Erik's bookshelf: all

Erik's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:03:26 -0700 60 Erik's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island]]> 55197188 The untold story of how one tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic has shaped the world for centuries.

The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel. Again and again, one humble nation has found itself at the frontline of historic events, shaping the world as we know it, How Iceland Changed the World paints a lively picture of just how it all happened.]]> 288 Egill Bjarnason 0143135880 Erik 5 history
I have been to Iceland several times thanks to their national airline, Icelandair, most recently in 1984. In each case it was a brief stopover enroute to Oslo where much of the family lives. The last trip, however, allowed us a few days of free hotel accomodations. During that, my only real visit, I stopped at the headquarters of the Socialist Womens' party, hoping to obtain some of their campaign buttons for my collection. They wouldn't let me, a male, in until they noticed that my wife was deaf. I got the buttons. It is noteworthy in this connection that Iceland had the first popularly elected female head of state in the world and continues to lead the world as regards gender equality.]]> 4.08 2021 How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island

How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island

author: Egill Bjarnason
name: Erik
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/07/02
date added: 2025/07/02
shelves: history
review:
This is a popular history of Iceland covering the period from the first settlers (Irish monks) through the Covid epidemic and told through a series of tales illustrating Iceland's place among world events. The author has a fine sense of humor and the stories he tells are interesting. I'd previously read another history of the nation. This was far more entertaining.

I have been to Iceland several times thanks to their national airline, Icelandair, most recently in 1984. In each case it was a brief stopover enroute to Oslo where much of the family lives. The last trip, however, allowed us a few days of free hotel accomodations. During that, my only real visit, I stopped at the headquarters of the Socialist Womens' party, hoping to obtain some of their campaign buttons for my collection. They wouldn't let me, a male, in until they noticed that my wife was deaf. I got the buttons. It is noteworthy in this connection that Iceland had the first popularly elected female head of state in the world and continues to lead the world as regards gender equality.
]]> <![CDATA[Anne Frank: a Portrait in Courage]]> 2209309 192 Ernst Schnabel 0151075271 Erik 4 biography 4.17 1958

author: Ernst Schnabel
name: Erik
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/27
date added: 2025/06/27
shelves: biography
review:
This an odd and rather touching book. It's more an impression, or a number of impressions, of Anne Frank than a biography. The author, during the decade after the war, found and interviewed scores of people who had known Frank and her family, including, of course, their one survivor, her father. A roughly chronological narrative is punctuated by some of Anne's writings.
]]> Frauds, Myths, Mysteries 2716289 290 Kenneth L. Feder 1559345233 Erik 3 sciences
What I liked most about this book were the case studies whereby Feder describes a hoax (e.g. the Cardiff Giant, the Piltdown Man), then shows how it was exposed. I also enjoyed the section about the Mound Builders of North America, a subject I'd not much studied. However, the attacks on believers in Atlantis, Von Daniken, Ignatius Donnelly, Edgar Cayce, Shirley MacClaine etc. seem hardly worth the effort--though the popularity of their writings may suggest otherwise.

Written in 1996, I would have expected something about Graham Hancock, but that was disappointed. Granted, Hancock's popularity has grown over the decades.]]> 4.00 1990 Frauds, Myths, Mysteries

author: Kenneth L. Feder
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/23
date added: 2025/06/23
shelves: sciences
review:
I've read a lot of fringe literature and, so, have been exposed to much of the material Professor Feder debunks. An archaeologist himself, Feder focuses on claims in that area of study. Beyond that, however, he addresses the scientific method in general.

What I liked most about this book were the case studies whereby Feder describes a hoax (e.g. the Cardiff Giant, the Piltdown Man), then shows how it was exposed. I also enjoyed the section about the Mound Builders of North America, a subject I'd not much studied. However, the attacks on believers in Atlantis, Von Daniken, Ignatius Donnelly, Edgar Cayce, Shirley MacClaine etc. seem hardly worth the effort--though the popularity of their writings may suggest otherwise.

Written in 1996, I would have expected something about Graham Hancock, but that was disappointed. Granted, Hancock's popularity has grown over the decades.
]]> <![CDATA[It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America]]> 40538591 The Trump administration is remaking the government. It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America tells readers exactly how it is making America worse again.

Bestselling author and longtime Trump observer David Cay Johnston shines a light on the political termites who have infested our government under the Trump Administration, destroying it from within and compromising our jobs, safety, finances, and more.

No journalist knows Donald Trump better than David Cay Johnston, who has been following him since 1988. It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America goes inside the administration to show how the federal agencies that touch the lives of all Americans are being undermined. Here is just some of what you will learn:

The Wall. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told President Trump that Mexico will never pay for the border wall. So, Trump is proposing putting a tariff on Mexican imports. But a tariff will simply raise the price of Mexican goods in the US, meaning American consumers will end up paying for the wall—if it ever gets built.

Climate Change. Welcome to the new EPA, run by Scott Pruitt, a lawyer who has spent much of his career trying to destroy the agency he now heads. Secrecy reigns at the new EPA because Pruitt meets with industry executives to find out which clean air and clean water provisions they most want to roll back, and keeps staffers in the dark to make sure these pro-pollution plans don’t leak prematurely.

Stocking the Swamp. Contrary to his promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC, Trump has filled his cabinet with millionaires and billionaires, from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs and hedge fund veteran who made much of his fortune foreclosing on homeowners to billionaire heiress Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has already put the interests of bankers ahead of debt-burdened students and their families.

The Kleptocracy. Under Donald Trump conflict of interest is passé. When Trump isn’t in Washington, he stays at one of his properties, where the taxpayers pick up the tab for staffers, Secret Service, and so on, all at full price. And back in Washington, everyone now knows that the Trump International Hotel is the only place to stay if you want to do business with the administration. Meanwhile sons Donald Jr. and Eric run an eyes-wide-open blind trust of Trump holdings to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest—but not the reality.]]> 352 David Cay Johnston 1501174150 Erik 4 political-social-science 3.94 2018 It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America

It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America

author: David Cay Johnston
name: Erik
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/23
date added: 2025/06/23
shelves: political-social-science
review:
I've read a lot of books about Donald Trump. This one, though confined to the first half of his first term, was the most upsetting, its recounting of his actions being unmitigated by humor or personal scandal (except, perhaps, Melania's illegal status as a nude model). Instead, subject area by subject area (e.g. Education, Veterans, Race, Immigration, Guns etc.), author Johnston recounts how what Trump has said to garner popular support has, in many instances, been contradicted by what he has done against the interests of many of his supporters. Throughout, Johnston writes like a lawyer presenting an indictment, much of it dealing with matters economic.
]]> Jack London: American Rebel 7602630 543 Philip S. Foner Erik 4 biography 4.00 1947

author: Philip S. Foner
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at: 1996/09/01
date added: 2025/06/22
shelves: biography
review:
This is a collection of Jack London's more class conscious writings, fiction and nonfiction, prefaced by a book-length appreciation and biography by the labor historian, Philip S. Foner, uncle of the historian Eric Foner. The orientation, like London's, is politically left-wing and socialist.
]]> <![CDATA[For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman]]> 303057 315 Jonah Raskin 0520205758 Erik 3 biography
Other than that, I saw Hoffman more as a comedian than as a political figure. Three of us had exchanged and read his first book with high hilarity as teens, but otherwise, until the Conspiracy Trial, I didn't take him seriously and even then it was the government that had given him the spotlight. Personally, I prefered the others, two of whom I got to know pretty well, to Abbie and Jerry, both of whom were, while sometimes funny, embarrassing.

This biography, written by one who had known him, displays the contradictions of Hoffman's life: Free! and capitalist drug dealer, manic and depressive, street person and bourgeois, feminist and abuser, etc.--the psychiatric diagnosis explaining, perhaps, a lot.]]> 3.57 1996 For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman

For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman

author: Jonah Raskin
name: Erik
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/21
date added: 2025/06/21
shelves: biography
review:
I have one outstanding memory of Abbie Hoffman. I was downtown with a friend during the weekday afternoon rush hour near the courthouse. The Conspiracy Trial must have concluded for the day as Abbie and Jerry Rubin, both colorfully dressed, appeared at the corner across the street. Cars were piled up, bumper to bumper, through the intersection. Rather than wait for the light to change, the crosswalk to clear, the two of them clambered over the cars in all four lanes. Still in high school, I was impressed.

Other than that, I saw Hoffman more as a comedian than as a political figure. Three of us had exchanged and read his first book with high hilarity as teens, but otherwise, until the Conspiracy Trial, I didn't take him seriously and even then it was the government that had given him the spotlight. Personally, I prefered the others, two of whom I got to know pretty well, to Abbie and Jerry, both of whom were, while sometimes funny, embarrassing.

This biography, written by one who had known him, displays the contradictions of Hoffman's life: Free! and capitalist drug dealer, manic and depressive, street person and bourgeois, feminist and abuser, etc.--the psychiatric diagnosis explaining, perhaps, a lot.
]]> <![CDATA[On Pagans, Jews, and Christians by Arnaldo Momigliano (1987-11-01)]]> 129072809 0 Arnaldo Momigliano Erik 3 history
The over-riding impression I obtained was of the author's great caution. He here spins no grand theories, paints no large canvas, but reminds us, again and again, of how little we know of antiquity.

I studied Latin in high school, worked with koine Greek in seminary, edited and wrote for the 'Ancient World' journal, and received two degrees in religion--and lots of this book was beyond my capacities.]]> 3.00 1987 On Pagans, Jews, and Christians by Arnaldo Momigliano (1987-11-01)

On Pagans, Jews, and Christians by Arnaldo Momigliano (1987-11-01)

author: Arnaldo Momigliano
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/14
date added: 2025/06/14
shelves: history
review:
The essays in this collection are very diverse, there being no central theme beyond the author's historiographical focus. They are also very academic, which is to say dry, erudite and well-cited. Some, such as those for the Review of Books, would be accessible to the well-educated reader, others would be more appropriate for the specialist. A few were published in English, but many are translations.

The over-riding impression I obtained was of the author's great caution. He here spins no grand theories, paints no large canvas, but reminds us, again and again, of how little we know of antiquity.

I studied Latin in high school, worked with koine Greek in seminary, edited and wrote for the 'Ancient World' journal, and received two degrees in religion--and lots of this book was beyond my capacities.
]]> <![CDATA[My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience (AARP®)]]> 3114153 240 Juan Williams 1402714157 Erik 5 biography, history
I don't recall being so moved, so often by one book, most of the stories told being quite poignant. What most impresses me about the movement is the extraordinary heroism of what otherwise would be considered ordinary persons.]]> 4.23 2004 My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience (AARP®)

My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience (AARP®)

author: Juan Williams
name: Erik
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2025/06/09
date added: 2025/06/09
shelves: biography, history
review:
Having just finished Branch's three-volume history of the civil rights movements in the South and a substantial history of the movements in the North, I picked up this collection of memoirs by a sampling of those who participated in such. Although most of the stories are from southern blacks, some are by Chicanos, some by whites and even one by a Japanese-American. Although most are about racial movements, the womens' movement is addressed as well.

I don't recall being so moved, so often by one book, most of the stories told being quite poignant. What most impresses me about the movement is the extraordinary heroism of what otherwise would be considered ordinary persons.
]]> The Myth of Sisyphus 10062440 The Myth of Sisyphus transformed twentieth-century philosophy with its impassioned argument for the value of life in a world without religious meaning.]]> 151 Albert Camus Erik 4 philosophy
On the one hand, it had a lot to do with not having had a girlfriend since Lisa in the first grade. On the other hand, and this was more prominently to mind, it had to do with the reasons, the serious reasons, for not having one. They were that I was unusually slow in physical development and unusually short in stature. In my mind, I was uncontestably unattractive. If any girl would like me it would be because of personality and intelligence,

I had no insecurity about intelligence as a teen, but quite a bit about personality. Feminism didn't become an issue until college, but I was ashamed about thinking of women sexually when it seemed clear they would be offended or disgusted were they to know of it. I developed the practice of not looking at females unless speaking with them. I walked with my head down, eyes to the ground, in order to avoid such guilt-ridden gazes. While other guys played around with the girls in our circle, I maintained a generally grave persona, holding "serious" conversations or reading while they flirted. A feeling of superiority was confusedly mixed with strong feelings of inferiority to these other, more comfortable, persons. While it was easy to dismiss most of the "straight" kids at school as mindless, this was not possible with many persons in our circle, particularly some of the older ones whom I admired for their learning and critical intellects.

The other, philosophically deeper, dimension of this unease was that I myself was so "critically intelligent" that I had no ground upon which to stand. I had strong moral feelings but I was unable to convince myself that they were more than personal tastes. My early public school education had emphasized the sciences. While I could understand human values as having some meaning in terms of biology and evolutionary theory, I could not fit myself positively into that picture. I certainly wasn't biologically "fit". Thoughts of suicide were frequent.

Thus I was drawn, upon being exposed to them, to the existentialists, particularly Camus. They alone seemed to be trying to speak openly about the actual human condition

I recall reading "The Myth of Sisyphus" while seated in our family's red Opel Cadet station wagon across from City Hall, at the curb of Hodge's Park on a beautiful spring day. Our friends were all about this area between Bob Rowe's Evening Pipe Shop, Park Ridge's Community Church and the Cogswell Dance Studio (our indoors hangouts), but I was avoiding their frivolity, engaged in serious study, while, obviously, inviting an invitation to join in--which, in my moral confusion, I might well have declined.

Just as I was concluding this essay of the collection, the part about Sisyphus being happy with his absurd work, Lisa Cox walked in front of the car, headed west towards the church. Now, Lisa was just another pretty girl in our group, not the particular object of any attention from me. Indeed, she was too young, being two years behind in school. But, not being an intimate friend, she was one of those girls I would tend to guiltily objectify as sexual.

Here, however, it happened differently. She was beautiful, simply beautiful. Her long, tightly waved brown hair and matching corduroy pants, all bathed in sunlight dappled by the new leaves of the elms filling the park, were lovely. I didn't feel guilty for thinking this. I noticed the absence of guilt feelings. It seemed quite paradoxical, just as Camus' comment about Sisyphus had appeared, but true.

I'd call this an ecstatic experience. It didn't last more than a few minutes at most, though the memory of it, and experiences like it, remains clear and cherished.]]> 4.24 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus

author: Albert Camus
name: Erik
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 1969/05/01
date added: 2025/06/07
shelves: philosophy
review:
By the end of high school I was a very unhappy person and had been so since our family moved from unincorporated Kane County to Park Ridge, Illinois when I was ten. At the outset the unhappiness was basically consequent upon leaving a rural setting, small school and friendly, integrated working-class neighborhood for a reactionary suburb, large school and unfriendly upper middle-class populace whose children were, by and large, just as thoughtlessly racist and conservative as their parents were. By fifteen, however, the quality of the unhappiness had begun to change as I had made, really made, some friends in the persons of Richard Hyde and Hank Kupjack. By the end of high school, thanks to them and to the rise of the sixties counterculture, I actually had many friends, some of them from the political left, some identified with the avant garde world, some just plain disgruntled teen potheads. But by then unhappiness had become character and had been elevated from an emotional to a philosophical state of being.

On the one hand, it had a lot to do with not having had a girlfriend since Lisa in the first grade. On the other hand, and this was more prominently to mind, it had to do with the reasons, the serious reasons, for not having one. They were that I was unusually slow in physical development and unusually short in stature. In my mind, I was uncontestably unattractive. If any girl would like me it would be because of personality and intelligence,

I had no insecurity about intelligence as a teen, but quite a bit about personality. Feminism didn't become an issue until college, but I was ashamed about thinking of women sexually when it seemed clear they would be offended or disgusted were they to know of it. I developed the practice of not looking at females unless speaking with them. I walked with my head down, eyes to the ground, in order to avoid such guilt-ridden gazes. While other guys played around with the girls in our circle, I maintained a generally grave persona, holding "serious" conversations or reading while they flirted. A feeling of superiority was confusedly mixed with strong feelings of inferiority to these other, more comfortable, persons. While it was easy to dismiss most of the "straight" kids at school as mindless, this was not possible with many persons in our circle, particularly some of the older ones whom I admired for their learning and critical intellects.

The other, philosophically deeper, dimension of this unease was that I myself was so "critically intelligent" that I had no ground upon which to stand. I had strong moral feelings but I was unable to convince myself that they were more than personal tastes. My early public school education had emphasized the sciences. While I could understand human values as having some meaning in terms of biology and evolutionary theory, I could not fit myself positively into that picture. I certainly wasn't biologically "fit". Thoughts of suicide were frequent.

Thus I was drawn, upon being exposed to them, to the existentialists, particularly Camus. They alone seemed to be trying to speak openly about the actual human condition

I recall reading "The Myth of Sisyphus" while seated in our family's red Opel Cadet station wagon across from City Hall, at the curb of Hodge's Park on a beautiful spring day. Our friends were all about this area between Bob Rowe's Evening Pipe Shop, Park Ridge's Community Church and the Cogswell Dance Studio (our indoors hangouts), but I was avoiding their frivolity, engaged in serious study, while, obviously, inviting an invitation to join in--which, in my moral confusion, I might well have declined.

Just as I was concluding this essay of the collection, the part about Sisyphus being happy with his absurd work, Lisa Cox walked in front of the car, headed west towards the church. Now, Lisa was just another pretty girl in our group, not the particular object of any attention from me. Indeed, she was too young, being two years behind in school. But, not being an intimate friend, she was one of those girls I would tend to guiltily objectify as sexual.

Here, however, it happened differently. She was beautiful, simply beautiful. Her long, tightly waved brown hair and matching corduroy pants, all bathed in sunlight dappled by the new leaves of the elms filling the park, were lovely. I didn't feel guilty for thinking this. I noticed the absence of guilt feelings. It seemed quite paradoxical, just as Camus' comment about Sisyphus had appeared, but true.

