practices. Deep Roots shows that these forces created a local political culture steeped in racial prejudice, and that these viewpoints have been passed down over generations, from parents to children and via communities, through a process called behavioral path dependence. While legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act made huge strides in increasing economic opportunity and reducing educational disparities, southern slavery has had a profound, lasting, and self-reinforcing influence on regional and national politics that can still be felt today.

A groundbreaking look at the ways institutions of the past continue to sway attitudes of the present, Deep Roots demonstrates how social beliefs persist long after the formal policies that created those beliefs have been eradicated.]]> 296 Avidit Acharya 0691176744 John 4 3.94 Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior)
author: Avidit Acharya
name: John
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/07
date added: 2021/07/07
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An academic book that makes a very compelling case using statistical analysis about the persistent effect of slave ownership levels in the pre-civil war period on the attitudes of white southerners toward Black people. Specifically, the authors argue that data show that white people living in counties with higher rates of slave ownership pre-civil war continue to be “cooler� toward Black people in so-called self-reported “thermometer surveys�, that they are less likely to support policies believed to favour Blacks, and less likely to vote for the contemporary Democratic Party. The authors posit that a concept they call behavioural path dependence is the reason for the stability seen in the attitudes of white southerners in these higher slave owning counties toward Black people. Behavioural path dependence is the term used to describe the passing down of ideas and behaviours over time both through institutions and formal laws and through families and social structures (eg schools and churches). In this case, a crucial turning point that launched many white southerners on this path was the post civil war crisis get by southern cotton planters who would have faced severe economic deterioration if the now freed black slaves became politically empowered, economically mobile and able to use the shortage of labour as leverage to gain higher wages. Behaviours and policies that aimed at instilling fear in Black people to prevent them from voting and to still tie them to the land were instituted as a result. Early in the book, there are interesting references to other periods of history that may have shaped negative attitudes towards other minority groups. For example, a German study looked at voting patterns in German towns during the Weimar period showed that the Nazi party (and possibly predecessor parties) had higher shares of the vote in towns that saw anti-Jewish pogroms during the period of the plague in the 14th century. A whole bunch other interesting references are found on the same page.
]]> <![CDATA[The Economics of Central Banking]]> 38365703 144 Livio Stracca 1138496715 John 0 to-read 3.80 The Economics of Central Banking
author: Livio Stracca
name: John
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> Central Banking 101 56863052 227 Joseph J. Wang 0999136755 John 0 to-read 4.40 Central Banking 101
author: Joseph J. Wang
name: John
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy]]> 30231791 464 Mervyn A. King 0393353575 John 0 to-read 4.05 2016 The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy
author: Mervyn A. King
name: John
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China]]> 48890489 384 Jonathan Kaufman 0735224412 John 4 made in the book, and perhaps parts of the book tread ground already well-covered by historians, but the content is riveting nevertheless. ]]> 4.21 2020 The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China
author: Jonathan Kaufman
name: John
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/19
date added: 2021/06/19
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Academic historians may critique some of the claims
made in the book, and perhaps parts of the book tread ground already well-covered by historians, but the content is riveting nevertheless.
]]> <![CDATA[Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis]]> 53404243
Serhii Plokhy’s Nuclear Folly offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground. In breathtaking detail, Plokhy vividly recounts the young JFK being played by the canny Khrushchev; the hotheaded Castro willing to defy the USSR and threatening to align himself with China; the Soviet troops on the ground clearing jungle foliage in the tropical heat, and desperately trying to conceal nuclear installations on Cuba, which were nonetheless easily spotted by U-2 spy planes; and the hair-raising near misses at sea that nearly caused a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine to fire its weapons.

More often than not, the Americans and Soviets misread each other, operated under false information, and came perilously close to nuclear catastrophe. Despite these errors, nuclear war was ultimately avoided for one central reason: fear, and the realization that any escalation on either the Soviets� or the Americans� part would lead to mutual destruction.


