What Book Are You Currently Reading? (2.0.)

[Schiff for Senate]

Reread the final chapter (chapter 25): “The 2000 Election and the War on Terrorism”. Tried to read chapter 10 (“The Other Civil War”) but lost interest and stopped reading. Now will give chapter 12 (“The Empire and the People”) a stab. I think soon enough - maybe another chapter or two - and I’ll put this book away and move down to the next one on the list.

[Beet]

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

[Schiff for Senate]

Reread the final chapter (chapter 25): “The 2000 Election and the War on Terrorism”. Tried to read chapter 10 (“The Other Civil War”) but lost interest and stopped reading. Now will give chapter 12 (“The Empire and the People”) a stab. I think soon enough - maybe another chapter or two - and I’ll put this book away and move down to the next one on the list.

Read only a few pages of Chapter 12. It is about the 1890s and early 1900s and American imperialism. The gist is this: American manufacturers needed more consumers and wanted to open new doors and open up new markets to sell their produce in, since there was an excess of produce and not enough demand to meet supply. There were thus many military excursions (Hawai'i is an obvious example, but there were also many excursions into South America), supported by the business interests, to "protect American interests", and people like Theodore Roosevelt (particularly bloodthirsty and akin to bloodlust, and a white supremacist and ethnic chauvinist) and Henry Cabot Lodge (Lodge's native Massachusetts had too much supply to meet demand and he wanted to help the manufacturers he represented by giving them more markets) were literally eager for and looking for war. They found the perfect target in Cuba, which was also a popular cause because it had been fighting Spain for independence for three years (and which was of particular interest to white supremacists like Roosevelt, Winston Churchill - an avowed racist and white supremacist - and their ilk because it had a high black population).

EDIT: Going further...they (the government) were actually very worried Cuba would in fact win independence. The Teller Amendment promised that the US would not annex Cuba, but despite this, the US wanted Cuba's markets, and although some business leaders were content with just trading with Cuba without controlling it, others wanted a war and wanted the US to take over Cuba. America did NOT want Cuban independence. Perhaps the American public did, but not the politicians and people in power. They wanted to take Cuba from Spain and have America colonise it instead. Thus, the Cuban rebels themselves were weary of the United States (McKinley when advocating war did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the Cuban rebels), and the American labour movement opposed going to war with Spain over Cuba too. Who supported it? Bloodthirsty politicians like Roosevelt; those eager to tap into Cuba's markets, like Henry Cabot Lodge; those interested in deflecting national attention from labour movements and strikes (unite around the flag effect); and what would today be the military industrial complex - the warfare industry that would make $$$ from a war with Spain. In any case, the sinking of the Maine made the business community more willing/eager for war with Spain, despite the fact that there was no evidence of Spain's guilt. The United States, soon thereafter, approved a war with Spain, whose real aim was not to make Cuba independent, but rather for the United States to take Cuba for itself.

[Schiff for Senate]

Reread the final chapter (chapter 25): “The 2000 Election and the War on Terrorism”. Tried to read chapter 10 (“The Other Civil War”) but lost interest and stopped reading. Now will give chapter 12 (“The Empire and the People”) a stab. I think soon enough - maybe another chapter or two - and I’ll put this book away and move down to the next one on the list.

Read only a few pages of Chapter 12. It is about the 1890s and early 1900s and American imperialism. The gist is this: American manufacturers needed more consumers and wanted to open new doors and open up new markets to sell their produce in, since there was an excess of produce and not enough demand to meet supply. There were thus many military excursions (Hawai'i is an obvious example, but there were also many excursions into South America), supported by the business interests, to "protect American interests", and people like Theodore Roosevelt (particularly bloodthirsty and akin to bloodlust, and a white supremacist and ethnic chauvinist) and Henry Cabot Lodge (Lodge's native Massachusetts had too much supply to meet demand and he wanted to help the manufacturers he represented by giving them more markets) were literally eager for and looking for war. They found the perfect target in Cuba, which was also a popular cause because it had been fighting Spain for independence for three years (and which was of particular interest to white supremacists like Roosevelt, Winston Churchill - an avowed racist and white supremacist - and their ilk because it had a high black population).