I'd call this an ecstatic experience. It didn't last more than a few minutes at most, though the memory of it, and experiences like it, remains clear and cherished.
]]> The Last Battle 7718792 The Last Battle is Ryan's compelling account of this final battle, a story of brutal extremes, of stunning military triumph alongside the stark conditions that the civilians of Berlin experienced in the face of the Allied assault. As always, Ryan delves beneath the military & political forces that were dictating events to explore the more immediate imperatives of survival, where, as the author describes it, "to eat had become more important than to love, to burrow more dignified than to fight, to exist more militarily correct than to win." The Last Battle is the story of ordinary people, soldiers & civilians, caught up in the despair, frustration & terror of defeat. It's history at its best, a masterful illumination of the effects of war on the lives of individuals & one of the enduring works on WWII.
Foreword
The city
The general
The objective
The decision
The battle
A Note on Casualties
The Soldiers & Civilians: That They Do Today
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index]]> 573 Cornelius Ryan 067140640X Erik 4 history 4.27 1966 The Last Battle

author: Cornelius Ryan
name: Erik
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/03
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves: history
review:
This account of the race for and fall of Berlin is based on scores of interviews conducted with principals of all sides as well as many of the civilians who endured the conquest. Ryan, the author of several other popular books on the war in Europe, is an exceptionally good and sympathetic writer.
]]> <![CDATA[Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology: Preliminary Studies for Part II of Philosophical Investigations, v. 1 (English, German and German Edition)]]> 1743393 Original German]]> 296 Ludwig Wittgenstein 0226904458 Erik 3 philosophy 2.50 Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology: Preliminary Studies for Part II of Philosophical Investigations, v. 1 (English, German and German Edition)

Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology: Preliminary Studies for Part II of Philosophical Investigations, v. 1 (English, German and German Edition)

author: Ludwig Wittgenstein
name: Erik
average rating: 2.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 1983/11/01
date added: 2025/05/31
shelves: philosophy
review:
This book was read for an independent study with the Jesuit philosopher Dr. William Ellos, for whom I served as a teaching assistant at Loyola University Chicago.
]]> <![CDATA[Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, 2 Vols]]> 813613 422 Ludwig Wittgenstein 0226904334 Erik 3 philosophy 4.00

Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, 2 Vols

author: Ludwig Wittgenstein
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 1983/10/01
date added: 2025/05/31
shelves: philosophy
review:
Read for an independent study of Wittgenstein with Father Bill Ellos at Loyola University Chicago.
]]> <![CDATA[Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology 2]]> 1733561
This bilingual edition of the Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology presents the first English translation of an essential body of Wittgenstein's work. It elaborates Wittgenstein's views on psychological concepts such as expectation, sensation, knowing how to follow a rule, and knowledge of the sensations of other persons. It also shows strong emphasis on the "anthropological" aspect of Wittgenstein's thought. Philosophers, as well as anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists will welcome this important publication.]]> 270 Ludwig Wittgenstein 0226904342 Erik 3 philosophy 3.80 Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology 2

Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology 2

author: Ludwig Wittgenstein
name: Erik
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 1983/10/01
date added: 2025/05/31
shelves: philosophy
review:
Read for an independent study of Wittgenstein conducted by Father William Ellos at Loyola University Chicago.
]]> <![CDATA[Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North]]> 3965352 720 Thomas J. Sugrue 0679643036 Erik 4 history 4.06 2008

Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North

author: Thomas J. Sugrue
name: Erik
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/27
date added: 2025/05/27
shelves: history
review:
Having recently finished Taylor Branch's three-volume history of the civil rights movements in the south I decided to supplement them with this volume about the struggles in the north. Sugrue is not the writer that Branch is, his style being somewhat dry. Still, he covers an enormous amount of activity generally arranged by topics such as education, housing, politics, welfare etc.
]]> <![CDATA[From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern 카지노싸이트]]> 33621138 Magic and science 107 Charles Webster 0760700893 Erik 3 sciences
Other that that, the author seems at some pains to defend Paracelsus from his detractors.]]> 4.33 1983 From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern 카지노싸이트

From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern 카지노싸이트

author: Charles Webster
name: Erik
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/17
date added: 2025/05/17
shelves: sciences
review:
This is a very highbrow book requiring much of the reader. Amazingly, it is based on a series of lectures. They must have been given to professionals in the fields of the history of science or early modern history as the author tosses around references to rather obscure books and assumes some familiarity with Latin. His point, however, is pretty simple, viz. that those often cited as the agents of Enlightenment and the Fathers of 카지노싸이트 were, with very few exception, ridden with what we think of as superstition. The false impressions adduced by many histories of science arises from selective reporting which excludes this inconvenient fact.

Other that that, the author seems at some pains to defend Paracelsus from his detractors.
]]> <![CDATA[Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War]]> 57356059 A riveting account of the five most crucial days in twentieth-century diplomatic history: from Pearl Harbor to Hitler’s declaration of war on the United States

By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked—and the United States remained at peace.

Hitler’s American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11. Tracing developments in real time and backed by deep archival research, historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman show how Hitler’s intervention was not the foolhardy decision of a man so bloodthirsty that he forgot all strategy, but a calculated risk that can only be understood in a truly global context. This book reveals how December 11, not Pearl Harbor, was the real watershed that created a world war and transformed international history.]]> 510 Brendan Simms 1541619099 Erik 4 history 3.94 2021 Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War

Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War

author: Brendan Simms
name: Erik
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/16
date added: 2025/05/16
shelves: history
review:
This is a detailed account of the days between the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the German and Italian declarations of war against the United States. Most interesting to me was the racist theme, the Allies consistently underestimating the Japanese and even going so far as to believe that Germans masterminded Pearl, even flying the planes (they didn't).
]]> <![CDATA[Passport to Assassination: The Never-Before-Told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel Who Knew Him]]> 980873 338 Oleg M. Nechiporenko 155972210X Erik 3 history
What this book, written in the early nineties, accomplishes is an apparently thoroughly documented refutation of any claims that the Soviet Union had involvement in the assassination. As a positive contribution to the mystery of the assassination, the author himself adds little, basically following the outline of the Warren Commission. Most interesting to me, however, was the description of how spies, American and Russian, lived, day-to-day, in Mexico. As Le Carre has it, both sides may have more in common with one another than they do with their civilian counterparts.]]> 2.88 1993 Passport to Assassination: The Never-Before-Told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel Who Knew Him

Passport to Assassination: The Never-Before-Told Story of Lee Harvey Oswald by the KGB Colonel Who Knew Him

author: Oleg M. Nechiporenko
name: Erik
average rating: 2.88
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/15
date added: 2025/05/15
shelves: history
review:
The first part of this book is about Lee Harvey Oswald and the KGB, the author having been one of the officials who dealt with him in Mexico City. The second part is basically about spycraft with some focus on the Nosenko case. Two appendices follow, one of which is a forensics report on the JFK shooting.

What this book, written in the early nineties, accomplishes is an apparently thoroughly documented refutation of any claims that the Soviet Union had involvement in the assassination. As a positive contribution to the mystery of the assassination, the author himself adds little, basically following the outline of the Warren Commission. Most interesting to me, however, was the description of how spies, American and Russian, lived, day-to-day, in Mexico. As Le Carre has it, both sides may have more in common with one another than they do with their civilian counterparts.
]]> The Stand 1360681 Arguably the greatest horror novel ever written by the greatest horror novelist, this is a true Modern Classic that was first published in 1978, and then re-published in 1990, complete and unabridged, with 150,000 words cut from the first edition restored, and now accompanied by unusual and imaginative line art. The total copies for both editions, in hardcover and paperback, exceeds 4 million worldwide.

The Stand is a truly terrifying reading experience, and became a four-part mini-series that memorably brought to life the cast of characters and layers of story from the novel. It is an apocalyptic vision of the world, when a deadly virus runs amok around the globe. But that lethal virus is almost benign compared to the satanic force gathering minions from those still alive to destroy humanity and create a world populated by evil.

Stephen King is a brilliant storyteller who has the uncanny gift of putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, giving readers an experience that chills and thrills on every page.

]]> 823 Stephen King 0385121687 Erik 4 literature
Unfortunately, everyone doesn't just get along. To make matters worse, King posits a, to me, occult evil force behind bad people in Vegas opposed to folks like you and me in Denver. That metaphysic of evil was not only distracting, but completely unnecessary, and destroyed my overall enjoyment of the book.

In 1990 an expanded edition of this novel was released. I read that as well, not noticing too much difference.]]> 4.40 1978 The Stand

author: Stephen King
name: Erik
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 1985/05/01
date added: 2025/05/11
shelves: literature
review:
I've always liked end-of-the-world novels, particularly when I can identify with a protagonist who survives the holocaust and sees nature retake the human empire. Consequently, I really liked the beginning of The Stand, the part when most everyone's gone, but the foodstores are still stocked and the few survivors can, if they will just get along, live off the abundant pickings. Better still, the main character does a trek across much of the continent.

Unfortunately, everyone doesn't just get along. To make matters worse, King posits a, to me, occult evil force behind bad people in Vegas opposed to folks like you and me in Denver. That metaphysic of evil was not only distracting, but completely unnecessary, and destroyed my overall enjoyment of the book.

In 1990 an expanded edition of this novel was released. I read that as well, not noticing too much difference.
]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of 카지노싸이트]]> 6885204
When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still.]]> 608 Richard Holmes 1400031877 Erik 4 sciences, poetry 4.08 2008 The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of 카지노싸이트

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of 카지노싸이트

author: Richard Holmes
name: Erik
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/10
date added: 2025/05/10
shelves: sciences, poetry
review:
This rather odd book discusses the developments in the sciences in Great Britain during the Romantic period, focusing primarily on the lives of Joseph Banks, Wm Herschel and Humphrey Davy. Himself a literary man, his thesis involves demonstrating the close connections between these scientists and the prominent poets of the time. The text is filled with poetic extracts, many by the scientists themselves. Thus this book is also about specialization, about the 'two worlds' and their separation.
]]> <![CDATA[Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy]]> 212443
Then I was posted overseas. And that's when the real fun began.]]> 295 Lindsay Moran 0425205622 Erik 4 biography 3.32 2004

author: Lindsay Moran
name: Erik
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: biography
review:
Moran served in the CIA from 1998 until 2003. This memoir describes her training as a covert operator at 'the Farm' and her subsequent work recruiting foreign nationals as 'agents' in the Balkans. While being the most detailed description I've ever read of how such spies are trained and how they operate and interesting on that account, the book is written with a good deal of humor. I found it quite entertaining.
]]> <![CDATA[Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army]]> 1394563
Meirion and Susie Harries have written the first full Western account of the Imperial Japanese Army. Drawing on Japanese, English, French, and American sources, the authors penetrate the lingering wartime enmity and propaganda to lay bare the true character of the Imperial Army.

From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 569 Meirion Harries 0394569350 Erik 4 history
What I hadn't known was how insulated the Japanese military and its culture were. Beyond that, the culture as a whole was very hierarchical (and sexist and racist). Authority devolved from the emperor, but the emperor was himself insulated by his cabinet and advisors who increasingly represented the two competing branches of the armed forces, the army and the navy.

The text ends with a consideration of the war crimes committed by the Japanese military and the evolution of the post-war Self-defense Forces.]]> 4.38 1992 Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army

Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army

author: Meirion Harries
name: Erik
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: history
review:
Other than a general interest in WWII I've been trying to get my head around how it was that the Japanese were so fanatical up through the war and so docile under occupation. This book, tracing the history of the Japanese military from the Meiji reforms to the present, but focused on the thirties and forties, serves in this regard.

What I hadn't known was how insulated the Japanese military and its culture were. Beyond that, the culture as a whole was very hierarchical (and sexist and racist). Authority devolved from the emperor, but the emperor was himself insulated by his cabinet and advisors who increasingly represented the two competing branches of the armed forces, the army and the navy.

The text ends with a consideration of the war crimes committed by the Japanese military and the evolution of the post-war Self-defense Forces.
]]> <![CDATA[Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West]]> 103749 418 Tom Holland 0385513119 Erik 4 history
Dealing with this period is difficult, sources being various and contradictory, often much later than the events described. In order to provide a clean narrative flow Holland provides his considered reconstruction of events, relegating the controversies to notes.]]> 4.16 2005 Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

author: Tom Holland
name: Erik
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/20
shelves: history
review:
Well written, quite readable account of the war(s) between Persia and some of the Greek poleis from the Lydian revolt through the Greek victory at Plataea. The battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea are covered in detail. So, too, are the cultures of Sparta, Athens and the Persian elites.

Dealing with this period is difficult, sources being various and contradictory, often much later than the events described. In order to provide a clean narrative flow Holland provides his considered reconstruction of events, relegating the controversies to notes.
]]> <![CDATA[To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting]]> 1051688 Philipp Blom 1585673773 Erik 2 history 3.85 2002

To Have and to Hold: An Intimate History of Collectors and Collecting

author: Philipp Blom
name: Erik
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: history
review:
I picked this up at Heirloom Books with the hope that I'd learn something relevant to the business, something about rare books and the persons who collect them. I was disappointed. Some of the text herein is about books, but mostly it is about collections and collectors of all sorts going back to the Renaissance and ahead to contemporary collections of ephemera.
]]> The Eighth Tower 98879
Strange manifestations have haunted humans since prehistoric times. Beams of light, voices from the heavens, the "little people," gods and devils, ghosts and monsters, and UFOs, have all had a prominent place in our history and legends. In this dark work, John Keel explores these phenomena, and in doing so reveals the shocking truth about our present position and future destiny in the cosmic scheme of things.

Are we pawns in a celestial game?

In the Orient, there is a story told of the seven towers. These citadels, well hidden from mankind, are occupied by groups of Satanists who are chanting the world to ruin. Perhaps this is just a story; perhaps there is some truth behind it. But what if there is yet another tower, a tower not of good or evil but of infinite power? What if all our destinies are controlled by this cosmic force for its own mysterious purposes? And what if UFOs and other paranormal manifestations are merely tools being used to manipulate us and guide us toward the cosmic role we are fated to play? Perhaps, after all, we are not independent beings but are instead the creations and slaves of the eighth tower.]]> 203 John A. Keel 0451074602 Erik 2 sciences
There is a thesis, sort of. It's that electro-magnetism, broadly conceived, operates the show, that we are influenced, if not controled, by tricksters we haven't been able to identify. This corresponds a bit with Jacques Vallee's thinking about UFOs, though Keel extends it to all dimensions of the paranormal.

]]> 3.89 2013 The Eighth Tower

author: John A. Keel
name: Erik
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: sciences
review:
I'd liked Keel's Mothman book years ago. At that time I didn't much care if all the statements of fact checked out, seeing Keel more as a story-teller than as an historian or journalist. Here, however, the greatest virtue of his writing is missing. There are no stories, just a lot of anecdotes of a paragraph or two, very few of which are referenced. One is reminded of Charles Fort.

There is a thesis, sort of. It's that electro-magnetism, broadly conceived, operates the show, that we are influenced, if not controled, by tricksters we haven't been able to identify. This corresponds a bit with Jacques Vallee's thinking about UFOs, though Keel extends it to all dimensions of the paranormal.

]]> Enchanted Pilgrimage 12069363 A scholar, a goblin, and a gnome, among others, pursue the secrets of a vanished ancient race through a wasteland of dark magic in this enthralling fantasy quest adventure

On an Earth that is different from ours, the young scholar Mark Cornwall becomes a target of the Inquisition, and specifically its most evil and obsessed agent, Beckett. Damned for asking questions, Mark is forced to escape over the border into the Wastelands, a magical realm that is home to all manner of flesh-devouring monsters. Luckily he will not have to make his journey alone. He is accompanied by a cadre of stalwart companions, including the rafter goblin Oliver, Snively the gnome, and secretive Mary from one of three parallel planes. Somewhere beyond the vengeful, blood-hungry Hellhounds, somewhere past the horrific legacy of the now-destroyed Chaos Beast, the mysteries of the Old Ones are waiting to be revealed--and only those with the courage to seek them will be able to alter the destiny of their worlds.

In Enchanted Pilgrimage, Clifford D. Simak ingeniously blends elements of science fiction into a savory fantasy stew. The award-winning Grand Master of science fiction spreads his wings and takes glorious flight into a bold new realm of magic and adventure, demonstrating why he remains one of the most acclaimed storytellers in the literature of the remarkable.
]]> 183 Clifford D. Simak Erik 2 sf
Sadly, this was no Gormenghast.]]> 3.00 1975 Enchanted Pilgrimage

author: Clifford D. Simak
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1975
rating: 2
read at: 1978/07/01
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: sf
review:
I picked this up at a used bookstore because it was a cheap hardcover, because I recognized the author as a prominent science fiction writer and despite the fact that it was a fantasy novel--after all, not ALL fantasy novels are trash...

Sadly, this was no Gormenghast.
]]> <![CDATA[Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change]]> 37508405 Part memoir, part history, part journalistic expos�, Trip is a look at psychedelic drugs, literature, and alienation from one of the twenty-first century's most innovative novelists--The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for a new generation. A Vintage Original.

While reeling from one of the most creative--but at times self-destructive--outpourings of his life, Tao Lin discovered the strange and exciting work of Terence McKenna. McKenna, the leading advocate of psychedelic drugs since Timothy Leary, became for Lin both an obsession and a revitalizing force. In Trip, Lin's first book-length work of nonfiction, he charts his recovery from pharmaceutical drugs, his surprising and positive change in worldview, and his four-year engagement with some of the hardest questions: Why do we make art? Is the world made of language? What happens when we die? And is the imagination more real than the universe?

In exploring these ideas and detailing his experiences with psilocybin, DMT, salvia, and cannabis, Lin takes readers on a trip through nature, his own past, psychedelic culture, and the unknown.]]> 320 Tao Lin 1101974516 Erik 4 psychology, biography
Otherwise, I found his detailed descriptions of some of the minutiae of his life, especially in his lengthy 'Epilogue', to be tedious and generally uninteresting. I seemed like padding without much of a point.]]> 3.78 2018 Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change

Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change

author: Tao Lin
name: Erik
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: psychology, biography
review:
Like Lin, I've listened to hundreds of hours of Terence McKenna's talks. Although there's much I disagree with, McKenna is one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking lecturers I've ever heard or read. Sharing Lin's interest, I thoroughly enjoyed his celebration of McKenna which constitutes at least a third of this book.