Drawing on a range of Soviet archival sources, including previously classified KGB documents, as well as White House tapes, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama and anxiety of those tense days, and provides a way for us to grapple with the problems posed in our present day.]]> 444 Serhii Plokhy 0393540812 John 0 to-read 4.14 2021 Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
author: Serhii Plokhy
name: John
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/12
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]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 John 5 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: John
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2012/06/01
date added: 2021/06/01
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]]> <![CDATA[China and the West: The Munk Debates]]> 44786988
The twenty-fourth semi-annual Munk Debate, held on May 9, 2019, pits former Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs H. R. McMaster and director for Chinese strategy at the D.C.-based Hudson Institute think tank Michael Pillsbury against former President of the United Nations Security Council Kishore Mahbubani and president of one of China’s top independent think tanks, the Center for China Globalization, Huiyao Wang to debate the threat of China to the liberal international order.]]> 144 H.R. McMaster 1487007183 John 5 3.70 China and the West: The Munk Debates
author: H.R. McMaster
name: John
average rating: 3.70
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/30
date added: 2021/05/30
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Great opportunity to be exposed to some very divergent views on the same topic. I felt that McMaster and Piilsbury, who were on the “yes� side of the question being debated (“is China a threat to the liberal international order�) were overly strident and rhetorical at times. The debt trap claims were probably a prime example. Even those inclined to agree with sentiment that China poses as a threat to the order may not be swayed by some of the reasons they cite for why that is the case. For example, there was much emphasis on the domestic repression of the Chinese state but no clear argument about why and how this would affect the international order. On the other hand, Wang Huiyao, the Chinese think tank head who argued against, seemed to talk about China in ways that probably had more to do with how he would like it to be (a reforming, UN and international order supporting state that just needs to learn a bit more and to work harder at implementing things like WTO reforms, but intends to follow the rules) than the direction in which Xi Jinping is taking it.
]]> <![CDATA[Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World]]> 37506348 An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to "change the world" preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.

Former New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas takes us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, where the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can--except ways that threaten the social order and their position atop it. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviors of the poor; how they lavishly reward "thought leaders" who redefine "change" in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. We hear the limousine confessions of a celebrated foundation boss; witness an American president hem and haw about his plutocratic benefactors; and attend a cruise-ship conference where entrepreneurs celebrate their own self-interested magnanimity.

Giridharadas asks hard questions: Why, for example, should our gravest problems be solved by the unelected upper crust instead of the public institutions it erodes by lobbying and dodging taxes? He also points toward an answer: Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, we must take on the grueling democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian institutions and truly changing the world. A call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike.]]> 288 Anand Giridharadas 0451493249 John 4
I felt the book did a great job critiquing the uniformity of thought and often superficial approach of the elite’s do good circuits (e.g. Davos or the public policy divisions of the mega consultancies). In fact, many of these initiatives are members of the elite taking to each other without a good sense of or interest in the people who are supposed to benefit from their grand plans. They also tend to be biased in favour of measures that protect
“the system� (usually, what he means is lightly-regulated American capitalism, especially financial institutions and tech firms) rather than completely changing it. This is why he is scornful of MarketWorld’s claim that it is seeking “win-win� solutions. Case in point is a high tech start up that is meant to help the precariously-employed gig workers save and cover unforeseen contingencies (e.g. health events) and collects a cut from their contributions rather than engaging in policy lobbying to grant benefits to these workers. There were also some trenchant critiques of the rootless cosmopolitan globalist elite and why they are not trusted by the so-called “somewhere people� (e.g. Brexit voters).

The big shortcoming of this book, though, is that it is a polemic that does not give much thought to alternatives. The author’s presumption seems to be that people are guaranteed to be better off if philanthropists were let governments do their work and to leave them with more tax money and if the government had a stronger role in the economy. This presumption seems to be global in scope. He is critical of philanthropy that aims to support the Sustainable Development Goals and other global health initiatives as much as he is of the work of foundations focused specifically on the USA. What I feel is that he has veered too strongly to the left and ignored the many instances in which public efforts (e.g. UN poverty reduction efforts) have failed. Are there not many cases in which market reforms do end up creating more wealth for everyone ? The author bashes talking heads who advocate for market friendly regulation in emerging markets or for greater labour market flexibility (ability to hire and fire more easily) in a place like Italy, but he does not engage arguments and studies that suggest that such reforms can improve overall welfare, especially among young people and inexperienced job seekers. Giridhardas is also curiously silent about the harms caused by over regulation in many societies. This is a serious shortcoming of the book - there has to be at least some admission that no perfect governance or market model exists and that, in some cases, the solutions proposed by MarketWorld could improve general welfare.

