The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
By David McCullough
McCullough
draws fascinating, and sometimes overly detailed, portraits of well-known
Americans who lived in Paris in the 19th century, but the book is really
all about Paris. In the 1820s when he
starts his tales, Paris was still partly an ancient wreck of the middle ages
and renaissance, totally alien to the young Americans who travelled there to
dip their toes into exotic European culture.
When he concludes them in 1900, a more familiar Paris has emerged, blood
stained, exhausted from a century of turbulent change, no longer quite the
leading edge place it had been, a “lady of a certain age.” In between McCullough tells how Paris shaped
the lives of notable Americans and how they shaped the life of Paris. A lengthy
but enjoyable read.
Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry Between Big Business and Government- and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead
By David Rothkopf
Rothkopf starts with a 12th
century goat with red horns and goes from there to the contemporary
bare-knuckle brawl between sovereign states and the “supercitizen” international
corporations that seek to control them.
Along the way he tells a fascinating story of the parallel evolution of
both state and corporation, and ends with his own analysis of the choices
available to the rest of us. A very
long, but highly relevant and well told, account of one of the major issues of
our times.
The Social Conquest of Earth
by Edward O. Wilson
Wilson, one of the demi-gods of biology, makes a persuasive case for the role of altruism and cooperation in the evolution of humanity with his enlargement of the "survival of the fittest" Darwinian concept to include group fitness; e.g., homo sapiens eliminated Neanderthals because sapiens groups were better evolved to cooperate and organize . A few of his details would be questioned from the perspective of other disciplines, but his larger argument follows impeccable logic. While parts of it border on overly technical (he's trying to find acceptance from both the knowledgeable general public and from fellow scientists), the book is a fascinating review of why the true mark of humanity is as much cooperation as individual selfishness; one is tempted to send a copy to each of the 1-percenters, if only they would spare the effort to read it.
A Christmas Sampler edited by Crawford and Kennedy
This collection of wry and (mostly)distinctly not maudlin classics by authors from Washington Irving, Twain, Harte, Runyon, and Baum to contemporaries like Grace Paley is not particularly new (its first edition was in 1992), but it's a wonderful way to share the season with minds that look at the holiday with unblinkered eyes and still find its beauty worth lingering over.
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
classic study of the mentality of extremists that Jung would have loved. It's repetitious and shows its age marks but is well worth the read.
THE END OF TIME by Julian Barbour
Barbour does as clean a job as can be done of explicating the issues of quantum cosmology, and in the process finds time and space to be products of the mind (Kant would agree). While not satisfactorily addressing the resulting mind/body issues (what is understanding without time in a scientifically reductionist universe, anyway?), he's worth the hard work to slog through.
You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier
An exhilarating whirl through the issues of Internet development that provides cautionary tales of what happens when fundamental choices are made carelessly. Worthwhile and fun.
The Social Animal by David Brooks
Brooks entertains and (moderately) instructs as he leads the reader through the life of the (subconscious) mind of an attractive couple, illustrating how much more goes on than meets the eye.
Henry Clay: The Essential American by Heidler & Heidler
The Heidlers paint a comprehensive portrait both of Clay, possibly the greatest American ever to seek the presidency unsuccessfully, and of early and mid 19th century America. In the process, they reveal how similar its politics and politicians are to those of today.
The Grand Design by Hawking and Mlodinow
Hawking and Mlodinow reveal a new paradigm for analyzing the history of the universe, and in the process reveal, without realizing it, how far behind Emmanuel Kant physics has been for the past 250 years.
Country Driving by Peter Hessler
Hessler reveals how rapid change has bewildered the Chinese to the point of not understanding themselves anymore. They sound more and more like us!