Otherwise, I found his detailed descriptions of some of the minutiae of his life, especially in his lengthy 'Epilogue', to be tedious and generally uninteresting. I seemed like padding without much of a point.
]]> <![CDATA[Twenty German Poets: A Bilingual Collection]]> 6261529 305 Walter Kaufmann Erik 4 poetry
Janny is one of the most intellectually and creatively impressive persons I have ever met. Raised in a civil service family, her father being a mathematician, she had grown up in Germany, the Netherlands and in various parts of the USA and had retained some of the Dutch and most of the German. During the almost four years of our relationship I endeavored to catch up with her, reading many books she had read. During that period I was effectively married...indeed, for some while thereafter as well.

I read this book, like most poetry read privately, too quickly. I did, however, read much of it aloud in the German original, liking the sound of the language.]]> 3.73 1962 Twenty German Poets: A Bilingual Collection

Twenty German Poets: A Bilingual Collection

author: Walter Kaufmann
name: Erik
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 1974/04/01
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: poetry
review:
I met Janny while bartending at Grinnell's Pub Club. She was an evening regular, the friend of a friend. We became a couple in rather short order in the second half of the last semester in college. Then, after I'd moved to go to seminary in Manhattan, she transferred to Barnard and moved into my one-room single.

Janny is one of the most intellectually and creatively impressive persons I have ever met. Raised in a civil service family, her father being a mathematician, she had grown up in Germany, the Netherlands and in various parts of the USA and had retained some of the Dutch and most of the German. During the almost four years of our relationship I endeavored to catch up with her, reading many books she had read. During that period I was effectively married...indeed, for some while thereafter as well.

I read this book, like most poetry read privately, too quickly. I did, however, read much of it aloud in the German original, liking the sound of the language.
]]> <![CDATA[Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung]]> 6254807 The extraordinary story of psychoanalyst Carl Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli and their struggle to quantify the unconscious.

In 1932, the groundbreaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli met the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Pauli was fascinated by the inner reaches of his own psyche and not afraid to dabble in the occult, while Jung looked to science for answers to the psychological questions that tormented him. Their rich friendship led them, in Jung’s words, into “the no-man’s land between physics and the psychology of the unconscious . . . the most fascinating yet the darkest hunting ground of our times.” Both were obsessed with the far-reaching significance of the number “137”—a primal number that seemed to hint at the origins of the universe itself. Their quest to solve its enigma led them on a lifelong journey into the ancient secrets of alchemy, the work of Johannes Kepler, and the Chinese Book of Changes. This is the captivating story of an extraordinary and fruitful collaboration between two of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.

]]> 368 Arthur I. Miller 0393065324 Erik 2 3.74 2009 Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung

author: Arthur I. Miller
name: Erik
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/02
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: biography, sciences, psychology
review:
This book would be most appropriate for readers with a strong physics background interested in Pauli and Jung. Personally, I found most of the physics about my head and most of the treatment of Jung to be too simplistic. What was interesting were the biographical details about the two men and their relationship.
]]> <![CDATA[When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s]]> 195790601
With the Soviet Union extinct, Saddam Hussein defeated, and U.S. power at its zenith, the early 1990s promised a “kinder, gentler America.” Instead, it was a period of rising anger and domestic turmoil, anticipating the polarization and resurgent extremism we know today.

In When the Clock Broke , the acclaimed political writer John Ganz tells the story of America’s late-century discontents. Ranging from upheavals in Crown Heights and Los Angeles to the advent of David Duke and the heartland survivalists, the broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh, and the bitter disputes between neoconservatives and the “paleo-con” right, Ganz immerses us in a time when what Philip Roth called the “indigenous American berserk” took new and ever-wilder forms. In the 1992 campaign, Pat Buchanan's and Ross Perot’s insurgent populist bids upended the political establishment, all while Americans struggled through recession, alarm about racial and social change, the specter of a new power in Asia, and the end of Cold War–era political norms. Conspiracy theories surged, and intellectuals and activists strove to understand the “Middle American Radicals” whose alienation fueled new causes. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton appeared to forge a new, vital center, though it would not hold for long.

In a rollicking, eye-opening book, Ganz narrates the fall of the Reagan order and the rise of a new and more turbulent America.]]> 420 John Ganz 0374605440 Erik 3 history 4.07 2024 When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s

author: John Ganz
name: Erik
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: history
review:
The subtitle describes the book which is basically a collection of essays about various topics which prefigure the fascistic white, Christian nationalism of such right-wing populists as Steve Bannon. The author is published in various magazines and newspapers so one presumes that much of this consists of reworked, shorter pieces. The essays cover such figures as Rudy Guliani, John Gotti, David Duke, Ross Perot and Randy Weaver, and such organizations as Christian Identity, the Mafia, Posse Comitatus and the Republican and Populist parties. The benefit of reading it all was to better appreciate how deep the roots of the MAGA movement are.
]]> <![CDATA[Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65]]> 79356
In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with Parting the Waters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage.]]> 768 Taylor Branch 0684848090 Erik 5 history
For me, the history intersected with memory in that I was alive during the period 1954-68. My parents, especially Dad, were politically engaged. They subscribed to The Chicago Daily News and to a variety of magazines. Meanwhile, my grandparents always had Time and Life magazines around. From an early age, often bored by surrounding adult activities, I perused these publications. Further, during those years when we had a television, I regularly saw the various news programs Father followed.

My sense of there being a race issue, however, was abstract, something in the news and in the South. Until 1962 we lived in housing subsidized for veterans, housing that was not segregated. For me, as a grade-schooler, skin color was as unremarkable as hair or eye color. It was only when we left that rural development for the Chicago suburbs that I existentially discovered the concept of race as an issue--and this in a lily-white community! (later, I also learned about prejudices against gays, Catholics and Democrats)

Although exposed to politics early on, even being taken to city council meetings by Dad, I really didn't become an independent agent until 1964, and then as a Democrat campaigning against Goldwater and the Republican slate in Cook County. High school followed and with it a number of older friends who introduced me a much larger world of ideas ranging from the old left of the Socialist Party to the new left of the S.D.S. However, while participating in anti-imperialist, anti-war work with the left on one hand, I also campaigned for Gene McCarthy and for Open Housing ordinances on the other.

By 1968, I was torn between support for the revolutionary independence movements domestically and in the Third World and what I saw as the reformism of the NAACP and SCLC. I never read one of King's many books. I did read publications of the Black Panther Party and of those associated with it.

Reading Branch's trilogy has made me rather ashamed of my youthful extremism. His accounts, almost overwhelming detailed, of the extraordinary heroism of ordinary people frequently brought me to tears.

]]> 4.34 1998 Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65

Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65

author: Taylor Branch
name: Erik
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/27
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: history
review:
All three volumes of Branch's history of the civil rights movement are well worth reading. I read them out of order, starting with the first, followed by the third and ending, finally, with this, the second.

For me, the history intersected with memory in that I was alive during the period 1954-68. My parents, especially Dad, were politically engaged. They subscribed to The Chicago Daily News and to a variety of magazines. Meanwhile, my grandparents always had Time and Life magazines around. From an early age, often bored by surrounding adult activities, I perused these publications. Further, during those years when we had a television, I regularly saw the various news programs Father followed.

My sense of there being a race issue, however, was abstract, something in the news and in the South. Until 1962 we lived in housing subsidized for veterans, housing that was not segregated. For me, as a grade-schooler, skin color was as unremarkable as hair or eye color. It was only when we left that rural development for the Chicago suburbs that I existentially discovered the concept of race as an issue--and this in a lily-white community! (later, I also learned about prejudices against gays, Catholics and Democrats)

Although exposed to politics early on, even being taken to city council meetings by Dad, I really didn't become an independent agent until 1964, and then as a Democrat campaigning against Goldwater and the Republican slate in Cook County. High school followed and with it a number of older friends who introduced me a much larger world of ideas ranging from the old left of the Socialist Party to the new left of the S.D.S. However, while participating in anti-imperialist, anti-war work with the left on one hand, I also campaigned for Gene McCarthy and for Open Housing ordinances on the other.

By 1968, I was torn between support for the revolutionary independence movements domestically and in the Third World and what I saw as the reformism of the NAACP and SCLC. I never read one of King's many books. I did read publications of the Black Panther Party and of those associated with it.

Reading Branch's trilogy has made me rather ashamed of my youthful extremism. His accounts, almost overwhelming detailed, of the extraordinary heroism of ordinary people frequently brought me to tears.

]]> <![CDATA[Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes]]> 1173396 375 Richard A. Watson 1567923356 Erik 4 biography
Insofar as Descartes as thinker is addressed beyond the mind/body business it is in terms of his application of mathematics to the physical world, this very much being the major factor in the progress of the sciences in the seventeenth century.

Unlike most books written by academic philosophers, this one is actually amusing, the author probably being an entertaining lecturer.]]> 3.67 2002 Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes

Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Life of Rene Descartes

author: Richard A. Watson
name: Erik
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: biography
review:
This indeed is more biography than philosophy though the author teaches the subject at Washington University. As such, it seems as thorough as extant sources--many of which the author distrusts--allow. However, the final section, the 'Conclusion' does address the mind/body problem Descartes failed to solve. It is, arguably, the central problem of philosophy.

Insofar as Descartes as thinker is addressed beyond the mind/body business it is in terms of his application of mathematics to the physical world, this very much being the major factor in the progress of the sciences in the seventeenth century.

Unlike most books written by academic philosophers, this one is actually amusing, the author probably being an entertaining lecturer.
]]> Skorzeny 9994724 256 Charles Whiting 1848842961 Erik 3 biography 3.27 1972

author: Charles Whiting
name: Erik
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: biography
review:
This book is not particularly well written but it does detail some of the more exotic events of WWII, such as the rescue of Mussolini. The author comes across as somewhat disturbingly sympathetic to this Nazi SS officer who worked bravely and innovatively for a host of dictators while, much of the time, also serving, sometimes unknowingly, the CIA.
]]> The Imperial Rockefeller 1367602 Acknowledgments
Preface
At Court
The Early Years 23
Friends and Brothers 46
Re-election and Rebirth 56
Running for President 64
The Prince of Pocantico 88
Mission for Nixon 99
The People Around the Man 100
Fourth Term 119
The Imperial Governor 137
Sons and Daughters 150
A Brother's Death 158
Money and Power 162
The Leader 169
Art, the Faithful Mistress 174
Working for a Rockefeller 184
New York's Legacy 200
Critical Choices 214
Hidden Handicap 224
Doubtful Prize 236
The Vice-Presidential Years 260
The Last Campaign 270
Restless in Repose 283
The Last Days 288
Index]]> 314 Joseph E. Persico 0671254189 Erik 3 3.40 1982 The Imperial Rockefeller

author: Joseph E. Persico
name: Erik
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
review:
I'd previously read a 'biography' of the Rockefeller family, but never a book concentrated on Nelson Rockefeller, long-serving governor of New York and, briefly, vice-president of the United States. Of the family, of course, he was most prominently in the news until leaving Washington in 1976. I, however, having not paid much attention, thought of him as the 'liberal' Republican alternative to such as Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan. On social policies I was on the right track. As regards foreign policy, however, I hadn't realized what a hawk he was, having even supported Nixon's attacks across the Cambodian border.
]]> Beatrice Webb 141790574 Beatrice Webb 0 Margaret Cole Erik 3 biography
In the course of such involvements I heard a lot about the Fabians in Britain, but only as a side- or footnote to broader discussions. This biography of one of its most prominent figures by a close personal associate of hers has served as an introduction to that tendency. Much of it was new to me, Webb having died in the forties and her political work having pretty much ended in the thirties.]]> 3.00 2011 Beatrice Webb

author: Margaret Cole
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: biography
review:
I grew up in a socialist family, my paternal grandfather having run as an SPA candidate in Chicago, my dad having voted for Norman Thomas when he left the service and my mom being a supporter of the Socialist Left Party of Norway. So, when attended my first YPSL meeting as a fifteen-year-old, it was not a sign of rebellion against them, that and my later political activities in the SP, the SDS, the WRL, NAM and the SPUSA being generally approved of.

In the course of such involvements I heard a lot about the Fabians in Britain, but only as a side- or footnote to broader discussions. This biography of one of its most prominent figures by a close personal associate of hers has served as an introduction to that tendency. Much of it was new to me, Webb having died in the forties and her political work having pretty much ended in the thirties.
]]> <![CDATA[The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb]]> 42779062 464 Sam Kean 0316381683 Erik 5 history 4.33 2019

The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb

author: Sam Kean
name: Erik
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: history
review:
This is a supremely entertaining book outlining Allied (mostly American) efforts to learn about and stymie Axis efforts to develop dirty bombs and atomic weapons. Moe Berg, the retired baseball catcher about whom a film has been made, is featured prominently as are Werner Heisenberg, Nils Bohr, Leslie Groves and many others. Punctuating the episodes are descriptions of the relevant science described simply enough to be understood by the average reader. Underlying the text as a whole is an historical review of those researches which led to 'splitting the atom'.
]]> Darwin and the Beagle 8641115 280 Alan Moorehead Erik 4 sciences, travel
The whole is beautifully illustrated in color and black and white. The only complaint is that the maps could have been a bit better coordinated with the text.]]> 4.33 1969 Darwin and the Beagle

author: Alan Moorehead
name: Erik
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: sciences, travel
review:
I'd read enough Moorehead to recognize him as an excellent writer, well-suited for the quieter times here at Heirloom Books. This title is a survey of Darwin's career, focused on his five years on the Beagle. I'd read his Beagle book before, years ago, so this reading was by way of review, supplemented by other materials such as Darwin's correspondence.

The whole is beautifully illustrated in color and black and white. The only complaint is that the maps could have been a bit better coordinated with the text.
]]> Breakthrough: The Next Step 713216 304 Whitley Strieber 0060176539 Erik 3 sciences, psychology
Strieber comes across as earnest and sincere, but not very disciplined. He tells stories, mostly of his own experiences of 'the visitors'. He doesn't much provide more than personal anecdotes, however, very occasionally claiming additional witnesses. There are no footnotes referencing sources. Distinctions between the objective and the subjective, between lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, hallucination and fantasy are not clearly drawn. His own views of the whole matter, meanwhile, have evolved quite a bit, the visitors seen more as benign herein than in previous books.

His enterprise is therefore rather slipshod and not very convincing. Still, some of the stories are intriguing...]]> 3.24 1995 Breakthrough: The Next Step

author: Whitley Strieber
name: Erik
average rating: 3.24
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: sciences, psychology
review:
I read the two previous books in what might be called the Communion series. When I read the eponymous first work I came upon a very critical review of it by Samuel Delany in The Nation magazine. His claim was that it was fiction. To get a sense of the matter I went ahead and read several of Strieber's sf and horror novels, seeing the cinematic versions of Wolfen and The Hunger as well. Since then I've listened to several interviews with Strieber.

Strieber comes across as earnest and sincere, but not very disciplined. He tells stories, mostly of his own experiences of 'the visitors'. He doesn't much provide more than personal anecdotes, however, very occasionally claiming additional witnesses. There are no footnotes referencing sources. Distinctions between the objective and the subjective, between lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, hallucination and fantasy are not clearly drawn. His own views of the whole matter, meanwhile, have evolved quite a bit, the visitors seen more as benign herein than in previous books.

His enterprise is therefore rather slipshod and not very convincing. Still, some of the stories are intriguing...
]]> A Bookshop in Berlin 49249849 The memoir of a Jewish bookseller on a harrowing fight for survival across Nazi-occupied Europe.

In 1921, Françoise Frenkel--a Jewish woman from Poland--fulfills a dream. She opens La Maison du Livre, Berlin's first French bookshop, attracting artists and diplomats, celebrities and poets. The shop becomes a haven for intellectual exchange as Nazi ideology begins to poison the culturally rich city. In 1935, the scene continues to darken. First come the new bureaucratic hurdles, followed by frequent police visits and book confiscations.

Françoise's dream finally shatters on Kristallnacht in November 1938, as hundreds of Jewish shops and businesses are destroyed. La Maison du Livre is miraculously spared, but fear of persecution eventually forces Françoise on a desperate, lonely flight to Paris. When the city is bombed, she seeks refuge across southern France, witnessing countless horrors: children torn from their parents, mothers throwing themselves under buses. Secreted away from one safe house to the next, Françoise survives at the heroic hands of strangers risking their lives to protect her.

Published quietly in 1945, then rediscovered nearly sixty years later in an attic.]]> 288 Françoise Frenkel 1501199854 Erik 3 biography
In reading it I was reminded of my mother's descriptions of occupied Norway, the restrictions, the rationing, the days spent waiting in lines.]]> 3.89 1945 A Bookshop in Berlin

author: Françoise Frenkel
name: Erik
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/20
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: biography
review:
Frenkel was a Polish Jew who, in the early twenties, opened a French-language bookshop in Berlin. With the Nazi takeover she fled to Paris, then to Vichy France. This is an account of her efforts to remain free and of her eventual excape into Switzerland.

In reading it I was reminded of my mother's descriptions of occupied Norway, the restrictions, the rationing, the days spent waiting in lines.
]]> <![CDATA[And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning]]> 6952581
And God Said uncovers the often inaccurate or misleading English translations of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament that quotes from it. Sometimes the familiar English is just misleading. Other times the mistakes are more substantial. But the errors are widespread. This book tackles such issues as what's wrong with the Ten Commandments (starting with the word "commandments"), the correct description of the "virgin" birth, and the surprisingly modern message in the Song of Solomon, as well as many other unexpected but thought-provoking revelations.

Acclaimed translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman sheds light on the original intention of the text and the newly developed means that readers can use to get closer to it. In And God Said his fresh approach has united the topics of religion, language, and linguistics to offer the first modern understanding since the Bible was written.]]> 256 Joel M. Hoffman 0312565585 Erik 3 religion
This interest has endured. I try to keep my hand in as regards, particularly, the never-ending quest for the 'true text' of scripture. Usually I read about textual transmission theory, but in this case I decided to delve into the problems involved in the translation of the bible.

Unfortunately, almost Hoffman's entire discussion is about the translation of biblical Hebrew, a language I know virtually nothing about. If there had been more attention to the Greek texts I would have gotten more out of his work. One proficient in modern Hebrew would find this more interesting.

]]> 3.62 2010 And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

author: Joel M. Hoffman
name: Erik
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: religion
review:
Although a psychology major at UTS, a previous college major in religion and the required coursework for the divinity degree served to increase my interest in antiquity, particularly as regards our textual sources such as the bible. I enjoyed exegetics, learning enough (barely!) to handle a koine text.