Instead, the author pokes away at pro- market /technocratic leaders like former Argentinian president Mauricio Macri and Italy’s technocratic Monti for being out of touch with the people, but he fails to acknowledge the harm done by more interventionist and populist administrations in those countries. ]]> 4.12 2018 Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
author: Anand Giridharadas
name: John
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/30
date added: 2021/05/30
shelves:
review:
At its core, this book by Anand Giridharadas, journalist and repentant/reformed former fellow traveller of what he calls “MarketWorld� argues that philanthropic initiatives by elites (mostly Western elites, it seems) deflect focus from the need for systemic changes. MarketWorld is that constellation of “thought leaders� (e.g. Bill Clinton, various TED Talk super stars and Niall Ferguson) as well as corporate foundations and wannabe do-good consultancies that engage in projects and campaigns to change the world for the better but do so by circumventing government and without any popular mandate. Giridharadas argues that by failing to change the system, for example, through advocating inheritance tax reform (this is one of a few concrete policy measures that he cites repeatedly) or by calling for a prohibition of extractive industries (paraphrase), philanthropic elites and their hangers-on are simply deflecting from their guilt and failing to solve the problems they claim to want to address.

I felt the book did a great job critiquing the uniformity of thought and often superficial approach of the elite’s do good circuits (e.g. Davos or the public policy divisions of the mega consultancies). In fact, many of these initiatives are members of the elite taking to each other without a good sense of or interest in the people who are supposed to benefit from their grand plans. They also tend to be biased in favour of measures that protect
“the system� (usually, what he means is lightly-regulated American capitalism, especially financial institutions and tech firms) rather than completely changing it. This is why he is scornful of MarketWorld’s claim that it is seeking “win-win� solutions. Case in point is a high tech start up that is meant to help the precariously-employed gig workers save and cover unforeseen contingencies (e.g. health events) and collects a cut from their contributions rather than engaging in policy lobbying to grant benefits to these workers. There were also some trenchant critiques of the rootless cosmopolitan globalist elite and why they are not trusted by the so-called “somewhere people� (e.g. Brexit voters).

The big shortcoming of this book, though, is that it is a polemic that does not give much thought to alternatives. The author’s presumption seems to be that people are guaranteed to be better off if philanthropists were let governments do their work and to leave them with more tax money and if the government had a stronger role in the economy. This presumption seems to be global in scope. He is critical of philanthropy that aims to support the Sustainable Development Goals and other global health initiatives as much as he is of the work of foundations focused specifically on the USA. What I feel is that he has veered too strongly to the left and ignored the many instances in which public efforts (e.g. UN poverty reduction efforts) have failed. Are there not many cases in which market reforms do end up creating more wealth for everyone ? The author bashes talking heads who advocate for market friendly regulation in emerging markets or for greater labour market flexibility (ability to hire and fire more easily) in a place like Italy, but he does not engage arguments and studies that suggest that such reforms can improve overall welfare, especially among young people and inexperienced job seekers. Giridhardas is also curiously silent about the harms caused by over regulation in many societies. This is a serious shortcoming of the book - there has to be at least some admission that no perfect governance or market model exists and that, in some cases, the solutions proposed by MarketWorld could improve general welfare.

Instead, the author pokes away at pro- market /technocratic leaders like former Argentinian president Mauricio Macri and Italy’s technocratic Monti for being out of touch with the people, but he fails to acknowledge the harm done by more interventionist and populist administrations in those countries.
]]> <![CDATA[Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing]]> 15791143
Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman's work changes the national dialogue. Beyond their bestselling books, you know them from commentary and features in the New York Times , CNN, NPR, Time , Newsweek , Wired , New York , and more. E-mail, Facebook, and Twitter accounts are filled with demands to read their reporting (such as "How Not to Talk to Your Kids," "Creativity Crisis," and "Losing Is Good for You").

In Top Dog , Bronson and Merryman again use their astonishing blend of science and storytelling to reveal what's truly in the heart of a champion. The joy of victory and the character-building agony of defeat. Testosterone and the neuroscience of mistakes. Why rivals motivate. How home field advantage gets you a raise. What teamwork really requires. It's baseball, the SAT, sales contests, and Linux. How before da Vinci and FedEx were innovators, first, they were great competitors.