EDIT: Going further...they (the government) were actually very worried Cuba would in fact win independence. The Teller Amendment promised that the US would not annex Cuba, but despite this, the US wanted Cuba's markets, and although some business leaders were content with just trading with Cuba without controlling it, others wanted a war and wanted the US to take over Cuba. America did NOT want Cuban independence. Perhaps the American public did, but not the politicians and people in power. They wanted to take Cuba from Spain and have America colonise it instead. Thus, the Cuban rebels themselves were weary of the United States (McKinley when advocating war did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the Cuban rebels), and the American labour movement opposed going to war with Spain over Cuba too. Who supported it? Bloodthirsty politicians like Roosevelt; those eager to tap into Cuba's markets, like Henry Cabot Lodge; those interested in deflecting national attention from labour movements and strikes (unite around the flag effect); and what would today be the military industrial complex - the warfare industry that would make $$$ from a war with Spain. In any case, the sinking of the Maine made the business community more willing/eager for war with Spain, despite the fact that there was no evidence of Spain's guilt. The United States, soon thereafter, approved a war with Spain, whose real aim was not to make Cuba independent, but rather for the United States to take Cuba for itself.

My God. I finished reading the chapter last night, and it was simply...mind blowing. The information was revealing, shocking, gruesome and outrageous. Pretty much all of it is worth reading, and though I tried to get only the highlights/lowlights of the chapter and share them here, that's going to be pretty difficult because pretty much the entirety of it from that point on was worth reading.

So first the US soundly defeated Spain, of course. However, upon Spain surrendering, the Cuban rebels were literally left out of the process entirely and not given any consideration. They were told they could not enter the city of Santiago, and that the old Spanish authorities would continue to control Santiago's government, not the Cubans themselves. This prompted an angry letter from Cuban Gen. Calixto Garcia. In any case, American business interests poured in to tap into Cuba's natural economy and resources and start extracting its natural resources and selling them in American markets. Beyond that, America, though it did not directly take over Cuba, continued exerting its influence. It insisted the Cuban Constitutional Convention pass the Platt Amendment, in direct violation of the Teller Amendment, and which said the US had "the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate" for life, property and individual liberty, and that America would get coaling or naval stations at certain locations. Naturally, the CCC overwhelmingly rejected the Amendment and declined to include it in their Constitution. The committee report is absolutely worth reading, and though I won't share all of what I read of it (for fear of making this post way too long-winded), here are some excerpts (that which is in brackets is my shortened paraphrasing; ellipses indicate abridgement):

[Giving America the power to determine when Cuban independence is threatened and when to intervene in Cuba] is equivalent to handing over the keys to our house so that they can enter it at any time, whenever the desire seizes them, day or night, whether with good or evil design.
[...]

The only Cuban governments that would live would be those which count on the support and benevolence of the United States, and the...result...of this situation would be that we would only have feeble and miserable governments...condemned to live more attentive to obtaining the blessings of the United States than to serving and defending the interests of Cuba...

The United States did not just go into Cuba, of course. The chapter zooms in with brutal, painful and shocking detail to what America did in the Philippines. As Zinn writes, "Racism, paternalism and money mingled with talk of destiny and civilisation." As Sen. Albert Beveridge (R-IN), a major imperialist, stated in the Senate:

The Philippines are ours forever...And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either...We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world...

  ...China is our natural customer...The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the east.

Followed this a description of the Philippines' lucrative natural resources that could prove of use to America. And then, of course, there was the white supremacist and racist appeal tf invading the Philippines, which Beveridge gave (emphasis mine):

My own belief is that there are not 100 men among them who comprehend what Anglo-Saxon self government even means, and there are over 5,000,000 people to be governed.
   It has been charged that our conduct of the war has been cruel [more on that]. Senators, it has been the reverse...Senators must remember that we are not dealing with Americans or Europeans. We are dealing with Orientals.