This interest has endured. I try to keep my hand in as regards, particularly, the never-ending quest for the 'true text' of scripture. Usually I read about textual transmission theory, but in this case I decided to delve into the problems involved in the translation of the bible.

Unfortunately, almost Hoffman's entire discussion is about the translation of biblical Hebrew, a language I know virtually nothing about. If there had been more attention to the Greek texts I would have gotten more out of his work. One proficient in modern Hebrew would find this more interesting.

]]> <![CDATA[Hitler: The Memoir of the Nazi Insider Who Turned Against the Fuhrer]]> 10459946
But with the Nazi’s major unexpected political triumph in 1930, Hitler became a national figure, and he invited Hanfstaengl to be his foreign press secretary. It is from this unique insider’s position that the author provides a vivid, intimate view of Hitler—with his neuroses, repressions, and growing megalomania—over the next several years. In 1937, four years after Hitler came to power, relations between Hanfstaengl and the Nazis had deteriorated to such a degree that he was forced to flee for his life, escaping to Switzerland. Here is a portrait of Hitler as you’ve rarely seen him.]]> 320 Ernst Hanfstaengl 1611450551 Erik 4 biography, history 3.84 2011 Hitler: The Memoir of the Nazi Insider Who Turned Against the Fuhrer

Hitler: The Memoir of the Nazi Insider Who Turned Against the Fuhrer

author: Ernst Hanfstaengl
name: Erik
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: biography, history
review:
Ernst Hanfstaengl, an early friend and supporter, gradually turned against Hitler, ending as a refugee in various internment camps in Britain, Canada and the United States while serving as an intelligence source for the Allies. This memoir describes his life and contacts with the Nazi leadership during the period the early twenties to mid-forties. The focus, of course, is on Hitler himself and on his evolution during this period. Filled with detailed, usually first-person, reminiscence, this book is a fascinating read.
]]> Your Nostradamus Factor 687726 320 Ingo Swann 0671750585 Erik 1
Herein Swann discusses precognition. Writing in the early nineties, he forecasts into the beginning of the 21st century, basing these forecasts on a combination of precog, astrology and the common sense study of socio-economic trends. His dire predictions regarding environmental overload are, like many others, common enough and unremarkable, not requiring any psi ability or astrological acumen. His time frame, however, is off substantially. The USA is collapsing, but not as soon as he expected and his more positive hopes for a progressive reaction have yet to be fulfilled or even to appear on the horizon.

Prior to all of this, the first half of the book touches on theories of mind which don't locate consciousness as an epiphenomenon of the nervous system. Then, treating precognition as an amply proven fact, he discusses how one may develop that function. As noted, though, there's little evidence of precognition in the forecasts with constitute the second half of his book.

There is, however, some evidence of his own tastes and opinions. He is, for instance, very opposed to mind-altering drugs, totally failing to predict the legalizations of several of them in the States. Interestingly, he's also very enamored of the Mondragon cooperatives as a model for the future.

Frankly, I found this book pretty boring except for a couple of anecdotes and his discussion of Mondragon. Swann is not a great writer. Nor are his sources well-vetted. For instance, he accepts the Zechariah Sitchin mythology as regards our species and he accepts Plutonian astrology as well--hardly in the mainstream of even that 'discipline'. Finally, it is noteworthy that his acceptance of precognition as fact is not very much substantiated with these covers--nor much evidenced beyond those few anecdotes aforementioned. ]]> 4.00 1993 Your Nostradamus Factor

author: Ingo Swann
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1993
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves: psychology, political-social-science
review:
I've heard about Swann for years, he being one of the most accomplished participants in the psi research conducted, with government funding, at the Stanford Research Institute. This, however, is the first time I've read one of his books.

Herein Swann discusses precognition. Writing in the early nineties, he forecasts into the beginning of the 21st century, basing these forecasts on a combination of precog, astrology and the common sense study of socio-economic trends. His dire predictions regarding environmental overload are, like many others, common enough and unremarkable, not requiring any psi ability or astrological acumen. His time frame, however, is off substantially. The USA is collapsing, but not as soon as he expected and his more positive hopes for a progressive reaction have yet to be fulfilled or even to appear on the horizon.

Prior to all of this, the first half of the book touches on theories of mind which don't locate consciousness as an epiphenomenon of the nervous system. Then, treating precognition as an amply proven fact, he discusses how one may develop that function. As noted, though, there's little evidence of precognition in the forecasts with constitute the second half of his book.

There is, however, some evidence of his own tastes and opinions. He is, for instance, very opposed to mind-altering drugs, totally failing to predict the legalizations of several of them in the States. Interestingly, he's also very enamored of the Mondragon cooperatives as a model for the future.

Frankly, I found this book pretty boring except for a couple of anecdotes and his discussion of Mondragon. Swann is not a great writer. Nor are his sources well-vetted. For instance, he accepts the Zechariah Sitchin mythology as regards our species and he accepts Plutonian astrology as well--hardly in the mainstream of even that 'discipline'. Finally, it is noteworthy that his acceptance of precognition as fact is not very much substantiated with these covers--nor much evidenced beyond those few anecdotes aforementioned.
]]> The Greatest Adventure 5830693 256 John Taine Erik 3 sf 3.48 1928

author: John Taine
name: Erik
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1928
rating: 3
read at: 1961/11/01
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: sf
review:
Found a reproduction of this book cover on Flickr, but don't recall the contents of the novel, just having owned and read it as a kid along with hundreds of other cheap science fiction paperbacks.
]]> <![CDATA[I, Claudius/Claudius the God (Claudius, 1-2)]]> 22450901 In 1998 the Modern Library ranked I, Claudius 14th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.]]> 1077 Robert Graves Erik 5 literature 5.00 1934 I, Claudius/Claudius the God (Claudius, 1-2)

I, Claudius/Claudius the God (Claudius, 1-2)

author: Robert Graves
name: Erik
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1934
rating: 5
read at: 1969/01/01
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: literature
review:
While Graves' King Jesus was most provocative, his two Claudius novels were the most fun of his literary treatments of the ancient world. Viewers who enjoyed the BBC series will enjoy the novels even more than the film. Readers of the two novels will be interested to see how they were translated to the screen.
]]> <![CDATA[Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party]]> 148672541 An extraordinary view into the politics of our times, Tired of Winning explores how Donald Trump remade the Republican Party in his own image—and the wreckage he’s left in his wake.

Packed with new reporting, Tired of Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party.

From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he’s re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Jonathan Karl has known Donald Trump since his days as a New York Post reporter in the 1990s, and he covered every day of Trump’s administration as ABC News’s chief White House correspondent. No one is in a better position to detail the former president’s quest for retribution and provide a glimpse at what the GOP would be signing up for if it once again chooses him as its standard bearer.

In 1964, Ronald Reagan told Americans it was “a time for choosing.” Sixty years later, Republicans have their own choice to Are they tired of winning?]]> 336 Jonathan Karl 0593473981 Erik 4 4.14 2023 Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party

Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party

author: Jonathan Karl
name: Erik
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: history, political-social-science
review:
I've read at least a dozen books about Trump, going back to his days as a real estate developer. This one concentrates on the end of his first term and into the campaign for re-election in 2024 and on the craven betrayal of their oaths to the constitution by most Republican officials, including especially Trump himself.
]]> The Sweeping Wind: A Memoir 2493027
The Sweeping Wind: A Memoir by P. de Kruif. Pp. 270. Harcourt, NY, 1962. John H. Raach, PhD, MD
Since this article doesn't have an abstract, we provide the 1st 150 words of the text:
In his memoir, Paul de Kruif gives us an autobiography which ranks with the best of these rare forms of literature. In his lifetime he has been in close touch with great events in 20th century medicine & has counted some of the great personages of the American scene among his intimate friends. The manner in which he recounts short anecdotes about many of these people is fascinating. Private conversations & letters, which always intrigue a reader, abound in his story & make it far better reading as a result.
For those who have enjoyed de Kruif's novels & articles, this memoir will be a welcome addition to their library of "de Kruifiana." The inimitable style which he has developed is at its best in the 1st portion of the book. The latter portion is less a story & more a mere recounting of experiences with people & committees.]]> 270 Paul de Kruif Erik 3 biography
De Kruif was trained as a microbiologist and was most known as a medical journalist and for his contributions to Sinclair Lewis' 'Arrowsmith'. This memoir is bookended by his relationship with his wife, Rhea, beginning with his return from WWI and ending with her death in 1957. Detailing his education at university and in the laboratory, the rest of the text goes back and forth between his personal life with her and his public life as a writer. He's remarkably frank about his various infidelities--and somewhat guilt-ridden.]]> 3.30 1962 The Sweeping Wind: A Memoir

author: Paul de Kruif
name: Erik
average rating: 3.30
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: biography
review:
Having read his 'Microbes and Men' as a child, I picked this up years later in SW Michigan, de Kruif's primary state of residence. It sat on my shelf for decades before being pulled out as a bedtime read.

De Kruif was trained as a microbiologist and was most known as a medical journalist and for his contributions to Sinclair Lewis' 'Arrowsmith'. This memoir is bookended by his relationship with his wife, Rhea, beginning with his return from WWI and ending with her death in 1957. Detailing his education at university and in the laboratory, the rest of the text goes back and forth between his personal life with her and his public life as a writer. He's remarkably frank about his various infidelities--and somewhat guilt-ridden.
]]> Siege: Trump Under Fire 44425746 Michael Wolff, author of the bombshell bestseller Fire and Fury, once again takes us inside the Trump presidency to reveal a White House under siege.

With Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff defined the first phase of the Trump administration; now, in Siege, he has written an equally essential and explosive book about a presidency that is under fire from almost every side. A stunningly fresh narrative that begins just as Trump’s second year as president is getting underway and ends with the delivery of the Mueller report, Siege reveals an administration that is perpetually beleaguered by investigations and a president who is increasingly volatile, erratic, and exposed.]]> 352 Michael Wolff 1250253829 Erik 4 history
As with Wolff's previous entry, there's a lot of dirt about Trump personally in addition to the usual chronological account of political missteps. Much of it concerns sex. Trump, for instance, is cited as bragging about receiving a blow job from Nikki Haley, about regularly fucking a White House intern, etc., etc. Otherwise it's the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

The greatest failing of this book is that Wolff only occasionally cites his sources in the text. Most are inattributed and there are no footnotes, no endnotes, no bibliography.]]> 3.54 2019 Siege: Trump Under Fire

author: Michael Wolff
name: Erik
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: history
review:
I've read many books about Trump, including Wolff's prior, "Fire and Fury". A primary source for both appears to have been Steve Bannon. Trump himself gets no respect, from either author or source, Bannon gets a lot--though one does not imagine that Wolff shares his political views.

As with Wolff's previous entry, there's a lot of dirt about Trump personally in addition to the usual chronological account of political missteps. Much of it concerns sex. Trump, for instance, is cited as bragging about receiving a blow job from Nikki Haley, about regularly fucking a White House intern, etc., etc. Otherwise it's the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

The greatest failing of this book is that Wolff only occasionally cites his sources in the text. Most are inattributed and there are no footnotes, no endnotes, no bibliography.
]]> Letters 1: 1906-1950 3521748 From some 1600 letters written by Jung between '06-61, the editors have selected over 1000. Volume 1, published in '73, contains those letters written between '06 & '50.
In 5/56, in his 81st year, Jung first discussed publishing his letters with Gerhard Adler. He'd often used epistolary media to communicate ideas & clarify interpretations of his work, quite apart from answering people approaching him with their problems & simply corresponding with friends & colleagues. Many of his letters contain creative ideas, providing a running commentary on his work.]]> 636 C.G. Jung 0710075812 Erik 4 psychology
In fact, the Jung preserve is closely guarded. It began with himself. Shortly before his death Jung is reported to have burned a great deal of correspondence. Presumably, much of what was burned were love letters to the accomplished psychiatrist. Since his death, the various persons and institutions constituting the Jungian establishment have maintained a concern with projecting a good image. A selection such as this is likely unrepresentative of the man and of his correspondence.

While it is certainly understandable that there have been reputations to protect and potential libel suits to avoid, it is now almost fifty years since the time of Jung's demise. Few of the principals yet survive. Hopefully, even the "establishment" will come around to reissuing the letters of C.G. Jung in a more acceptable edition.]]> 4.85 1973 Letters 1: 1906-1950

author: C.G. Jung
name: Erik
average rating: 4.85
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 1977/08/01
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: psychology
review:
While naturally interesting to one committed to reading everything he ever wrote, the C.G. Jung Letters set of two volumes, while beautifully edited and arranged, were disappointing because of their incompleteness. This is only a selection, beginning with letters he wrote in his thirties.

In fact, the Jung preserve is closely guarded. It began with himself. Shortly before his death Jung is reported to have burned a great deal of correspondence. Presumably, much of what was burned were love letters to the accomplished psychiatrist. Since his death, the various persons and institutions constituting the Jungian establishment have maintained a concern with projecting a good image. A selection such as this is likely unrepresentative of the man and of his correspondence.

While it is certainly understandable that there have been reputations to protect and potential libel suits to avoid, it is now almost fifty years since the time of Jung's demise. Few of the principals yet survive. Hopefully, even the "establishment" will come around to reissuing the letters of C.G. Jung in a more acceptable edition.
]]> <![CDATA[Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism]]> 450148
"With (this) book, George L Mosse claims once again his place in modern historiography as the foremost explicator and demythologizer of ideas which have inflamed and energized men's minds and worked ir-reversible evil in human history... In his exposition of the etiology of racism and its dynamic, if aberrant, progression, Mosse has produced a strikingly original work whose conceptual brilliance and analytic keenness will surely make it the indispensable work on European racism."
—Lucy S. Dawidowicz,
in Commentary

"Historian Mosse has written an important book on the emergence and development of the European racism that undergirded the thinking and actions of those who participated in... Hitler's 'Final Solution.'"
—Raymond Hall,
in Contemporary Sociology

"Mosse... knows all that there is to know about volkisch and anti-Semi¬tic ideologies. He has given us an... encapsulated history of the racial idea, of its ideological cousinage, of it relations with rival or related movements and ideas."
—Eugen Weber,
in the American Historical Review

Cover design: Mike Jaynes
]]> 277 George L. Mosse 0865274282 Erik 5 history 4.05 1978 Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism

Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism

author: George L. Mosse
name: Erik
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: history
review:
This both a history of European racism and of the stigmatization and ultimate extermination of Jews (I dislike 'anti-semitism' as the category includes peoples not Jewish). As regards racism, some attention if paid to the skin-prejudices of many of the imperialist powers engaged in the exploitation of Africa, primarily France and Britain, but the focus of the book is on the history of the persecution of the Jews from the eighteenth century and culminating with the genocidal efforts of the Nazis. Significant attention is paid to how Hitler himself came to his delusional beliefs.
]]> The Two-Ocean War 3158714 The Two-Ocean War: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War is a grand, wholly engaging distillation of his definitive 15-volume history of naval operations in WWII. Morison was Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard. But he also wrote as a participant in many of the events described herein: he served on 11 ships during the war, emerging as a captain with seven battle stars on his service ribbons, having gone to sea specifically to be able to write in contact with the events covered. Illustrated with 35 photos & 54 charts & maps of key engagements, this is a blazing record of the action from Pearl Harbor to the long war of attrition between submarines & convoys in the Atlantic, thru Midway & Guadalcanal, to the invasion of continental Europe, to Okinawa, Leyte & the final surrender of the Japanese. Morison's narrative is rich enough to reveal all levels of each wartime encounter, dramatizing the strategic arguments that went on between Churchill & King, between MacArthur & Nimitz, as well as highlighting the glory of individual feats of arms. The Two-Ocean War is an outstanding contribution to military history.]]> 639 Samuel Eliot Morison 0316583669 Erik 3 history
I recently finished Ian Toll's three-volume account of the Pacific war. If you're looking for a relatively light but thorough read, he is to be recommended. Morison, himself a Navy man and author of the definitive, multi-volume, account of the Navy in WWII delivers a drier, much more technical account. Written in the early sixties, this volume does not address the central importance of the code-breakers as most of that information was still under wraps at the time. ]]> 4.11 1963 The Two-Ocean War

author: Samuel Eliot Morison
name: Erik
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: history
review:
My dad served in both theatres as a cryptanalyst. Although in the army, he was attached to the navy for amphibious operations whereby ship-to-shore communications were vital. He was involved in the North African campaign around Oran, in the landings in Sicily around Gela and in the first two landings in the Philippines, Leyte and Lingayen. For much of the war he was on board the Wasatch, Kincaid's command ship in, as I recall, the Seventh Fleet. This and the fact that much of my family lived in occupied Norway during the war has had me long interested in its history.