Olympians carry Top Dog in their gym bags. It's in briefcases of Wall Street traders and Madison Avenue madmen. Risk takers from Silicon Valley to Vegas race to implement its ideas, as educators debate it in halls of academia. Now see for yourself what this game-changing talk is all about.]]> 352 Po Bronson 1455515159 John 0 3.78 2013 Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing
author: Po Bronson
name: John
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/11
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]]> <![CDATA[US-China Nuclear Relations: The Impact of Strategic Triangles]]> 57984060
To address these questions, the authors of US-China Nuclear Relations examine a series of strategic triangles involving China, the US, and one or more key third actors (among them, Australia, India, Iran, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan). Their work also critically highlights the challenges and opportunities facing Washington and Beijing in this increasingly complex security arena.]]> 253 David Santoro 1626379076 John 0 to-read 3.00 US-China Nuclear Relations: The Impact of Strategic Triangles
author: David Santoro
name: John
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Difficult Choices: Taiwan's Quest for Security and the Good Life]]> 53439115 430 Richard C. Bush 0815738331 John 0 to-read 4.56 Difficult Choices: Taiwan's Quest for Security and the Good Life
author: Richard C. Bush
name: John
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)]]> 38532247
In this book, Michael Beckley argues that the United States has unique advantages over other nations that, if used wisely, will allow it to remain the world’s sole superpower throughout this century. We are not living in a transitional, post-Cold War era. Instead, we are in the midst of what he calls the unipolar era—a period as singular and important as any epoch in modern history. This era, Beckley contends, will endure because the US has a much larger economic and military lead over its closest rival, China, than most people think and the best prospects of any nation to amass wealth and power in the decades ahead.

Deeply researched and brilliantly argued, this book covers hundreds of years of great power politics and develops new methods for measuring power and predicting the rise and fall of nations. By documenting long-term trends in the global balance of power and explaining their implications for world politics, the book provides guidance for policymakers, businesspeople, and scholars alike.]]> 248 Michael Beckley 1501724789 John 0 to-read 4.10 Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
author: Michael Beckley
name: John
average rating: 4.10
book published:
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date added: 2021/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence]]> 54849817
Hass makes the case that the United States will have greater success in outpacing China economically and outshining it in questions of governance if it focuses more on improving its own condition at home than on trying to impede Chinese initiatives. He argues that the task at hand is not to stand in China’s way and turn a rising power into an enemy in the process but to renew America’s advantages in its competition with China.]]> 240 Ryan Hass 0300251254 John 0 to-read 3.57 Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence
author: Ryan Hass
name: John
average rating: 3.57
book published:
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date added: 2021/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Russian "Hybrid Warfare": Resurgence and Politicization]]> 36849059 notion has been undermined by conceptual vagueness and political manipulation, particularly since the onset of the Ukrainian Crisis in early 2014, as ideas about Hybrid Warfare engulf Russia and the West, especially in the media.

Western defense and political specialists analyzing Russian responses to the crisis have been quick to confirm that Hybrid Warfare is the Kremlin's main strategy in the twenty-first century. But many respected Russian strategists and political observers contend that it is the West that has been
waging Hybrid War, Gibridnaya Voyna, since the end of the Cold War.

In this highly topical book, Ofer Fridman offers a clear delineation of the conceptual debates about Hybrid Warfare. What leads Russian experts to say that the West is conducting a Gibridnaya Voyna against Russia, and what do they mean by it? Why do Western observers claim that the Kremlin engages
in Hybrid Warfare? And, beyond terminology, is this something genuinely new?]]> 288 Ofer Fridman 0190877375 John 0 to-read 3.77 Russian "Hybrid Warfare": Resurgence and Politicization
author: Ofer Fridman
name: John
average rating: 3.77
book published:
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date added: 2021/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy]]> 57421871
While many military historians have sought to interpret Russian strategy, Strategiya takes a different approach. It brings together, in English, the classic works of the Russian art of strategy, which were rediscovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Instead of explaining his analysis of Russia's contemporary strategy, Ofer Fridman offers his translation of and commentary upon the founding texts of Russia's own Clausewitzes, Baron Jominis and Liddell Harts, who have been inspiring Russian strategic thinking--both its conceptualisation and its implementation--from the moment Moscow rejected the exclusive role of Marxism-Leninism in strategic affairs.

Russian contemporary strategists draw their inspiration from three main schools of thought. While works by Soviet military thinkers have already been translated into English, those by both Imperial strategists and military thinkers in exile have remained almost inaccessible to the Western reader. Filling this lacuna, Strategiya offers a fascinating glimpse inside the foundations of Russian strategic thought and practice.]]> 336 Ofer Fridman 0197606164 John 0 to-read 4.29 Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy
author: Ofer Fridman
name: John
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes]]> 41817546 more susceptible to them. This is the "intelligence trap," the subject of David Robson’s fascinating and provocative book.