American soldiers waged a brutal and savage war against Filipino civilians (prompting the Anti-Imperalist League, which had a diverse membership ranging from workers to Harvard professors and Andrew Carnegie), which Zinn went into grisly detail about, so as to (successfully) stoke outrage and disgust. Here is an eye-opening account of what happened by a soldier: "Caloocan was supposed to contain 17,000 inhabitants. The Twentieth Kansas swept through it, and now Caloocan contains not one living native." There was racism, as a Washingtonian soldier testified: "Our fighting blood was up, and we all wanted to kill 'ni**ers'....This shooting human beings beats rabbit hunting to all pieces." Filipinos were considered to be like blacks, which was, needless to say, problematic at the turn of the twentieth century, when America was very racist and treated African-Americans terribly. But anyway, there was terrible bloodshed, violence and brutality. A newspaper account from the Philadelphia Lodger that Zinn shared in the chapter:

The present war is no bloodless...engagement; our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of ten up, the idea prevailing that the Filipino as such was little better than a dog...Our  soldiers....have taken prisoners people who have held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later, without an atom of evidence...that they were even insurrectos, stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.

Despite this, soldiers/majors/generals tried to pretend that the violence was necessary and minimise it (anyone notice any parallels between this and Iraq?). This was belied by the testimony of soldiers themselves. As one major testified,

General Smith instructed him to kill and burn, and he said that the more he killed and burned the better pleased he would be; that it was no time to take prisoners, and that he would make Samar a howling wilderness. Major Waller [the major in question] asked General Smith to define the age limit for killing, and he replied "Everything over ten."

As Mark Twain aptly remarked -

We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages; and turned their widows and orphans out of doors; furnished heartbreak by exile to some dozens of disagreeable patriots; subjugated the remaining ten millions by Benevolent Assimilation, which is the pious new name of the musket; we have acquired property in the three thousand concubines and other slaves of our business partner....

 And so, by these Providences of God - and the phrase is the government's, not mine - we are a World Power.

The business interests and some in labor supported it it because it helped the military industrial complex, which profited over the sheer savagery and butchery the Americans committed.

Lastly, the chapter discussed the dilemma for African-American soldiers, who were mistreated and treated unfairly back at home and wanted to prove their worth and their patriotism and their love for their country, yet at the same time sympathised with Filipinos because both groups were considered black and were dark skinned and faced abuse. As two black soldiers wrote:

I was struck by a question a little Filipino boy asked me...: "Why does the American N**ro come...to fight us when we are much a friend to him and have not done anything to him. He is all the same as me and all the same as you. Why don't you fight those people in American who burn N**roes, that make a beast of you...?]

Our racial sympathies would naturally be with the Filipinos...But we cannot for the sake of sentiment turn our back upon our own country.

Anyway, those were the highlights/lowlights / main takeaways from the rest of the chapter.

I think at this point I might take a break from the book, having reread two chapters (the final two chapters, Chapters 24-25, "The Clinton Presidency" and "The 2000 Election and the War on Terror"), and read two new ones (Chapter 23: "The Coming Revolt of the Guards;" Chapter 12: "The Empire and the People").

[Schiff for Senate]

So I did decide to put away A People's History of the United States for now. I'll get back to it later, at some point, but the nice thing about it is that the chapters are in many respects independent of each other, so it's okay to just read a few and then leave the rest for later.

The plan was to read Joel P. Trachtman's The Tools of Argument - which I got as a Christmas present in 2020 - next, but then yesterday morning I noticed another book and spontaneously decided to read it first. The book was The House of Death and other Feluda Stories by Satyajit Ray, translated from Bengali by Gopa Majumdar. It was gifted to my brother and I when we still lived in India, but I don't think either of us ever read it (I certainly did not). Basically, it's short stories about a detective, his cousin (the narrator of the stories) and a friend (who writes crime thrillers for a living), and mysteries that they solve, that were originally published in Bengali, separately, in periodicals and the like (the same way Dickens' books were, except they were long and were in multiple instalments, whereas these were, I presume, short enough to fit into a single instalment), from 1965 until the author's death in 1992. Set in India for the most part, obviously. And what this book did was translate 6 of those short stories (by short I'm talking 55-80 pages apiece) into English and then turn it into a book. I read one of those short stories, 'The Acharya Murder Case.' It was all right and had a decent plot. Given that each of these are independent stories, this will probably go the way of its predecessor and now be put away to be read at a later date. We'll see though, I may decide to read one more of the short stories first.