I recently finished Ian Toll's three-volume account of the Pacific war. If you're looking for a relatively light but thorough read, he is to be recommended. Morison, himself a Navy man and author of the definitive, multi-volume, account of the Navy in WWII delivers a drier, much more technical account. Written in the early sixties, this volume does not address the central importance of the code-breakers as most of that information was still under wraps at the time.
]]> Medieval Philosophy 4423343 "A better conspectus of medieval philosophy than this would be difficult to conceive...a notable achievement."--The Tablet (London)
Preface
Origins & Character of Medieval Philosophy
Early Middle Ages: Problem of Universals
Early Middle Ages: Growth of Scholasticism
Islamic & Jewish Philosophy: Translations
Universities: Franciscan Philosophers
St. Thomas Acquinas
The Averroists
Duns Scotus
14th Century: Wm of Ockham
14th Century: Ockhamist Movement
Speculative Mysticism: Nicholas of Cusa
Political Philosophy
Suggestions for Further Reading
Index]]> 206 Frederick Charles Copleston 0061303763 Erik 4 philosophy 4.00 Medieval Philosophy

author: Frederick Charles Copleston
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 1994/12/01
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: philosophy
review:
All of Copleston's works serve as intelligent introductions to their topics. A Jesuit, he is particularly good on medieval philosophy. I'd read the second volume of his A History of Philosophy which also covered this period and did so in more depth actually, but, years later and getting rusty in philosophy, I returned to him upon discovering this book. For a layperson simply wanting an introduction to medieval European thought, this would probably be a better choice than the second volume of his History of Philosophy.
]]> <![CDATA[The Rise and Fall of Alexandria Publisher: Penguin]]> 125740812 0 Howard Reid Justin Pollard Erik 3 history 4.00

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria Publisher: Penguin

author: Howard Reid Justin Pollard
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: history
review:
The authors are popular writers, not academics or specialists. It shows. They rather uncritically pick and choose from extant literary sources to craft this history of Alexandria from its founding until the Moslem conquest. A light read, it served as my bedtime book for a few days.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of Japan: The Final Weeks of World War II in the Pacific]]> 26834513 New York Times A “virtually faultless” account of the last weeks of WWII in the Pacific from both Japanese and American perspectives (The New York Times Book Review). By midsummer 1945, Japan had long since lost the war in the Pacific. The people were not told the truth, and neither was the emperor. Japanese generals, admirals, and statesmen knew, but only a handful of leaders were willing to accept defeat. Most were bent on fighting the Allies until the last Japanese soldier died and the last city burned to the ground. Exhaustively researched and vividly told, The Fall of Japan masterfully chronicles the dramatic events that brought an end to the Pacific War and forced a once-mighty military nation to surrender unconditionally. From the ferocious fighting on Okinawa to the all-but-impossible mission to drop the 2nd atom bomb, and from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s White House to the Tokyo bunker where tearful Japanese leaders first told the emperor the truth, William Craig captures the pivotal events of the war with spellbinding authority. The Fall of Japan brings to life both celebrated and lesser-known historical figures, including Admiral Takijiro Onishi, the brash commander who drew up the Yamamoto plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor and inspired the death cult of kamikaze pilots., This astonishing account ranks alongside Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day and John Toland’s The Rising Sun as a masterpiece of World War II history.]]> 416 William Craig Erik 3 history
Given Dad's involvement there (and, previously, in North Africa and Sicily), and given that pretty much all of my adult friends and family had been in the war, either under German occupation or in military operations against Germany, Japan and their allies, I've long had an interest in the war. Beginning, while yet in elementary school, with Shirer's 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' and continuing to this day, I've read very many books on the subject, but usually with an emphasis on the war in Europe. Recently, however, I've been delving into the Pacific campaigns.

Naturally, with so many books read, there's a lot of redundancy. Craig's 'The Fall of Japan', however, treats of matters I've not read much about such as the liberation of the camps, the early stages of the occupation and the actual surrender. Sadly, this is an extraordinarily ill-designed book, with obvious lacunae and textual repetitions.]]> 4.33 1967 The Fall of Japan: The Final Weeks of World War II in the Pacific

The Fall of Japan: The Final Weeks of World War II in the Pacific

author: William Craig
name: Erik
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: history
review:
Dad served as a cryptanalyst aboard the USS Wasatch under Admiral Kincaid during the landings in Leyte Gulf. The 'Battle of Leyte Gulf' is a misnomer as the actual fighting, ship to ship, was to the south and the northwest. Except for kamikazes, the landings were virtually unopposed.

Given Dad's involvement there (and, previously, in North Africa and Sicily), and given that pretty much all of my adult friends and family had been in the war, either under German occupation or in military operations against Germany, Japan and their allies, I've long had an interest in the war. Beginning, while yet in elementary school, with Shirer's 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' and continuing to this day, I've read very many books on the subject, but usually with an emphasis on the war in Europe. Recently, however, I've been delving into the Pacific campaigns.

Naturally, with so many books read, there's a lot of redundancy. Craig's 'The Fall of Japan', however, treats of matters I've not read much about such as the liberation of the camps, the early stages of the occupation and the actual surrender. Sadly, this is an extraordinarily ill-designed book, with obvious lacunae and textual repetitions.
]]> <![CDATA[Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941]]> 143614
Decision 1: May 1940. The British War Cabinet, driven by Churchill, agrees to fight on after the German blitzkrieg defeat of France, despite loud calls for negotiated settlement.
Decision 2: Hitler decides to attack the Soviet Union.
Decision 3: Japan decides to seize the "Golden Opportunity" and turn south, going after the colonial empires of the countries that have fallen to Hitler.
Decision 4: Mussolini decides to join the war on Hitler's side to grab a share of the spoils.
Decision 5: Roosevelt decides to lend a helping hand to England.
Decision 6: Stalin decides he knows best and ignores all the clear signals that Germany is going to invade.
Decision 7: Roosevelt decides to wage undeclared war.
Decision 8: Japan decides to go to war against the United States.
Decision 9: Hitler decides to declare war on the USA.
Decision 10: Hitler decides to kill the Jews.

Decision relates to subsequent decision, though never simply or necessarily as expected. The clash of personalities, the various weaknesses of the different political systems, the challenge of intelligence, the misdiagnosis of risk and possibility: all play their part. And after nineteen months, though much remained to be decided, the world's fate had been profoundly altered by these ten choices.]]> 624 Ian Kershaw 1594201234 Erik 4 history 4.04 2007 Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

author: Ian Kershaw
name: Erik
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: history
review:
The author details decisions and acts following upon them which shaped WWII up until the Wannsee Conference. The states treated are Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, the USSR and the USA. Most of this material was familiar but I did gain some insight into why Hitler declared war on the USA despite not appearing to be obligated to do so by the Tripartite treaty as well as a good representation as to how German decisions made sense given their aims (excepting their axiomatic racism).
]]> <![CDATA[Doctor's War: Introduction by Pete McCarthy, author of McCarthy's Bar]]> 97532
As an RAF medical officer, Aidan McCarthy served in France, survived Dunkirk, and was plunged into adventures in the Japanese-American arena comparable with those of famous war heroes.

Interned by the Japanese in Java, he helped his fellow prisoners with amazing ingenuity in awful conditions. En–route back to Japan in 1944, his ship was torpedoed but he was rescued by a whaling boat and re–interned in Japan. His life was literally saved by the dropping of the Nagasaki atom bomb. He was then eyewitness to the horror and devastation it caused.

“This is an almost incredible account written with humour and dignity.” – Pete McCarthy

“This book is an epic.” – Sir Dennis Spotswood, Marshal of the RAF

“His description is terrifying but fascinating.” – Air Marshal Sir William Coles]]> 160 Aidan MacCarthy 1904943403 Erik 3 biography 4.39 1979 Doctor's War: Introduction by Pete McCarthy, author of McCarthy's Bar

Doctor's War: Introduction by Pete McCarthy, author of McCarthy's Bar

author: Aidan MacCarthy
name: Erik
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: biography
review:
Just finished Ian Toll's trilogy about the war in the Pacific when a friend loaned me this memoir of an RAF physician's captivity. This began in the Dutch colonies and ended in Nagasaki, the author having survived the bombing in '45. His account is matter-of-fact. No embellishments, no drama, just grinding misery in various circumstances with some interesting insights as regards the Japanese military.
]]> <![CDATA[Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis]]> 29100060 416 Catrine Clay 0062245120 Erik 3 biography
Jung was challenging and exciting as well as very mind-opening. Neither psychology nor philosophy had been taught much in high school and he introduced me to those fields as well as to an appreciation of religion I had not formerly held. He also got me to brush up on my pitiable Latin as well as to begin to deal with Greek, reinforcing my interest in classical history. Indeed, I went on for degrees in religion, psychology and philosophy--none of which could have been predicted when I was in high school.

However, despite his positive influence, Jung was ultimately disappointing. For one thing, beyond his word-association work early on, he wasn't too concerned about scientific proof of his theories, effectively relegating much of it to the subjective sphere. For another, he wasn't very ethical. He he hurt his wife and family by becoming erotically involved with patients and analysands, exploiting the tranference. Further, he did nothing to politically support the various progressive movements of his time. HIs life was very much one of self-indulgence, predicated on being very wealthy, supported by servants, wealthy admirers and his wife's family fortune.

This book, then, was of interest. I'd read Emma Jung's two published works, but I'd never read an examination of her own life and thinking. Clay offers an examination of both as well as some sense of their domestic life. Her exposition is sympathetically apologetic so far as Carl is concerned, everything represented as turning out for the best, Jung's moral shortcomings treated as somehow necessary factors in his noble quest for Wholeness. Indeed, despite Emma being the ostensible subject of this book, her life is treated--too much, I think--as an adjunct to his.]]> 3.67 2016 Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis

Labyrinths: Emma Jung, Her Marriage to Carl, and the Early Years of Psychoanalysis

author: Catrine Clay
name: Erik
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves: biography
review:
I first read C.G. Jung as a kid, having found his UFO book in the Park Ridge Public Library while reading everything they had on the topic. I got back to him in high school, picking up a collection of his writings at the old Guild Bookstore in Lincoln Park. His essay on the symbolism of the Catholic Mass opened my eyes to a way to positively appropriate traditional religions, something I hadn't much thought of before. That and a general concern for my own mental health got me going, picking up one volume of the Collected Works at a time at the old Great Expectations bookstore in Evanston. By the end of college I was reading his alchemical works and reaching back to those figures who had most influenced him. By the end of divinity school I had read everything available and had corresponded with his son and his secretary and had completed a thesis on the Kantian background of his thought.

Jung was challenging and exciting as well as very mind-opening. Neither psychology nor philosophy had been taught much in high school and he introduced me to those fields as well as to an appreciation of religion I had not formerly held. He also got me to brush up on my pitiable Latin as well as to begin to deal with Greek, reinforcing my interest in classical history. Indeed, I went on for degrees in religion, psychology and philosophy--none of which could have been predicted when I was in high school.

However, despite his positive influence, Jung was ultimately disappointing. For one thing, beyond his word-association work early on, he wasn't too concerned about scientific proof of his theories, effectively relegating much of it to the subjective sphere. For another, he wasn't very ethical. He he hurt his wife and family by becoming erotically involved with patients and analysands, exploiting the tranference. Further, he did nothing to politically support the various progressive movements of his time. HIs life was very much one of self-indulgence, predicated on being very wealthy, supported by servants, wealthy admirers and his wife's family fortune.

This book, then, was of interest. I'd read Emma Jung's two published works, but I'd never read an examination of her own life and thinking. Clay offers an examination of both as well as some sense of their domestic life. Her exposition is sympathetically apologetic so far as Carl is concerned, everything represented as turning out for the best, Jung's moral shortcomings treated as somehow necessary factors in his noble quest for Wholeness. Indeed, despite Emma being the ostensible subject of this book, her life is treated--too much, I think--as an adjunct to his.
]]> <![CDATA[Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 3)]]> 56769555

Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings to life the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won the largest naval battle in history; Douglas MacArthur made good his pledge to return to the Philippines; waves of kamikazes attacked the Allied fleets; the Japanese fought to the last man on one island after another; B-29 bombers burned down Japanese cities; and Hiroshima and Nagasaki were vaporized in atomic blasts.

Ian W. Toll’s narratives of combat in the air, at sea, and on the beaches are as gripping as ever, but he also reconstructs the Japanese and American home fronts and takes the reader into the halls of power in Washington and Tokyo, where the great questions of strategy and diplomacy were decided.

Drawing from a wealth of rich archival sources and new material, Twilight of the Gods casts a penetrating light on the battles, grand strategic decisions and naval logistics that enabled the Allied victory in the Pacific. An authoritative and riveting account of the final phase of the War in the Pacific, Twilight of the Gods brings Toll’s masterful trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. This prize-winning and best-selling trilogy will stand as the first complete history of the Pacific War in more than twenty-five years, and the first multivolume history of the Pacific naval war since Samuel Eliot Morison’s series was published in the 1950s.]]> 926 Ian W. Toll 0393868303 Erik 4 history 4.74 2020 Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 3)

Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 3)

author: Ian W. Toll
name: Erik
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: history
review:
The final volume of Toll's history of the Pacific war, primarily from the perspective of it naval operations, but inclusive of landings and with some considerable attention to the Japanese as well as to the councils of state on both sides. Chronological history is supplemented by first-person accounts, giving these volumes some depth.
]]> <![CDATA[The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 2)]]> 28789720
This masterful history encompasses the heart of the Pacific War—the period between mid-1942 and mid-1944—when parallel Allied counteroffensives north and south of the equator washed over Japan's far-flung island empire like a "conquering tide," concluding with Japan's irreversible strategic defeat in the Marianas. It was the largest, bloodiest, most costly, most technically innovative and logistically complicated amphibious war in history, and it fostered bitter interservice rivalries, leaving wounds that even victory could not heal.

Often overlooked, these are the years and fights that decided the Pacific War. Ian W. Toll's battle scenes—in the air, at sea, and in the jungles—are simply riveting. He also takes the reader into the wartime councils in Washington and Tokyo where politics and strategy often collided, and into the struggle to mobilize wartime production, which was the secret of Allied victory. Brilliantly researched, the narrative is propelled and colored by firsthand accounts—letters, diaries, debriefings, and memoirs—that are the raw material of the telling details, shrewd judgment, and penetrating insight of this magisterial history.]]> 688 Ian W. Toll 0393353206 Erik 5 history 4.59 2015 The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 2)

The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy, 2)

author: Ian W. Toll
name: Erik
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: history
review:
This is the second volume of a trilogy covering WWII in the Pacific. Considerable effort is given to representing the Japanese perspective. Little attention is paid the events not involving navy or marine activities. Maps are provided representing major engagements, though neither as many nor as detailed as I'd like.
]]> The German Generals Talk 865767 320 B.H. Liddell Hart 0688060129 Erik 3 history
A military geek would find this book most interesting, given a strong background in the war in the west. For me, the technical details, oft repeated, became boring. Also, I had problems with the geography, the maps provided in this paperback edition being poor and my mental maps of Europe being inadequate.]]> 4.00 1948 The German Generals Talk

author: B.H. Liddell Hart
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: history
review:
Author Hart was a military theorist whose books were much consulted by all sides in the thirties and forties and here he delights in recounting their citation by the incarcerated German officers he was able to interview after the war. His focus having been on mechanized warfare, tanks in particular, there is an emphasis on this herein.

A military geek would find this book most interesting, given a strong background in the war in the west. For me, the technical details, oft repeated, became boring. Also, I had problems with the geography, the maps provided in this paperback edition being poor and my mental maps of Europe being inadequate.
]]> <![CDATA[Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942]]> 13707735
"Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." ― San Francisco Chronicle On the first Sunday in December 1941, an armada of Japanese warplanes appeared suddenly over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and devastated the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Six months later, in a sea fight north of the tiny atoll of Midway, four Japanese aircraft carriers were sent into the abyss, a blow that destroyed the offensive power of their fleet. Pacific Crucible ―through a dramatic narrative relying predominantly on primary sources and eyewitness accounts of heroism and sacrifice from both navies―tells the epic tale of these first searing months of the Pacific war, when the U.S. Navy shook off the worst defeat in American military history to seize the strategic initiative. 24 pages of illustrations; 12 maps]]> 656 Ian W. Toll 0393343413 Erik 5 history
The recommendation was well-founded. Toll manages to balance the objective progression of events in the Pacific theater with subjective anecdotes and reminiscences which flesh out, which humanize the narrative, and this from both sides, so that the text reads like a novel.

Having finished this volume, I've ordered the second and expect to order the third soon.]]> 4.66 2011 Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942

Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942

author: Ian W. Toll
name: Erik
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: history
review:
I recently read a historiography of books about WWII in which Toll was highly recommended. We had a copy of this, the first volume of a trilogy about the war with Japan, at the shop, so I gave it a look, liked what I saw and read it during breaks at work.

The recommendation was well-founded. Toll manages to balance the objective progression of events in the Pacific theater with subjective anecdotes and reminiscences which flesh out, which humanize the narrative, and this from both sides, so that the text reads like a novel.

Having finished this volume, I've ordered the second and expect to order the third soon.
]]> <![CDATA[The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology]]> 25014
Simon Winchester tells the fascinating story of 'Strata' Smith, a man who crossed boundaries of class, wealth and science to produce a map that fundamentally changed the way we view the world.]]> 329 Simon Winchester 0060931809 Erik 3 biography
I've enjoyed two other books by Winchester, the one on Needham, the other on the OED, but was disappointed by this one. Maybe it was the subject, geology not being a field I've paid much attention to in the past. In any case, Winchester didn't make it enthralling as he did with Sinology and with lexography. Insofar as it held my interest it was by provoking sympathy with Swift's plight.]]> 3.83 2001 The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

author: Simon Winchester
name: Erik
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: biography
review:
This is the biography of William Swift, the Englishman who correlated geological strata with fossil remains and produced the first stratigraphical map of the British Isles. A self-made man of ordinary birth, he was exploited by aristocratic amateurs until, after a stint in debtors' prison, he was finally given recognition towards the end of his life.

I've enjoyed two other books by Winchester, the one on Needham, the other on the OED, but was disappointed by this one. Maybe it was the subject, geology not being a field I've paid much attention to in the past. In any case, Winchester didn't make it enthralling as he did with Sinology and with lexography. Insofar as it held my interest it was by provoking sympathy with Swift's plight.
]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom]]> 2763494 The Professor & the Madman ("Elegant & scrupulous"—NY Times Book Review) & Krakatoa ("A mesmerizing page-turner"—Time) tells the story of Joseph Needham, the Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country.

No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual. A nudist, he was devoted to quirky folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge, he fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. His mistress persuaded him to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of expeditions to the frontiers of the ancient empire. He searched for evidence to bolster a conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of humankind's most familiar innovations—including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper—often centuries before others. His journeys took him across war-torn China, consolidating his admiration for the Chinese. After the war, he determined to announce what he'd discovered & began writing 카지노싸이트 & Civilization in China, describing the country's long history of invention & technology. By the time he died, he'd produced, almost single-handedly, 17 volumes, making him the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever.

Epic & intimate, The Man Who Loved China tells the sweeping story of China thru Needham's life. Here's a tale of what makes men, nations & humankind great—related by one of the world's best storytellers.]]> 316 Simon Winchester 0060884592 Erik 4 biography
Like The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China is a light romp through several topics, namely, Joseph Needham's life, his great publishing project and the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Chinese before ca. 1500. It is, however, primarily an entertaining biography of a quirky English scholar.]]> 3.82 2008 The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom

author: Simon Winchester
name: Erik
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/15
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: biography
review:
Having a copy of one volume of Needham's 카지노싸이트 and Civilisation in China, a friend intrigued by Needham himself and a familiarity with the author, I picked this up, used, at a local bookstore.

