What Book Are You Currently Reading?

[Yelnoc]

Lord of the Rings.

[Yelnoc]

[Yelnoc]

I'm getting sick of everyone hatin' on neocons!!

Hanson's argument is that freedom and free-market capitalism are why "Western civilization" (which to him encompasses everything from Greek city states to Alexander the Great to the Franks to the Holy League to 16th century Spain to Americans in Vietnam) triumphed over... well, he never really defines who they triumphed over, just everyone who didn't love freedom and capitalism enough, I guess. It's a ridiculous, ahistorical, contrived thesis, only saved by his talent at describing battles.

What drivel.

I suggest Why the West Rules - for Now by Ian Morris.  An apolitical comparison of east and west over all of history, using both quantitative and qualitive methods.  I learned a lot about history while reading it; specifically eastern Europe.  I knew the Chinese dynasties from school, but knowing the dynasties and knowing the economics, population patterns, culture, wars, and public works is much more useful.

[Yelnoc]

Just finished...

[Yelnoc]

bought my first Eric Hobsbawm book yesterday, his most recent.  though I had pirated .pdfs of about three others.

You naughty boy...

ah, I was just about to tell you how that sounded creepy, and I only like it when women talk to me like that, and in clicking through to your profile I discovered that you were a woman.  keep it up!

Way to not come off as creepy, Bro Tweed.

And I'm reading Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett, though I'm supposed to be reading The Importance of Being Earnest.  School; bleh.

[Yelnoc]

The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History by Jack Ross. It is indeed complete, weighing in at 753 pages, the book chronicles the history of the Socialist Party of America, from its antecedents in the populist and trade unionist movements of the nineteenth centuries, to the fragmented landscape of successor parties which populate the modern socialist landscape.

[Yelnoc]

-snip-

Pretty boring, yeah?

I'm underwater with readings. Here's my list:

The Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update by Dennis Meadows et al

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter planet by Mark Lynas

After Capitalism by David Schweickart

A History of The Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky

An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Power by John Gordon Steele

A Most Magnificent Machine: America Adopts the Railroad, 1825-1862 by Craig Miner

American Railroads by John F. Stover

Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business by Harold C. Livesay

Acts by Luke

Galatians by Paul
I recently finished:

The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle Against Atlantic Slavery by Matt Childs

Biography of a Runaway Slave by Miguel Barnet

The Gospel of Mark by John Mark