Category: Books
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Europe on the Verge of a Revolutionary Breakthrough
Patrick Wyman’s book is a compelling historical narrative of Europe from 1490 to 1530, shot through with colorful stories about people and politics.
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Week 8, Gene Expression Book Club – Not Born Yesterday
Hitler was a follower, not a leader. That’s the primary message of chapter 8. I find many of the arguments in this chapter about how demagogues and prophets persuade and […]
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Week 7, Gene Expression Book Club – Not Born Yesterday
A major argument in Not Born Yesterday is that humans are more rational on an individual level than you think. It’s kind of an inversion of books that came out […]
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Week 8, Gene Expression Book Club, Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom
The summer palace of the Chinese emperor is burned down, and all of Europe is outraged! Well, perhaps not all of Europe, but the most surprising aspect of this chapter […]
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Week 4, Gene Expression Book Club – Not Born Yesterday
Chapter 4 of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe is titled “What to Believe.” You could retitle it “Let’s get Bayesian.” The author […]
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2020 Holiday reading and beyond
Over at Substack someone asked if L. L. Cavalli-Sforza’s works from the 1990’s are worth reading. I had to say, sadly, that probably not. It’s 2020, and they’re just too […]
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Week 3, Gene Expression book club
Readers have been complaining about Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe. The issue is that there’s no “there, there.” The author hasn’t really […]
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Ten books to read on the island
I mentioned offhand earlier today that Jacques Gernet’s A History of Chinese Civilization is one of the top ten books I’d read. I’ve read this book three or four times […]
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Week 1, Gene Expression book club
Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe starts rather quickly and succinctly out of the great. The author reviews the extant literature and folk […]
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Let’s read!
Anyone who has read this weblog over the last few years has sensed my hopelessness and despair about the fallen world and in particular the American republic and Western civilization. I have told Rod Dreher many times privately that we irreligious also need our “Benedict option” in a “darkening world.” But while the Roman Empire…
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<em>The WEIRDest People in the World</em>
The argument put forward by Joe Henrich in his new book is audacious and surprising.
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<i>One Billion Americans</i>: A Contrarian Liberal Argues for Mass Immigration
At least the aim of Matt Yglesias in his new book is to revive and strengthen America.
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Books worth reading
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Recommendations of books for “Prime Day”
Since many of you will be taking advantage of “Prime Day” sales, I thought I might as well put some recommendations of books you might be interested in as well, and if you buy other stuff after the initial click I’ll get a cut! First, thematically here are three books on ancient Rome that you…
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The long now library?
Violet Moller’s The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found is written for a non-academic audience, and relays the story of how Classical knowledge was passed down to the West, which eventually leads to the Renaissance. This is a well-known story, and iut is written engagingly (at least…
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Finishing What Darwin Began
Wilson argues cogently that humanity, both in its biology and its culture, is a product of evolution.
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Books for 2019 on Central Asia and Islam
A comment below: Need book recommendations. What are some great books on history of Islam and history of Persian Empire and Central Asia? – Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present – Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane –…
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Making Sense of Roman History: A Reading List
Inspired by Tanner Greer, I’ve decided to put together a list of books that I think will useful to understanding the Romans from the perspective of a non-specialist without a background in Latin, or Classics more broadly (I am in this category obviously). First, I’m a big fan of Michael Grant’s History of Rome. Grant…
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A University for Non-Leftists
Professor Warren Treadgold has a radical proposal for higher-ed reform.
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Books you look at but don’t buy
A little while ago I was curious about the books people looked at through my links which they nevertheless did not buy. More precisely I was looking at a 90 day interval. The top book people clicked but did not buy was Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. I know this is an expensive book, but if…