Like The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China is a light romp through several topics, namely, Joseph Needham's life, his great publishing project and the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Chinese before ca. 1500. It is, however, primarily an entertaining biography of a quirky English scholar.
]]> <![CDATA[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West]]> 1117658 512 Dee Brown 0805010459 Erik 3 history
In some respects this book is dated. Author Brown's estimate of the population of North America at this time of European colonization is far, far below current estimates. In addition, he fails to emphasize the effect of the diseases the Europeans brought with them.

The book is also narrower in scope than I had expected. It's really only about the western nations and, then, only from the period beginning with the Civil War and ending approximately in 1890--in other words, only three decades and only with a native population already much affected by European influences. His indians drink liquor, ride horses and carry guns. Many of them are already, ostensibly, Christian as, notably, in their Ghost Dance movement. Many of them have already been displaced from the birthplaces of their ancestors. And because of his narrow focus, there is no mention of the pre-Columbian civilizations of North America such as the Mound Builders and the Pueblos.

Still, as an almost unremitting exposition of greed, cruelty, injustice and inhumanity, this book does a grindingly good job...]]> 4.47 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

author: Dee Brown
name: Erik
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1970
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: history
review:
I've been meaning to read this book since it came out in the early seventies, not having much knowledge or experience of the native peoples of North America. Guilt may have been a factor, our treatment of them being so terrible. Now, the reading of this book has directly addressed this emotion, increasing it, bringing it to attention. If anything, matters were worse than imagined.

In some respects this book is dated. Author Brown's estimate of the population of North America at this time of European colonization is far, far below current estimates. In addition, he fails to emphasize the effect of the diseases the Europeans brought with them.

The book is also narrower in scope than I had expected. It's really only about the western nations and, then, only from the period beginning with the Civil War and ending approximately in 1890--in other words, only three decades and only with a native population already much affected by European influences. His indians drink liquor, ride horses and carry guns. Many of them are already, ostensibly, Christian as, notably, in their Ghost Dance movement. Many of them have already been displaced from the birthplaces of their ancestors. And because of his narrow focus, there is no mention of the pre-Columbian civilizations of North America such as the Mound Builders and the Pueblos.

Still, as an almost unremitting exposition of greed, cruelty, injustice and inhumanity, this book does a grindingly good job...
]]> <![CDATA[The Battle For History: Re-fighting World War II]]> 860149 128 John Keegan 0679767436 Erik 4 history Very readable!]]> 3.68 1995

The Battle For History: Re-fighting World War II

author: John Keegan
name: Erik
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: history
review:
A slight book of historiography, author Keegan thematically discusses the literature about WWII, recommending some books, criticizing others and pointing to areas of research yet to be adequately pursued.
Very readable!
]]> <![CDATA[The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters]]> 33898870 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Riveting. The Six captures all the wayward magnetism and levity that have enchanted countless writers without neglecting the tragic darkness of many of the sisters life choices and the savage sociopolitical currents that fueled them. Tina Brown, The New York Times Book Review

The eldest was a razor-sharp novelist of upper-class manners; the second was loved by John Betjeman; the third was a fascist who married Oswald Mosley; the fourth idolized Hitler and shot herself in the head when Britain declared war on Germany; the fifth was a member of the American Communist Party; the sixth became Duchess of Devonshire.

They were the Mitford sisters: Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. Born into country-house privilege in the early years of the 20th century, they became prominent as bright young things in the high society of interwar London. Then, as the shadows crept over 1930s Europe, the stark and very public differences in their outlooks came to symbolize the political polarities of a dangerous decade.

The intertwined stories of their stylish and scandalous lives recounted in masterly fashion by Laura Thompson hold up a revelatory mirror to upper-class English life before and after WWII. The Six was previously published as Take Six Girls.

"]]> 416 Laura Thompson 1250099544 Erik 4 3.34 2015 The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters

The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters

author: Laura Thompson
name: Erik
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
The six Mitford sisters were all over the place in the pre-war, war and post-war social and political scenes in the UK, Germany, France and the USA. This is the second biography I've read of them (and their early-deceased brother) and a supplement to a book about Diana and Mosley. Most interesting to me, of course, were the more political of the six, Diana--a fascist, Unity-Valkyrie--a Nazi, and Jessica--a communist. The author, however, seems to favor the eldest, Nancy, the novelist whose books are taken as substantially autobiographical.
]]> <![CDATA[Fact, Fiction, and Flying Saucers: The Truth Behind the Misinformation, Distortion, and Derision by Debunkers, Government Agencies, and Conspiracy Conmen]]> 30027223 The mainstream media has misinformed us for years about UFO studies conducted by highly regarded scientists associated with some of the finest universities in the country. There is significant evidence that the U.S. government has covered up the alien presence through misinformation, distortion, obfuscation, and ridicule. Some prominent, politically connected scientists have engaged in the cover up. And a few professional writers have helped to successfully label any scientists who have been persuaded by the evidence and brave enough to take a stand as unscientific charlatans, fanatics, and kooks.
Fact, Fiction, and Flying Saucers examines the wealth of archival documents that clearly demonstrate this cooperative disinformation effort and refute the false claims made by these professional scoffers. Friedman and Marden set the record straight by examining politically motivated misinformation and presenting the compelling evidence that separates fact from fiction. They reveal:
The most compelling UFO evidence, including a variety of large-scale scientific studies.

The current state of UFOlogy and what the future holds.

The media s role in disclosure and denial.

The government scientists whose job it is to deny.

The Air Force, FBI, CIA, and NSA s involvement."]]> 288 Stanton T. Friedman 1632650657 Erik 3 sciences 3.89 Fact, Fiction, and Flying Saucers: The Truth Behind the Misinformation, Distortion, and Derision by Debunkers, Government Agencies, and Conspiracy Conmen

Fact, Fiction, and Flying Saucers: The Truth Behind the Misinformation, Distortion, and Derision by Debunkers, Government Agencies, and Conspiracy Conmen

author: Stanton T. Friedman
name: Erik
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: sciences
review:
For a science-based, extra-terrestrial approach to the UFO phenomena, Friedman is a good source. This book, co-authored with Betty Hill's niece, focuses on the hoaxers and debunkers who attempt to give 'ufology' of this sort a bad reputation. P. Klass and H. Menzel are discussed at length.
]]> <![CDATA[The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War]]> 61089467 352 Jeff Sharlet 1324006498 Erik 4 3.98 2023

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

author: Jeff Sharlet
name: Erik
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: travel, political-social-science
review:
Bookended by chapters about Belafonte and the Weavers, this book describes a roadtrip across the United States punctuated by photographs and visits to white nationalist churches, QAnon believers, gun nuts and Trump supporters following the election of Biden in 2020.
]]> <![CDATA[Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers]]> 12074
An engaging mix of philosophy, history, biography, and literary detection, Wittgenstein's Poker explores, through the Popper/Wittgenstein confrontation, the history of philosophy in the twentieth century. It evokes the tumult of fin-de-siécle Vienna, Wittgentein's and Popper's birthplace; the tragedy of the Nazi takeover of Austria; and postwar Cambridge University, with its eccentric set of philosophy dons, including Bertrand Russell. At the center of the story stand the two giants of philosophy themselves -- proud, irascible, larger than life -- and spoiling for a fight.]]> 368 David Edmonds 0060936649 Erik 4 philosophy Entertaining and accessible. A fun read.]]> 3.76 2001 Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers

Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers

author: David Edmonds
name: Erik
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves: philosophy
review:
Very well written. Sort of an introduction to modern Western philosophy by means of an anecdote related to the sole meeting of Karl Popper and Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge in 1946. In the course of describing their confrontation, the Vienna Circle is described and logical positivism explained. So, too, is the work of Bertrand Russell. The emphasis, however, is on Wittgenstein's evolving 'philosophy' of language and Popper's philosophy of science--both of which are accounted for within brief intellectual biographies.
Entertaining and accessible. A fun read.
]]> <![CDATA[Ufos the Final Answer by David Barclay (1999-11-01)]]> 133709258 Book by 0 David Barclay Erik 2 sciences 2.00 1993

Ufos the Final Answer by David Barclay (1999-11-01)

author: David Barclay
name: Erik
average rating: 2.00
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: sciences
review:
This is a collection of essays written, it appears, by British ufologists. The emphasis is subjective and psychological, rather than objective and physical. Thus there's much about Michael Persinger's work on piezoelectric effects on the brain and some about Jung's archetypes of the collective unconsious. None of the authors, however, appear to be scientists themselves. Still, the relationship between UFO experiences (including abduction accounts) and altered state of consciousness is, as they claim, one worth pursuing.
]]> <![CDATA[On the Trail of the JFK Assassins: A Groundbreaking Look at America's Most Infamous Conspiracy]]> 7991018 328 Dick Russell 1616080868 Erik 3 3.60 2008

On the Trail of the JFK Assassins: A Groundbreaking Look at America's Most Infamous Conspiracy

author: Dick Russell
name: Erik
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves:
review:
This is a collection of dated essays from various popular publications from 1975 through 1996 written by the author of 'The Man Who Knew Too Much". Also included are introductory background essays and supplementary material. There is no overall thesis presented, just a lot of detail, all of it radically challenging the official Warren Commission report.
]]> Sion Revelation 2304388 544 Lynn Picknett 0316732494 Erik 4 history
I found much of this book hard going, mostly because of vast cast of characters. Many of them would be familiar to the French and to people well versed in French politics from the nineteenth century to the present, but I'm not and, so, found myself having to look back in my reading to keep track of the detail. What I did appreciate, however, was their representation of Vichy politics, not as it appears retrospectively, but as it was to people of that time.]]> 3.10 2006 Sion Revelation

author: Lynn Picknett
name: Erik
average rating: 3.10
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: history
review:
This book appears to be a critical, level-headed expose of the whole Priory of Sion mythos as presented popularly through 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' and the books and movies based on Dan Brown's fictions (including parts of The Matrix films). The conclusion is that the Priory is one of several fronts for a right-wing pan-European movement originating in France.

I found much of this book hard going, mostly because of vast cast of characters. Many of them would be familiar to the French and to people well versed in French politics from the nineteenth century to the present, but I'm not and, so, found myself having to look back in my reading to keep track of the detail. What I did appreciate, however, was their representation of Vichy politics, not as it appears retrospectively, but as it was to people of that time.
]]> <![CDATA[Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of Ufo Sightings, Alien Encounters and Coverups]]> 602603 381 Richard Hall 0943358329 Erik 3 sciences
This interest abated somewhat during college, professional and graduate schools, my studies turning towards religion, psychology and philosophy. It was only when a close friend got a gig with UFO Magazine that I got serious about the subject again, fortified now with some background in altered states of consciousness, dream psychology and parapsychology. Since then I've pretty much read everything he'd pass on to me or I'd find in used bookstores.

This friend, now retired but still engaged, is soon to visit. To prepare, I made a special visit to a local bookstore, picking up a few volumes on the subject not yet read, this being one of them.

Hall is no crazy, this 1988 publication attempting to give a broad overview of the phenomenon, half of it being nothing but summary case studies from around the world. The rest is speculative, not conclusive beyond the recognition that there's something important that's been going on for a long time which has, so far, defied conclusive explanation.]]> 3.60 1988 Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of Ufo Sightings, Alien Encounters and Coverups

Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of Ufo Sightings, Alien Encounters and Coverups

author: Richard Hall
name: Erik
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: sciences
review:
I became interested in UFOs while still in elementary school, reading every book held at the Park Ridge Public Library on the subject, this being part and parcel with a broader interest in the space programs of the USA and USSR. The library books ranged from George Adamski's fancies, to Carl Gustav Jung's 'modern myth', to debunking of the whole matter. In addition to these books, I somehow obtained access to a host of men's magazines such as Argosy and True (gifts from an older relative?) which often featured articles on UFOs and to Fate, a magazine devoted to tales of the weird. Finally, this, the sixties, was a time when even respectable magazines such as Life, Look and the Post featured articles on flying saucers.

This interest abated somewhat during college, professional and graduate schools, my studies turning towards religion, psychology and philosophy. It was only when a close friend got a gig with UFO Magazine that I got serious about the subject again, fortified now with some background in altered states of consciousness, dream psychology and parapsychology. Since then I've pretty much read everything he'd pass on to me or I'd find in used bookstores.

This friend, now retired but still engaged, is soon to visit. To prepare, I made a special visit to a local bookstore, picking up a few volumes on the subject not yet read, this being one of them.

Hall is no crazy, this 1988 publication attempting to give a broad overview of the phenomenon, half of it being nothing but summary case studies from around the world. The rest is speculative, not conclusive beyond the recognition that there's something important that's been going on for a long time which has, so far, defied conclusive explanation.
]]> <![CDATA[In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and his Times]]> 3537602 256 Gale E. Christianson 0029051908 Erik 3 biography
Sadly, however, Christianson is a rather dry writer, detailing the facts well enough (such as Newton's primacy over Leibnitz) but not providing much in terms of the broader context of late seventeenth, early eighteen century Britain. At least it wasn't enough for me and the read, as a whole, was often a drudgery.]]> 3.97 1984 In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and his Times

In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and his Times

author: Gale E. Christianson
name: Erik
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: biography
review:
Short of managing the Principia, I've long meant to read a biography of Newton, he being a major influence on my favorite philosopher, Kant. This substantial treatment has done the job, detailing his theory of universal gravitation, his invention of the calculus and his optics while exploring his consuming interests in theology and alchemy as well as his later career as head of the British mint.

Sadly, however, Christianson is a rather dry writer, detailing the facts well enough (such as Newton's primacy over Leibnitz) but not providing much in terms of the broader context of late seventeenth, early eighteen century Britain. At least it wasn't enough for me and the read, as a whole, was often a drudgery.
]]> <![CDATA[UFOs, Aliens and the Battle for Truth: A Short History of UFOlogy]]> 54954553
Concise, balanced, and occasionally hilarious, this is a story that has as much to tell you about the human race as it does about aliens.]]> 160 Neil Nixon 0857304313 Erik 4 sciences
Nixon himself admits to a fascination with UFOs dating back to childhood. His book, however, represents this as a critical interest. For virtually every well-known case he presents reasons for skepticism.

Being British, the cases discussed focus more on the UK than an American author would. So, too, the authorities cited, most particularly Jenny Randles, whom Nixon holds in high regard.

Particularly useful are the notes and internet-bibliography. ]]> 3.56 UFOs, Aliens and the Battle for Truth: A Short History of UFOlogy

UFOs, Aliens and the Battle for Truth: A Short History of UFOlogy

author: Neil Nixon
name: Erik
average rating: 3.56
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: sciences
review:
Having recently read two of Taylor Branch's large volumes on the civil rights movement and just about to finish a lengthy biography of Isaac Newton, it's a real relief to get through a whole book in one sitting. Nixon's 'Short History of Ufology' manages what it promises in well under 200 pages.

Nixon himself admits to a fascination with UFOs dating back to childhood. His book, however, represents this as a critical interest. For virtually every well-known case he presents reasons for skepticism.

Being British, the cases discussed focus more on the UK than an American author would. So, too, the authorities cited, most particularly Jenny Randles, whom Nixon holds in high regard.

Particularly useful are the notes and internet-bibliography.
]]> <![CDATA[At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68]]> 1222468 1056 Taylor Branch 068485712X Erik 4 history 4.62 2006

At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68

author: Taylor Branch
name: Erik
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: history
review:
Excellent conclusion to the three-volume set reviewing the civil rights movement in the U.S.A. from 1954 to 1968. The focus is on King but the book gives a decent overview of the issues facing the country during that period, including especially the Vietnam war, poverty and the nascent womens' movement. President Johnson comes off well as a sincere advocate, his Great Society plans stymied by the war. King himself is represented as a complex figure, his marital infidelities mentioned when relevant to the basically chronological narrative. Contrasted with King, the hero, is Hoover, his antithesis.
]]> <![CDATA[The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects]]> 6346302 Foreword
1 Project Blue Book and the UFO Story
2 The Era of Confusion Begins
3 The Classics
4 Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge
5 The Dark Ages
6 The Presses Roll--The Air Force Shrugs
7 The Pentagon Rumbles
8 The Lubbock Lights, Unabridged
9 The New Project Grudge
10 Project Blue Book and the Big Build-Up
11 The Big Flap
12 The Washington Merry-Go-Round
13 Hoax or Horror?
14 Digesting the Data
15 The Radiation Story
16 The Hierarchy Ponders
17 What Are UFO's?
18 And They're Still Flying
19 Off They Go into the Wild Blue Yonder
20 Do They or Don't They?]]> 251 Edward J. Ruppelt Erik 3 sciences
Of the early UFO writers my favorites were Ruppelt and Keyhoe. Captain Ruppelt was most impressive as he had actually headed the Air Force investigation of the phenomenon for over two years and at that time I tended to believe the military. Ruppelt admitted that a quarter of the cases were inexplicable unless something like extraterrestrial visitation was allowed as an explanatory hypothesis.

Later, after the Richardson Panel and the Condon Report, the government discontinued public study of the UFO phenomena, claiming there was nothing to it. I, too, fell away from the subject by high school. Only later, under the influence of a friend who wrote for UFO Magazine, did I start reading more of the material. Now, while not subscribing to any particular theory, I again take the UFO phenomenon seriously.]]> 4.09 1956 The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

author: Edward J. Ruppelt
name: Erik
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 1964/01/01
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: sciences
review:
By age ten I was getting into UFOs. There were stories about them in the papers and in such mainstream publications as Life and Look magazines. Books about them occupied more than a shelf at the Park Ridge Public Library and were prominently displayed on the revolving bookstands at the drugstores both at home in Illinois and at Knack's near grandmother's place in Michigan. I read what I could find, including C.G. Jung's bit, the most unusual of the lot, and maybe two of the unbelievable Adamski books as well as a critique of Adamski.

Of the early UFO writers my favorites were Ruppelt and Keyhoe. Captain Ruppelt was most impressive as he had actually headed the Air Force investigation of the phenomenon for over two years and at that time I tended to believe the military. Ruppelt admitted that a quarter of the cases were inexplicable unless something like extraterrestrial visitation was allowed as an explanatory hypothesis.