The Intelligence Trap explores cutting-edge ideas in our understanding of intelligence and expertise, including "strategic ignorance," "meta-forgetfulness," and "functional stupidity." Robson reveals the surprising ways that even the brightest minds and most talented organizations can go wrong—from some of Thomas Edison’s worst ideas to failures at NASA, Nokia, and the FBI. And he offers practical advice to avoid mistakes based on the timeless lessons of Benjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman, and Daniel Kahneman.]]> 336 David Robson 0393651428 John 4 3.99 2019 The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes
author: David Robson
name: John
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/16
date added: 2021/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime]]> 39951739 Oriana Skylar Mastro 1501732218 John 0 to-read 3.33 The Costs of Conversation: Obstacles to Peace Talks in Wartime
author: Oriana Skylar Mastro
name: John
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy]]> 51720954 The defining geopolitical contest of the twenty-first century is between China and the US. But is it avoidable? And if it happens, is the outcome already inevitable?
China and America are world powers without serious rivals. They eye each other warily across the Pacific; they communicate poorly; there seems little natural empathy. A massive geopolitical contest has begun.
America prizes freedom; China values freedom from chaos.America values strategic decisiveness; China values patience.America is becoming society of lasting inequality; China a meritocracy.America has abandoned multilateralism; China welcomes it.
Kishore Mahbubani, a diplomat and scholar with unrivalled access to policymakers in Beijing and Washington, has written the definitive guide to the deep fault lines in the relationship, a clear-eyed assessment of the risk of any confrontation, and a bracingly honest appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses, and superpower eccentricities, of the US and China.]]> 320 Kishore Mahbubani 1541768132 John 0 to-read 4.03 2020 Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy
author: Kishore Mahbubani
name: John
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/03
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]]> <![CDATA[2034: A Novel of the Next World War]]> 54211065

By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.

So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically out maneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries.

Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and literary, human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power.

Everything in 2034 is an imaginative extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground combined with the authors' years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: 2034 is all too close at hand, and this cautionary tale presents the reader a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid.

]]> 320 Elliot Ackerman 1984881256 John 0 to-read 3.67 2021 2034: A Novel of the Next World War
author: Elliot Ackerman
name: John
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/03
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]]> That Kind of Mother 35959190 From the celebrated author ofRich and Pretty, a novel about the families we fight to build and those we fight to keep

Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed.Struggling to jugglethe demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.


Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently.


Written with the warmth and psychological acuity that defined his debut, Rumaan Alam has crafted a remarkable novel about the lives we choose, and the lives that are chosen for us.]]> 291 Rumaan Alam 0062667602 John 4 3.10 2018 That Kind of Mother
author: Rumaan Alam
name: John
average rating: 3.10
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/28
date added: 2021/04/01
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]]> Immigrant City 40536353 Award-winning author David Bezmozgis’s first story collection in more than a decade, hailed by the Toronto Star as “intelligent, funny, unfailingly sympathetic�

In the title story, a father and his young daughter stumble into a bizarre version of his immigrant childhood. A mysterious tech conference brings a writer to Montreal, where he discovers new designs on the past in “How It Used to Be.� A grandfather’s Yiddish letters expose a love affair and a wartime secret in “Little Rooster.� In “Childhood,� Mark’s concern about his son’s phobias evokes a shameful incident from his own adolescence. In “Roman’s Song,� Roman’s desire to help a new immigrant brings him into contact with a sordid underworld. At his father’s request, Victor returns to Riga, the city of his birth, where his loyalties are tested by the man he might have been in “A New Gravestone for an Old Grave.� And, in the noir-inspired “The Russian Riviera,� Kostya leaves Russia to pursue a boxing career only to find himself working as a doorman in a garish nightclub in the Toronto suburbs.

In these deeply felt, slyly humorous stories, Bezmozgis pleads no special causes but presents immigrant characters with all their contradictions and complexities, their earnest and divided hearts.