Later, after the Richardson Panel and the Condon Report, the government discontinued public study of the UFO phenomena, claiming there was nothing to it. I, too, fell away from the subject by high school. Only later, under the influence of a friend who wrote for UFO Magazine, did I start reading more of the material. Now, while not subscribing to any particular theory, I again take the UFO phenomenon seriously.
]]> Shadows of Ecstasy 14742208 This book without the dust jacket can be found here

Charles Williams had a genius for choosing strange and exciting themes for his novels and making them believable and profoundly suggestive of spiritual truths. Shadows of Ecstasy tells of a mysterious invasion that threatens Europe from Africa. United in a fanatic crusade against death, the spiritual powers of the "Dark Continent" rise up with exultant paganism.

Charles Williams-novelist, poet, critic, dramatist and biographer-died in his native England in May, 1945. He had a lively and devoted following there and achieved a considerable reputation as a lecturer on the faculty of Oxford University. T.S. Eliot, Dorothy Sayers and C.S. Lewis were among his distinguished friends and literary sponsors.]]> 260 Charles Williams Erik 3 literature 3.00 1933 Shadows of Ecstasy

author: Charles Williams
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1933
rating: 3
read at: 1975/06/01
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: literature
review:
I read a slew of Williams' novels and one history on the recommendation of a faculty friend at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Although I liked the history, Descent of the Dove, I wasn't very impressed by the novels. If I were a high church Anglican with Neo-Platonic leanings I probably would have taken them more seriously.
]]> The Greater Trumps 22313690
But these are no ordinary cards. This is the original tarot deck, from which all other tarot decks have sprung. Their fate is entwined with a set of gold figurines representing the Major Arcana, which continually dance around a tabletop much like a chess board—the archetypal forces of the universe in miniature. Whoever can bring the deck and the figurines together will wield power over heaven and earth.

Nancy’s father has come into possession of the cards, but doesn’t know what he has. Her fiancé, Henry—of gypsy heritage—does. His family is in possession of the figurines, and he is determined to possess the cards as well. His offer to buy them refused, Henry makes plans to do whatever it takes to gain his prize, no matter who it hurts....

The Greater Trumps is one of Williams’ most thrilling and enjoyable novels—and at the same time, it is perhaps his most symbolically rich.]]> 268 Charles Williams Erik 3 literature 3.00 1932

author: Charles Williams
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at: 1975/05/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: literature
review:
This and other novels by Williams were recommended to me by Fr. Barry Wood, physician to the Union Theological Seminary community in New York and a frequent visitor. An episcopal priest, Williams probably meant a lot to him, but to me his novels were sheer phantasy.
]]> <![CDATA[The Story of Civilization, Volume 4: The Age of Faith]]> 14061548 The Age of Faith surveys the medieval achievements & modern significance of Christian, Islamic & Judaic life & culture. Like the other volumes in The Story of Civilization, this is a self-contained work, which at the same time fits into a comprehensive history. It includes the dramatic stories of Augustine, Hypatia, Justinian, Mohammed, Harun al-Rashid, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lion-Hearted, Saladin, Maimonides, St Francis, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon etc, all in the perspective of integrated history. The greatest love stories in literature—of Héloise & Abélard, of Dante & Beatrice—are here retold with enthralling scholarship.]]> 1216 Will Durant Erik 4
This, the fourth volume of Durant's monumental history of (mostly western) civilization, takes up and illuminates that neglected period very nicely and in a manner that neophytes, like myself, can appreciate.]]> 4.36 1950 The Story of Civilization, Volume 4: The Age of Faith

The Story of Civilization, Volume 4: The Age of Faith

author: Will Durant
name: Erik
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1950
rating: 4
read at: 1990/02/01
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves:
review:
High school history classes, beyond brief surveys of antique civilizations, took off in the early modern era, focusing on revolutions such as those in the Americas, France and Russia. The college history courses I attended refined this focus to early modern Europe and Russian revolutionary movements in particular. My knowledge of late antiquity and the European middle ages was scanty until seminary, when church history courses awakened an interest in what, for me, had truly been 'dark ages'.

This, the fourth volume of Durant's monumental history of (mostly western) civilization, takes up and illuminates that neglected period very nicely and in a manner that neophytes, like myself, can appreciate.
]]> <![CDATA[Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church]]> 2530656 "This book encapsulates Williams' view of the trajectory of church history. For Williams, church history has developed around a series of conflicts between opposing theological positions that threatened to tear the church apart. At each juncture, at which the church had the potential to reject some essential doctrine, a figure arose to reconcile the opposites & achieve continuing unity. (In more traditional theology, the Holy Spirit's primary role in the Xian life is to maintain unity, hence Williams' focus on the Holy Spirit in church history--the book is implicitly a history of Xian unity.) Williams suggests that these tensions are actually recurrences of one basic conflict within the church between the "Negative Way" (or the Way of Rejection) & the "Affirmative Way." Theologians will associate these ways with the apophatic & cataphatic traditions, respectively. Williams argues that these two strains of theology, while always in tension throughout church history, aren't only reconcilable, but necessary for the full flourishing of the church's life. Altho the book is quite short, it isn't a popular history of Xianity. Williams' book is a thesis-driven supplement for those who already know the outline of church history but who want insight into it, or for those who once studied church history but have forgotten it. But the book isn't a scholarly treatment of church history; it's neither comprehensive nor densely written, as a scholarly book would be. It's rather an insightful analysis of the resilience of Xian faith."--S. Schuler]]> 354 Charles Williams 0802812252 Erik 4 religion ]]> 3.67 1939 Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church

Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church

author: Charles Williams
name: Erik
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 1975/06/01
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: religion
review:
I enjoyed this rather idiosyncratic church history more than the novels written by Williams and probably would have appreciated the latter more if I'd read this first.

]]> All Hallows' Eve 12106207 In post-Blitz London, humanity’s last hope of defeating a powerful magician’s insidious plans lies with a ghost trapped in a surreal city of the dead

During World War II, soon after Ms. Lester Furnival married her beloved Richard, she died in an accident. Now she wanders the dark and lonely streets with her friend Evelyn. An empty mirror image of the London she once knew, the city is a place where time has lost its rules and structure, and where Lester can catch heartbreaking glimpses of the world she left behind.

But all is not well in the realm of the living. The other London has fallen under the sway of the magus Simon Leclerc, a master of black magic and necromancy who would sacrifice the soul of his own daughter in the pursuit of ultimate power. With her widowed husband entangled in the sorcerer’s toxic web along with an enigmatic artist who can paint only the truth, Lester must somehow thwart Leclerc’s malevolent plan if she is to find salvation—for the evil necromancer desires nothing less than total dominion over both worlds.

A ghost story unlike any other, All Hallows’ Eve is the final novel by the remarkable Charles Williams, whose brilliant literary excursions into the spiritual and supernatural realms remain unsurpassed more than six decades after his death. Williams was arguably the most creatively daring and ambitious of Oxford’s famed Inklings, the literary society that included such notables as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield, and his chilling, breathtaking, and deeply felt fiction remains the gold standard for provocative and intelligent contemporary fantasy.]]> 273 Charles Williams Erik 3 literature During the first two of my four years at UTS I was befriended and often visited at work by Barry Wood, an Episcopal priest who also happened to be the school's physician. He had just had a near brush with death by cancer and was often prone to serious conversation. In the course of many such talks he recommended I read the works of Charles Williams. All Hallow's Eve was probably the first of the four I ultimately essayed.
While Barry likely found some serious philosophical points made in this Christian novel, I'm afraid I simply read it as a fantasy.]]> 4.20 1945 All Hallows' Eve

author: Charles Williams
name: Erik
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 1975/04/01
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: literature
review:
My work study position at Union Theological Seminary was as a security guard, usually working nights. The job allowed much time for study, only four rounds through campus being required. I spent most of that 'free' time in the Women's Center, a lounge on the ground floor and near the entrance to Knox Hall, a residence for faculty.
During the first two of my four years at UTS I was befriended and often visited at work by Barry Wood, an Episcopal priest who also happened to be the school's physician. He had just had a near brush with death by cancer and was often prone to serious conversation. In the course of many such talks he recommended I read the works of Charles Williams. All Hallow's Eve was probably the first of the four I ultimately essayed.
While Barry likely found some serious philosophical points made in this Christian novel, I'm afraid I simply read it as a fantasy.
]]> <![CDATA[Berrien County (Postcard History Series)]]> 42365141 128 Sherry Arent Cawley 1439611017 Erik 2 history
Merged review:

This book, like all or most of those regional picture histories published by Arcadia, has relatively little text. Overpriced, poorly edited, this particular volume has redundancies both in text and postcard pictures. It does, however, have an index.]]> 3.00 2000 Berrien County (Postcard History Series)

Berrien County (Postcard History Series)

author: Sherry Arent Cawley
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2012/05/27
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves: history
review:
This book, like all or most of those regional picture histories published by Arcadia, has relatively little text. Overpriced, poorly edited, this particular volume has redundancies both in text and postcard pictures. It does, however, have an index.

Merged review:

This book, like all or most of those regional picture histories published by Arcadia, has relatively little text. Overpriced, poorly edited, this particular volume has redundancies both in text and postcard pictures. It does, however, have an index.
]]> <![CDATA[Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production]]> 4562353 This is the only unabridged edition to take into account the whole of Capital. It offers virtually all of Volume 1, which Marx himself published in 1867, excerpts from a new translation of The Result of the Immediate Process Production, & a selection of key chapters from Volume 3, which Engels published in 1895.]]> 767 Karl Marx 0853152101 Erik 5 political-social-science
To my great surprise, the first volume of Capital was actually a rather quick and easy read, none of the formulations requiring more than the most elementary understanding of arithmetic. (I learned later that Marx himself only got as far as the calculus later in life.) Additionally, it made sense as an explanation of economic behavior, adding a dimension, that of class, not much appearing in Adam Smith, the only other classical economist I'd studied seriously previously. Indeed, the section on Primitive Accumulation was, for me, emotionally powerful stuff.

Getting over Capital and finding it not only illuminating but fun helped me overcome my fear of economics. I went on to read quite a bit more in the field and began purchasing and reading the International Publishers fifty volume set of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels as they became available--ultimately finishing about half of it before becoming bogged down in his notes of the mid 1860s.]]> 4.50 1887 Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production

Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production

author: Karl Marx
name: Erik
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1887
rating: 5
read at: 1985/04/01
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: political-social-science
review:
I had long avoided reading Das Kapital because I thought it would be too mathematically advanced for me. Taking courses with the Marxist philosopher and mathematician, David Schweickart, induced me to make the effort since his assignments and my own readings of Marx had already become pretty extensive and the avoidance of his most important text seemed silly. So, on my own now, I began carrying the tome about in my backpack, reading most of it at Jim's Deli across Sheridan Road from the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University Chicago.

To my great surprise, the first volume of Capital was actually a rather quick and easy read, none of the formulations requiring more than the most elementary understanding of arithmetic. (I learned later that Marx himself only got as far as the calculus later in life.) Additionally, it made sense as an explanation of economic behavior, adding a dimension, that of class, not much appearing in Adam Smith, the only other classical economist I'd studied seriously previously. Indeed, the section on Primitive Accumulation was, for me, emotionally powerful stuff.

Getting over Capital and finding it not only illuminating but fun helped me overcome my fear of economics. I went on to read quite a bit more in the field and began purchasing and reading the International Publishers fifty volume set of the Collected Works of Marx and Engels as they became available--ultimately finishing about half of it before becoming bogged down in his notes of the mid 1860s.
]]> I.W.W. Songs 20814633 Hill, Joe, Ralph Chaplin, John Brill, John F Kendrick, GG Allen, James Connell, Eugene Pottier, JE Sinclair, Loren Roberts, Vera Moller, Pat Brennan, John E Nordquist, Richard Brazier, ES Nelson, William Whalen, T-Bone Slim, Walquist, Ethel Comer, E Nesbit, Gerald J Lively, WO Blee, Joe Foley, John Healy, Laura Payne Emerson, Covington Hall, Charles Ashleigh, Dublin Dan & An Unknown Proletarian (contributors)]]> 68 Erik 5 art
]]> 5.00 1945 I.W.W. Songs

author: Industrial Workers of the World
name: Erik
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 1968/11/01
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: art
review:
This was the first edition of the Wobbly songbook which I ever purchased, and that from the IWW International Headquarters in Lincoln Park in Chicago. It was during high school and such older friends as I had made in the Social 카지노싸이트 Society (Tri-S), Maine South's club for political malcontents, all seemed to know of it and its contents.

]]> I.W.W. Songs 20816359 Hill, Joe, Ralph Chaplin, John Brill, John F Kendrick, GG Allen, James Connell, Eugene Pottier, JE Sinclair, Loren Roberts, Vera Moller, Pat Brennan, John E Nordquist, Richard Brazier, ES Nelson, William Whalen, T-Bone Slim, Walquist, Ethel Comer, E Nesbit, Gerald J Lively, WO Blee, Joe Foley, John Healy, Laura Payne Emerson, Covington Hall, Charles Ashleigh, Dublin Dan & An Unknown Proletarian (contributors)]]> 68 Erik 5 art 5.00 1945 I.W.W. Songs

author: Industrial Workers of the World
name: Erik
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 1985/01/01
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: art
review:
I've gone through several editions of the I.W.W. songbook since purchasing one from Fred Thompson at their old international headquarters in Chicago back in the sixties. This one, purchased while I was very active in Central American solidarity work, was likely obtained from Franklin and Penelope Rosement of Charles Kerr Publishing, the world's oldest, continually existing socialist publishing house.
]]> I.W.W. Songs 20816417 We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially. This means we organize all workers producing the same goods or providing the same services into one union, rather than dividing workers by skill or trade, so we can pool our strength to win our demands together. Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have made significant contributions to the labor struggles around the world & have a proud tradition of organizing across gender, ethnic & racial lines long before such organizing was popular.]]> 68 Erik 5 art 5.00 1945 I.W.W. Songs

author: Industrial Workers of the World
name: Erik
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 1970/08/01
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: art
review:
This was the second edition of the IWW songbook which I ever purchased, the first having been about two years before while still in high school. Amongst my friends, by 1970, knowing at least some of the lyrics was indicative of being 'in', really in, 'Solidarity Forever' being an especial group favorite. Most of us were 'New' Leftists of one sort or another, but our crowd included a couple of Old Leftists (mostly SP) as well, even a fan of Ayn Rand.
]]> <![CDATA[Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream]]> 434745
Widely praised and enormously popular, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream is a work of biography like few others. With uncanny insight and a richly engrossing style, the author renders LBJ in all his vibrant, conflicted humanity.]]> 432 Doris Kearns Goodwin 0060122846 Erik 4 biography 3.88 1976 Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Erik
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: biography
review:
Doris Kearns had privileged access to LBJ in the years after his retirement and this biography follows the chronological reminiscences of the former president within a broader historical framework punctuated by lengthy discussions about how government works and how Johnson mastered it until the fiasco of Vietnam brought his Great Society and presidency to an end. Although Johnson is revealed as a great storyteller (liar), Kearns' treatment of him is basically sympathetic despite their having been at antipodes as regards the war.
]]> <![CDATA[The World as Will and Representation, 2 Vols]]> 6459165 Translator's Introduction--E.F.J. Payne
Preface to 1st Edition
Preface to 2nd Edition
Preface to 3rd Edition
1st Book: The World as Representation, 1st Aspect
2nd Book: The World as Will, 1st Aspect
3rd Book: The World as Representation, 2nd Aspect
4th Book: The World as Will, 2nd Aspect
Appendix: Criticism of the Kantian Philosophy
Supplements to the 1st Book
1st Half: Doctrine of the Representation of Perception
2nd Half: Doctrine of the Abstract Representation of Thinking
Supplements to the 2nd Book
Supplements to the 3rd Book
Supplements to the 4th Book
Index]]> 1221 Arthur Schopenhauer Erik 3 philosophy
Unlike Kant and Nietzsche, Schopenhauer was a disappointment. I had liked Kant for his system, its clarity, breadth and depth; Nietzsche as a rigorous critic and beautiful writer, but Schopenhauer matched neither of them. His "system" was basically simplified transcendental idealism. His only apparent originality was his bringing Eastern thought into philosophy's field of discourse. His misanthropy was difficult to relate to.

As it happened, the dissertation project was never completed. The one philosophy professor, a psychoanalyst, competent to supervise it was not retained.]]> 3.00 1818 The World as Will and Representation, 2 Vols

The World as Will and Representation, 2 Vols

author: Arthur Schopenhauer
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1818
rating: 3
read at: 1982/11/01
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: philosophy
review:
Having completed a thesis about Kant's influence on C.G. Jung in seminary, I wanted to proceed to an exhaustive study of the philsophical underpinnings of the psychiatrist's work. I'd read all of Jung and all of Kant and Nietzsche cited or owned by Jung. The third major influence was Schopenhauer, about whom I knew little except the fact that to Germans of Jung's generation, Schopenhauer was read like Nietzsche is today. The place to start, obviously, was his magnum opus, The World as Will and Representation, a copy of which I'd picked up in the town of Leeds in the Hudson valley in New York.

Unlike Kant and Nietzsche, Schopenhauer was a disappointment. I had liked Kant for his system, its clarity, breadth and depth; Nietzsche as a rigorous critic and beautiful writer, but Schopenhauer matched neither of them. His "system" was basically simplified transcendental idealism. His only apparent originality was his bringing Eastern thought into philosophy's field of discourse. His misanthropy was difficult to relate to.

As it happened, the dissertation project was never completed. The one philosophy professor, a psychoanalyst, competent to supervise it was not retained.
]]> <![CDATA[The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation: The Method of Realizing Nirvana Through Knowing the Mind]]> 4421054 The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, which was unknown to the Western world until its first publication in 1954, speaks to the quintessence of the Supreme Path, or Mahayana, and fully reveals the yogic method of attaining Enlightenment. Such attainment can happen, as shown here, by means of knowing the One Mind, the cosmic All-Consciousness, without recourse to the postures, breathings, and other techniques associated with the lower yogas. The original text for this volume belongs to the Bardo Thödol series of treatises concerning various ways of achieving transcendence, a series that figures into the Tantric school of the Mahayana. Authorship of this particular volume is attributed to the legendary Padma-Sambhava, who journeyed from India to Tibet in the 8th century, as the story goes, at the invitation of a Tibetan king. Padma-Sambhava's text per se is preceded by an account of the great guru's own life and secret doctrines. It is followed by the testamentary teachings of the Guru Phadampa Sangay, which are meant to augment the thought of the other gurus discussed herein.

Still more useful supplementary material will be found in the book's introductory remarks, by its editor Evans-Wentz and by the eminent psychoanalyst C. G. Jung. The former presents a 100-page General Introduction that explains several key names and notions (such as Nirvana, for starters) with the lucidity, ease, and sagacity that are this scholar's hallmark; the latter offers a Psychological Commentary that weighs the differences between Eastern and Western modes of thought before equating the "collective unconscious" with the Enlightened Mind of the Buddhist.]]> 352 W.Y. Evans-Wentz 0195002938 Erik 3 religion
Thus it happened that one very early morning in late August Mother drove Kevin Donnelly, Art Kazar and me up to an Edens Expressway exchange on her way to work at Lutheran General Hospital. Having no money not already earmarked for other purposes, college in my case, we were going to hitch up through Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

We made it, amazingly enough, by dawn of the next day. Times were different then. Hitch-hiking was not unusual. The counterculture looked out for its own and they were usually identifiable: me by a pony tail, Kevin by braids and fringed jacket, Art by a full beard. Of course, on the way, we were almost arrested (twice) outside the Wisconsin Dells; risked being killed in a wreck by an angry speedfreak outside of Duluth; had to run away into an unknown pine forest from an armed contingent of drunken "Iron Range Boys" and got caught in a downpour just as we were laying out sleeping bags in a field somewhere around Ely, Minnesota.

Camp Wakonda was a canoe camp inhabited by the aforementioned Jim; Kurt, his assistant from Park Ridge; a boy who had been found living in the Chicago Transit Authority bus sheds--called, unimaginatively enough, "C.T.A."--and one lone woman, Candy, also an employee of the YMCA. Otherwise, it was just us and busloads of kids who'd come up every few days, go to bed, eat a hearty breakfast of flapjacks prepared by us on enormous wood-burning stoves and then go off with guides in canoes. Mostly, we were alone.

Candy, a thirtyish feminist who taught the subject during the year in Chicago, intimidated and attracted me. At that time, being only nineteen, she seemed very, very mature, completely out of my league as I'd just recently lost my virginity. Besides, she was bigger than me, probably stronger too.

I'd brought The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation up because of a general interest in Eastern religions and a growing interest in C.G. Jung, author of one of its introductions. I'd figured that I'd be forced to read it up there in the north woods for lack of anything else to read. Indeed, it was formidable, the critical apparatuses being quite scholarly, the primary Tibetan texts being extremely obscure. I read it in fits and starts, trying to think about liberation from the wheel of dharma, trying not to think of the gorgeous Wendy.

On the last full day we were up there I was sitting on a stump in the tundra trying not to notice Candy when it was announced that all of us were going into Ely to help pack a van. Someone was going to donate money for the town to get an ambulance, the amount of the donation depending upon how many could jam into the vehicle. That uncomfortable event and the ride back from it got Wendy and me talking together for the first time.

The conversation continued upon our return as the sun set and we headed along a trail into the piney woods. Candy told me about herself, her feminist school and about how horrible the summer had been trapped up in the middle of nowhere with two unconscienceable sexists. I was different, she said. I didn't argue.

Returning to camp, she invited me into her cabin, lit candles, urged me to bed. Timidly, having only known one girl before her, I obeyed.

Since it wouldn't do to have Jim or Kurt know about our night together, Wendy dismissed me just as the eastern sky was brightening. Returning to the cabin shared with Kevin and Art, I was greeted with a rain of pillows and good-humored curses. They knew. It was one of the most liberating emotional experiences of my life.

I finished Evans-Wentz' book on the long bus ride home with a pack of returning wilderness canoers.]]> 3.76 The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation: The Method of Realizing Nirvana Through Knowing the Mind

The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation: The Method of Realizing Nirvana Through Knowing the Mind

author: W.Y. Evans-Wentz
name: Erik
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 1971/08/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: religion
review:
The YMCA in Park Ridge obtained a new youth counselor after my graduation from Maine South H.S. Jim H. had become a bit of a celebrity amongst our friends, "the Hippies of Hodges Park", by the time of one of my visits home from Grinnell College and we became acquainted. During the summer of 1971 he was reassigned to a YMCA camp in the border lakes region of Northern Minnesota, Camp Wakonda on Lake Vermillion, and had given a general invitation to any and all of us to visit him up there.

Thus it happened that one very early morning in late August Mother drove Kevin Donnelly, Art Kazar and me up to an Edens Expressway exchange on her way to work at Lutheran General Hospital. Having no money not already earmarked for other purposes, college in my case, we were going to hitch up through Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

We made it, amazingly enough, by dawn of the next day. Times were different then. Hitch-hiking was not unusual. The counterculture looked out for its own and they were usually identifiable: me by a pony tail, Kevin by braids and fringed jacket, Art by a full beard. Of course, on the way, we were almost arrested (twice) outside the Wisconsin Dells; risked being killed in a wreck by an angry speedfreak outside of Duluth; had to run away into an unknown pine forest from an armed contingent of drunken "Iron Range Boys" and got caught in a downpour just as we were laying out sleeping bags in a field somewhere around Ely, Minnesota.

Camp Wakonda was a canoe camp inhabited by the aforementioned Jim; Kurt, his assistant from Park Ridge; a boy who had been found living in the Chicago Transit Authority bus sheds--called, unimaginatively enough, "C.T.A."--and one lone woman, Candy, also an employee of the YMCA. Otherwise, it was just us and busloads of kids who'd come up every few days, go to bed, eat a hearty breakfast of flapjacks prepared by us on enormous wood-burning stoves and then go off with guides in canoes. Mostly, we were alone.

Candy, a thirtyish feminist who taught the subject during the year in Chicago, intimidated and attracted me. At that time, being only nineteen, she seemed very, very mature, completely out of my league as I'd just recently lost my virginity. Besides, she was bigger than me, probably stronger too.

I'd brought The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation up because of a general interest in Eastern religions and a growing interest in C.G. Jung, author of one of its introductions. I'd figured that I'd be forced to read it up there in the north woods for lack of anything else to read. Indeed, it was formidable, the critical apparatuses being quite scholarly, the primary Tibetan texts being extremely obscure. I read it in fits and starts, trying to think about liberation from the wheel of dharma, trying not to think of the gorgeous Wendy.

On the last full day we were up there I was sitting on a stump in the tundra trying not to notice Candy when it was announced that all of us were going into Ely to help pack a van. Someone was going to donate money for the town to get an ambulance, the amount of the donation depending upon how many could jam into the vehicle. That uncomfortable event and the ride back from it got Wendy and me talking together for the first time.

The conversation continued upon our return as the sun set and we headed along a trail into the piney woods. Candy told me about herself, her feminist school and about how horrible the summer had been trapped up in the middle of nowhere with two unconscienceable sexists. I was different, she said. I didn't argue.

Returning to camp, she invited me into her cabin, lit candles, urged me to bed. Timidly, having only known one girl before her, I obeyed.

Since it wouldn't do to have Jim or Kurt know about our night together, Wendy dismissed me just as the eastern sky was brightening. Returning to the cabin shared with Kevin and Art, I was greeted with a rain of pillows and good-humored curses. They knew. It was one of the most liberating emotional experiences of my life.

I finished Evans-Wentz' book on the long bus ride home with a pack of returning wilderness canoers.
]]> <![CDATA[Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings]]> 85416 496 Sigmund Freud 0141184051 Erik 3 psychology
As I read it, the postulation of a death instinct seemed an unnecessary extension of psychoanalytic theory driven by author's wish to develop a psychological model correlative to biophysical ones. People die. Their cells cease to reproduce. What causes this?

In fact, the theory of a death instinct may have had more to do with attempting to explain sadistic and masochistic behaviors--a point which was not well-taken by me as I did not sufficiently appreciate the thrust of psychoanalytic development.

Frankly, although I got the gist of early psychoanalytic theory pretty well, its full development in the 20th century pretty much escaped me, despite quite a bit of disordered reading.]]> 3.97 1920 Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings

Beyond the Pleasure Principle and Other Writings

author: Sigmund Freud
name: Erik
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1920
rating: 3
read at: 1974/08/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: psychology
review:
Driven as I was by class requirements and the fortuitous discovery of affordable editions in used bookstores, I did not read Freud's works in the order of their publication. This was unfortunate as is revealed in my meagre appropriation of Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the book in which Freud introduced his hypothesis of a death instinct.

As I read it, the postulation of a death instinct seemed an unnecessary extension of psychoanalytic theory driven by author's wish to develop a psychological model correlative to biophysical ones. People die. Their cells cease to reproduce. What causes this?

In fact, the theory of a death instinct may have had more to do with attempting to explain sadistic and masochistic behaviors--a point which was not well-taken by me as I did not sufficiently appreciate the thrust of psychoanalytic development.

Frankly, although I got the gist of early psychoanalytic theory pretty well, its full development in the 20th century pretty much escaped me, despite quite a bit of disordered reading.
]]> Grimm's Fairy Tales 3411460 On 12/20/1812 they published the first volume of the first edition, containing 86 stories. A second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819, a third in 1822, totaling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added & subtracted from one edition to the next. The seventh held 211 tales.
The first volumes were criticized because, altho called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included & their subject matter. Many changes thru the editions—such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White & Hansel & Gretel to a stepmother, were likely made with an eye to suitability. They removed sexual references, such as Rapunzel's ill-fitting clothing revealing her pregnancy, but in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
The tales were also criticized for being insufficiently German; this not only affected the tales they included, but their language as they changed "Fee" (fairy) to an enchantress or wise woman, princes to kings' sons, princesses to kings' daughters. They also reconstructed the tales, merging variants, particularly fragmentary ones, while amending corruptions.
They also added a prologue discussing the extent to which such tales were not, in fact, German, citing many English & Norwegian analogues, noting extensive similarities to Serbian fairy tales & pointing to Indian & Persian equivalents as proving the tales came with their languages as part of an Indo-European heritage.]]> 382 Jacob Grimm Erik 4 literature
My own exposure to the tales was, like the bible, initiated by osmosis. When, at about age nine, I lay down on my bed in my brother's and my room in Michigan to actually read the things, I already "knew" a lot of them. Still, it was interesting to read the originals.

Little did I know that they weren't very original at all. First, the Grimm's collection methods were haphazard. A representative or complete collection of such Germanic tales was simply beyond their means. Second, they approached the publication of the tales as an unusually, for them, popular endeavor. They hoped for, and got, a wide audience, the book being very successful and quickly translated. Third, in order to make the book popular, they fiddled with the texts, putting stories together, regularizing grammar and vocabularies. They also censored the really gross stuff, favoring more acceptable versions. Thus, in one version of "The Girl with No Hands" the story begins with her father, being sexually spurned, chopping off her hands and breasts, then casting her out. This kind of material was excluded. Fourth, there were, of course, no ways of accurately copying what persons said in those days unless the storyteller and the copyist were both exceptionally patient.

The edition I read as a little boy was not one of the modern expose versions, but something almost--but not quite, thank heavens!--suitable for children.]]> 4.00 1812 Grimm's Fairy Tales

author: Jacob Grimm
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1812
rating: 4
read at: 1960/01/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: literature
review:
Kinder- und Hausmärchen first came out in 1812 and was expanded in subsequent editions. The collection was made, in part, from actual interviews with ordinary persons, "Old Marie", the Grimm's housekeeper, being the source of almost a quarter of the tales in the first edition. Learning this fact from Peppard's biography of the brothers touches one--this old, simple woman made immortal because she told good stories to the kids (with exactitude, they note, each telling being verbatim). Over time, however, and with the help of friends and colleagues, well over two hundred fairy tales were collected.

My own exposure to the tales was, like the bible, initiated by osmosis. When, at about age nine, I lay down on my bed in my brother's and my room in Michigan to actually read the things, I already "knew" a lot of them. Still, it was interesting to read the originals.

Little did I know that they weren't very original at all. First, the Grimm's collection methods were haphazard. A representative or complete collection of such Germanic tales was simply beyond their means. Second, they approached the publication of the tales as an unusually, for them, popular endeavor. They hoped for, and got, a wide audience, the book being very successful and quickly translated. Third, in order to make the book popular, they fiddled with the texts, putting stories together, regularizing grammar and vocabularies. They also censored the really gross stuff, favoring more acceptable versions. Thus, in one version of "The Girl with No Hands" the story begins with her father, being sexually spurned, chopping off her hands and breasts, then casting her out. This kind of material was excluded. Fourth, there were, of course, no ways of accurately copying what persons said in those days unless the storyteller and the copyist were both exceptionally patient.

The edition I read as a little boy was not one of the modern expose versions, but something almost--but not quite, thank heavens!--suitable for children.
]]> Limits to Growth 1948262 Five variables were examined in the original model, on the assumption that exponential growth accurately described their patterns of increase. These variables are: world population, industrialization, pollution, food production & resource depletion. The authors intended to explore the possibility of a sustainable feedback pattern that would be achieved by altering growth trends among the five variables.
The most recent updated version was published on June 1, 2004 by Chelsea Green Publishing Company under the name Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update. Donnella Meadows, Jørgen Randers & Dennis Meadows have updated & expanded the original version. They had previously published Beyond the Limits in 1993 as a 20 year update on the original material.
In 2008 Graham Turner at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia published a paper called "A Comparison of `The Limits to Growth` with Thirty Years of Reality". It examined the past 30 years with the predictions made in 1972 & found that changes in industrial production, food production & pollution are all in line with the book's predictions of economic collapse in the 21st century.]]> Donella H. Meadows 0451098358 Erik 4 sciences 4.00 Limits to Growth

author: Donella H. Meadows
name: Erik
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 1972/12/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: sciences
review:
This, with Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, and other books about human population growth and terrestrial resource depletion rates scared the shit out of me as a young person. The Chinese two-child policy did reduce the population growth rate curve, but the authors, as I recall, did not predict the global environmental impact of human exploitation of planetary resources.
]]> <![CDATA[Religion and the Decline of Magic Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England by Thomas, Keith ( Author ) ON Dec-12-1991, Paperback]]> 68886163 0 Keith Thomas Erik 3 religion
What struck me the most was England's transition from Catholicism to a variety of Protestantisms during this period and how different they were in their relationships to popular ('superstitious') beliefs, the distinctions being hard to draw as regards the former, more accomodating, faith, radical in many instances of the latter.

I had hoped for much more material on John Dee and other mages with real political influence, but this topic is not addressed. Margaret Murray's theories are, but only dismissively.]]> 3.00 1971 Religion and the Decline of Magic Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England by Thomas, Keith ( Author ) ON Dec-12-1991, Paperback

Religion and the Decline of Magic Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England by Thomas, Keith ( Author ) ON Dec-12-1991, Paperback

author: Keith Thomas
name: Erik
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: religion
review:
This is one hefty tome, a thorough, dryly academic treatment of religion and superstition (i.e. not authorized by the church) in Tudor and Stuart England. Quite cautious and thoughtful in his judgments, author Thomas avoids sensationalism and virtually all opportunities for sarcasm or humor. This is serious, foundational work.

What struck me the most was England's transition from Catholicism to a variety of Protestantisms during this period and how different they were in their relationships to popular ('superstitious') beliefs, the distinctions being hard to draw as regards the former, more accomodating, faith, radical in many instances of the latter.

I had hoped for much more material on John Dee and other mages with real political influence, but this topic is not addressed. Margaret Murray's theories are, but only dismissively.
]]> <![CDATA[Will Therapy/Truth and Reality]]> 13326732 307 Otto Rank Erik 2 psychology 4.30 1936

author: Otto Rank
name: Erik
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1936
rating: 2
read at: 1976/01/01
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: psychology
review:
Psychoanalytic theory and its offshoots were very big in New York while I studied at Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University during the later seventies. This was presumably assigned for a class at one of those two schools or possibly as a reading for the internship seminars at St. Lukes Medical Center. In any case, it got me to avoid reading any more of Otto Rank.
]]> <![CDATA[The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire]]> 16248492 368 Susan P. Mattern 019976767X Erik 2 biography 3.84 2013

The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

author: Susan P. Mattern
name: Erik
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: biography
review:
Exhaustive as a overview of Galen's works and treatment of what little is known of his life, this book was a disappointment in some other respects. For instance, there's a brief mention of cataract surgery in the text (but not indexed), but no explanation as to how such was conducted in the second century. So, too, many procedures, 'drug' applications et cetera are mentioned but not explicated beyond Galen's own words. While not a difficult book, but rather accessible to anybody, still it would have benefited from being more fleshed out as a portrayal of the milieu within which Galen worked.
]]> Side Effects 529701 A humor classic by one of the funniest writers today, SIDE EFFECTS is a treat for all those who know his work and those just discovering how gifted he is. Included here are such classics as REMEMBERING NEEDLEMAN, THE KUGELMASS EPISODE, a new story called CONFESSIONS OF A BUGLAR, and more.

]]> 213 Woody Allen 0345343352 Erik 3 humor 3.94 1980 Side Effects

author: Woody Allen
name: Erik
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: humor
review:
Picked this up for light bedtime reading after much time spent with learned tomes. Remembered liking Allen's humorous essays back in the day. This expectation was somewhat disappointed by this collection, the jokes of which were rather repetitive. I still like his early stand-up performances, however.
]]> <![CDATA[Everyman's Classical Atlas with an Essay on the Development of Ancient Geographical Knowledge and Theory]]> 130479199 0 J. Oliver Thomson Erik 2 history, reference 2.00

Everyman's Classical Atlas with an Essay on the Development of Ancient Geographical Knowledge and Theory

author: J. Oliver Thomson
name: Erik
average rating: 2.00
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: history, reference
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Origins of the Alphabets: Introduction to Archaeology]]> 2525534 72 Joseph Naveh 5550154307 Erik 2 history, reference 3.90 1975

Origins of the Alphabets: Introduction to Archaeology

author: Joseph Naveh
name: Erik
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1975
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: history, reference
review:
This slight book treats of the origins of the various scripts of the Western world back to ancient Canaan. An appendix traces the history of each letter of the modern (Roman) alphabet. The style is compressed, telegraphic, and no great read.
]]>