ձ> 224 David Bezmozgis 1443457795 John 5 3.49 2019 Immigrant City
author: David Bezmozgis
name: John
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/27
date added: 2021/03/28
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I have enjoyed all of his books and short stories tremendously. The dialogues are incredibly amusing, and the inner world of his main characters, who I assume to be some version of Bezmogis, is really rich. Above all, I love hearing more stories of Soviet Jews in northern North York.
]]> <![CDATA[By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783]]> 32706949
Drawing on archives, interviews, and his own experience in the Pentagon and White House, Green finds one overarching concern driving U.S. policy toward East Asia: a fear felt by Americans that a rival power might use the Pacific to isolate and threaten the United States and prevent the ocean from becoming a conduit for the westward free flow of trade, values, and forward defense. By More Than Providence works through these problems from the perspective of history's major strategists and statesmen, from Thomas Jefferson to Alfred Thayer Mahan and Henry Kissinger. It records the fate of their ideas as they collided with the realities of the Far East and adds clarity to America's stakes in the region, especially when compared with those of Europe and the Middle East.]]> 760 Michael J. Green 023118042X John 0 to-read 4.38 2017 By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783
author: Michael J. Green
name: John
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Strategic Asia 2017-18: Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific]]> 39885378 244 Ashley J. Tellis 1939131529 John 0 to-read 3.20 Strategic Asia 2017-18: Power, Ideas, and Military Strategy in the Asia-Pacific
author: Ashley J. Tellis
name: John
average rating: 3.20
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/17
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]]> Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 31932761 1008 Volker Ullrich 1469065541 John 0 to-read 4.38 2013 Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939
author: Volker Ullrich
name: John
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers]]> 34919098 220 David M Edelstein 1501707566 John 5 3.89 Over the Horizon: Time, Uncertainty, and the Rise of Great Powers
author: David M Edelstein
name: John
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/06
date added: 2021/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership]]> 52752121
"Timely and thought-provoking. . . . An unsparing analysis of how Washington's elite fell into the grip of their China delusion."—James Kynge, Financial Times

"Prestowitz doesn’t just point out problems; he offers a detailed, 25-page 'Plan for America.' An excellent comprehensive study from an expert on the subject."� Kirkus , Starred Review

When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most experts expected the WTO rules and procedures to liberalize China and make it “a responsible stakeholder in the liberal world order.� But the experts made the wrong bet. China today is liberalizing neither economically nor politically but, if anything, becoming more authoritarian and mercantilist.

In this book, notably free of partisan posturing and inflammatory rhetoric, renowned globalization and Asia expert Clyde Prestowitz describes the key challenges posed by China and the strategies America and the Free World must adopt to meet them. He argues that these must be more sophisticated and more comprehensive than a narrowly targeted trade war. Rather, he urges strategies that the United States and its allies can use unilaterally without contravening international or domestic law.]]> 344 Clyde Prestowitz 0300248490 John 0 to-read 3.76 The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership
author: Clyde Prestowitz
name: John
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[How China Loses: The Pushback against Chinese Global Ambitions]]> 51456253
China is advancing its own interests with increasing aggression. From its Belt and Road Initiative linking Asia and Europe, to its "Made in China 2025" strategy to dominate high-tech industries, to its significant economic reach into Africa and Latin America, the regime is rapidly expanding its influence around the globe. Many fear that China's economic clout, tech innovations, and military power will allow it to remake the world in its own authoritarian image. But despite all these strengths, a future with China in charge is far from certain. Rich and poor, big and small, countries around the world are recognizing that engaging China produces new strategic vulnerabilities to their independence and competitiveness.

How China Loses tells the story of China's struggles to overcome new risks and endure the global backlash against its assertive reach. Combining on-the-ground reportage with incisive analysis, Luke Patey argues that China's predatory economic agenda, headstrong diplomacy, and military expansion undermine its global ambitions to dominate the global economy and world affairs. In travels to Africa, Latin America, East Asia and Europe, his encounters with activists, business managers, diplomats, and thinkers reveal the challenges threatening to ground China's rising power.

At a time when views are fixated on the strategic competition between China and the United States, Patey's work shows how the rest of the world will shape the twenty-first century in pushing back against China's overreach and domineering behavior. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries began to confront their political differences and economic and security challenges with China and realize the diversity and possibility for cooperation in the world today.]]> 400 Luke Patey 0190061081 John 0 to-read 3.75 How China Loses: The Pushback against Chinese Global Ambitions
author: Luke Patey
name: John
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus]]> 39020 In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

Contrary to what so many Americans learn in school, the pre-Columbian Indians were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, there were huge numbers of Indians who actively molded and influenced the land around them. The astonishing Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan had running water and immaculately clean streets, and was larger than any contemporary European city. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indeed, Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and manipulating their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. Challenging and surprising, this a transformative new look at a rich and fascinating world we only thought we knew.

]]> 563 Charles C. Mann 1400032059 John 0 to-read 4.05 2005 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
author: Charles C. Mann
name: John
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life (CPS)]]> 17890839
It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day.]]> 340 James Daschuk 0889772967 John 0 to-read 4.30 2013 Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life (CPS)
author: James Daschuk
name: John
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America]]> 15797509 266 Thomas King 0385674058 John 0 to-read 4.25 2012 The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
author: Thomas King
name: John
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Why America Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present]]> 43291032 336 Donald Stoker 1108479596 John 0 to-read 3.85 2019 Why America Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present
author: Donald Stoker
name: John
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy]]> 29502362 Modern economies reward activities that extract value rather than create it. This must change to insure a capitalism that works for us all.

In this scathing indictment of our current global financial system, The Value of Everything rigorously scrutinizes the way in which economic value has been determined and reveals how the difference between value creation and value extraction has become increasingly blurry. Mariana Mazzucato argues that this blurriness allowed certain actors in the economy to portray themselves as value creators, while in reality they were just moving existing value around or, even worse, destroying it.

The book uses case studies - from Silicon Valley to the financial sector to big pharma - to show how the foggy notions of value create confusion between rents and profits, a difference that distorts the measurements of growth and GDP.

The lesson here is urgent and sobering: to rescue our economy from the next, inevitable crisis and to foster long-term economic growth, we will need to rethink capitalism, rethink the role of public policy and the importance of the public sector, and redefine how we measure value in our society.]]> 384 Mariana Mazzucato 161039674X John 0 to-read 4.08 2018 The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy
author: Mariana Mazzucato
name: John
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life]]> 61278

In The Company of Strangers , Paul Seabright provides an original evolutionary and sociological account of the emergence of those economic institutions that manage not only markets but also the world's myriad other affairs.


Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, history, psychology, and literature, Seabright explores how our evolved ability of abstract reasoning has allowed institutions like money, markets, and cities to provide the foundation of social trust. But how long can the networks of modern life survive when we are exposed as never before to risks originating in distant parts of the globe? This lively narrative shows us the remarkable strangeness, and fragility, of our everyday lives.]]> 320 Paul Seabright 0691124523 John 1 to-read 3.68 2004 The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life
author: Paul Seabright
name: John
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2004
rating: 1
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date added: 2021/02/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Belfer Center Studies in International Security)]]> 16248652 Grand strategist and founder of modern Singapore offers key insights and controversial opinions on globalization, geopolitics, economic growth, and democracy.When Lee Kuan Yew speaks, presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, and CEOs listen. Lee, the founding father of modern Singapore and its prime minister from 1959 to 1990, has honed his wisdom during more than fifty years on the world stage. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming Singapore into a Western-style economic success, he offers a unique perspective on the geopolitics of East and West. American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama have welcomed him to the White House; British prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair have recognized his wisdom; and business leaders from Rupert Murdoch to Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, have praised his accomplishments. This book gathers key insights from interviews, speeches, and Lee's voluminous published writings and presents them in an engaging question and answer format.

Lee offers his assessment of China's future, asserting, among other things, that "China will want to share this century as co-equals with the U.S." He affirms the United States' position as the world's sole superpower but expresses dismay at the vagaries of its political system. He offers strategic advice for dealing with China and goes on to discuss India's future, Islamic terrorism, economic growth, geopolitics and globalization, and democracy. Lee does not pull his punches, offering his unvarnished opinions on multiculturalism, the welfare state, education, and the free market. This little book belongs on the reading list of every world leader--including the one who takes the oath of office on January 20, 2013.]]> 224 Graham Allison 0262019124 John 2 to-read 4.25 2013 Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Belfer Center Studies in International Security)
author: Graham Allison
name: John
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 2
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date added: 2021/02/20
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]]> <![CDATA[All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power]]> 32714222
The two decades after the Cold War saw unprecedented cooperation between the major powers as the world converged on a model of liberal international order. Now, great power competition is back and the liberal order is in jeopardy. Russia and China are increasingly revisionist in their regions. The Middle East appears to be unraveling. And many Americans question why the United States ought to lead. What will great power competition look like in the decades ahead? Will the liberal world order survive? What impact will geopolitics have on globalization? And, what strategy should the United States pursue to succeed in an increasingly competitive world? In this book Thomas Wright explains how major powers will compete fiercely even as they try to avoid war with each other. Wright outlines a new American strategy—Responsible Competition—to navigate these challenges and strengthen the liberal order.]]> 288 Thomas J. Wright 0300223285 John 4 3.73 2017 All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power
author: Thomas J. Wright
name: John
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/20
date added: 2021/02/20
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]]> China’s Rise, Asia’s Decline 56294941
The challenge for China’s neighbours is how to respond to these evolving dynamics, especially as their strategic options are increasingly limited and few of the potential future scenarios are long-term positive. China’s rise, therefore, be Asia’s decline.]]> 280 William Bratton 9814928267 John 0 to-read 4.75 2021 China’s Rise, Asia’s Decline
author: William Bratton
name: John
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War]]> 13038428
Before the First World War, the British Admiralty conceived a plan to win rapid victory in the event of war with Germany--economic warfare on an unprecedented scale. This strategy called for the state to exploit Britain's effective monopolies in banking, communications, and shipping--the essential infrastructure underpinning global trade--to create a controlled implosion of the world economic system.]]> 662 Nicholas A. Lambert 0674061497 John 0 to-read 4.12 2012 Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War
author: Nicholas A. Lambert
name: John
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win]]> 49814228
A New York Times Notable Book

“The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.”� The Washington Post

It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker.

But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas.

But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.]]> 368 Maria Konnikova 052552262X John 0 to-read 4.03 2020 The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
author: Maria Konnikova
name: John
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Extreme Economies: Survival, Failure, Future � Lessons from the World’s Limits]]> 42980338
People living in these odd and marginal places are ignored by number crunching economists and political pollsters alike. Science suggests this is a mistake. This book tells the personal stories of humans living in extreme situations, and of the financial infrastructure they create. Here, economies are not concerned with the familiar stock market crashes, housing crises, or banking scandals of the financial pages.

In his quest for a purer view of how economies succeed and fail, Richard Davies takes the reader off the beaten path to places where part of the economy has been repressed, removed, destroyed or turbocharged. By travelling to each of them and discovering what life is really like, Extreme Economies tells small stories that shed light on today’s biggest economic questions, with vital lessons for our future.]]> 320 Richard Davies 1787631990 John 0 to-read 4.20 2020 Extreme Economies: Survival, Failure, Future – Lessons from the World’s Limits
author: Richard Davies
name: John
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/12
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]]> Nobody's Boy 1500209 255 Hector Malot John 1 4.35 1878 Nobody's Boy
author: Hector Malot
name: John
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1878
rating: 1
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date added: 2021/02/03
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]]> Cà Phê Cùng Tony 23276781
Xuyên suốt cuốn sách, các câu chuyện được k� với giọng điệu trào phúng, hài hước lại được th� hiện bằng ngôn ng� “cư dân mạng� tạo s� gần gũi đ� các bạn tr� có th� d� dàng tiếp nhận. Mặc dù tác gi� luôn khẳng định những thông tin, chi tiết trong câu chuyện là hư cấu và thậm xưng nhưng điều đó không có nghĩa làm cuốn sách bớt đi s� thú v�.

Chia s� v� s� ra đời của cuốn sách, tác gi� tâm niệm không muốn những điều anh tâm đắc và đúc kết ch� dừng lại � mạng xã hội. Anh hi vọng những câu chuyện của mình thông qua Cà phê cùng Tony có th� thổi nguồn cảm hứng tới những độc gi� không có điều kiện s� dụng internet, đồng thời khuyến khích văn hóa đọc � các bạn tr� trong thời đại mà văn hóa nghe nhìn đang dần chiếm ưu th�. Đơn giản và không cầu kì, đọc Cà phê cùng Tony, độc gi� s� cảm thấy như đang khám phá câu chuyện của chính mình qua cách k� của một người khác.

Đọc Cà phê cùng Tony, độc gi� không th� cười lớn như khi đọc những mẩu chuyện cười, h� ch� có th� tủm tỉm với những triết lí dí dỏm mà TnBS mang đến.]]> 250 Tony Buổi Sáng John 1 4.14 2014 Cà Phê Cùng Tony
author: Tony Buổi Sáng
name: John
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/02/03
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The South China Sea Dispute: Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions]]> 30964047 320 Ian Storey 9814695556 John 0 to-read 4.20 The South China Sea Dispute: Navigating Diplomatic and Strategic Tensions
author: Ian Storey
name: John
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>