[H. Ross Peron]

I'm currently reading Donna Tartt's Secret History. I dislike all the major characters, but the prose is excellent and I find the various interactions among characters along with the storyline very engaging.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

J.G. Farrell's Troubles and a collection of Bulgakov's short stories.

[Mexican Wolf]

Still working my way through reading and taking notes on Of Bears and Ballots as well as Native American Almanac by Yvonne Wakim Dennis, Ablene Hirschfielder, and Shannon Rothenberger Flynn. Finished the Alaska Native section yesterday and read through the First Nations part today. Really fascinating and insightful discussions of native histories and cultures and profiles of famous members of various tribes.

[Brother Jonathan]

Picked up Ravelstein by Saul Bellow to listen to while I sort through and try to organize my bookshelves.

[Schiff for Senate]

Finished Militant Spirit literally one or two minutes after midnight this morning.
It has been replaced by John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer's Authoritarian Nightmare (post-election edition), which takes a look at the psychology and way of thinking of Trump's supporters, and Trump's own authoritarian mindset.

[Brother Jonathan]

Finished Ravelstein, thought it was good. Now going through Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground and Robert Draper's To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq

[PSOL]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

Ignoramus on the subtleties of Chinese history, but this would be fascinating if not for the fact that it is a pdf.

[PSOL]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

Ignoramus on the subtleties of Chinese history, but this would be fascinating if not for the fact that it is a pdf.

Just convert it to another format. PDF’s aren’t that bad.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

Ignoramus on the subtleties of Chinese history, but this would be fascinating if not for the fact that it is a pdf.

Just convert it to another format. PDF’s aren’t that bad.

I just dislike reading on a screen in general. DK if the ol' printer is going to willingly push out 400 pages.

[PSOL]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

Ignoramus on the subtleties of Chinese history, but this would be fascinating if not for the fact that it is a pdf.

Just convert it to another format. PDF’s aren’t that bad.

I just dislike reading on a screen in general. DK if the ol' printer is going to willingly push out 400 pages.

You can spend hours on atlas reading 50 pages worth of text at a time, I think you can do it man.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Just went through Revolution and Restoration, a book detailing the inner-party conflicts in the CCP and China’s turn towards capitalism. interesting book, but it misses key elements like the university assaults by the Chinese army in 1969 and unfairly paints Chen Boda and Liu Shaoqui in unfair lighting, as well as handglossing over the fact that a huge amount of uni students and universities were in and apart of upperclass society.

Ignoramus on the subtleties of Chinese history, but this would be fascinating if not for the fact that it is a pdf.

Just convert it to another format. PDF’s aren’t that bad.

I just dislike reading on a screen in general. DK if the ol' printer is going to willingly push out 400 pages.

You can spend hours on atlas reading 50 pages worth of text at a time, I think you can do it man.

I actually almost rarely read posts longer than a few sentences for this reason lol.

[Aurelius]

Currently reading:

"Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty" by John Boles
"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" by James Scott
"Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" by David Friedman

[compson]

Currently reading:

"Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty" by John Boles
"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" by James Scott
"Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" by David Friedman

Does the Friedman book focus mainly on criminal law, or is it broader?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Currently reading:

"Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty" by John Boles
"Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin
"The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" by James Scott
"Legal Systems Very Different from Ours" by David Friedman

I'm not a James Scott expert, but he comes highly recommended.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

The new Penguin edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy as a birthday present.

Yet thus much I will say of myself, and that I hope without all suspicion of pride, or self-conceit, I have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, for myself and for the Muses, in the University as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, almost until old age, to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study. I had a great desire (not able to attain to a superficial skill in any), to have some smattering in all, which Plato commends, out of him, Lipsius approves, and furthers, as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits, not to be a slave of one science, or dwell altogether in one subject, as most do, but to rove abroad, a boy with a hundred skills, to have an oar in every man's boat, to taste of every dish and sip of every cup, which saith Montaigne, was well performed by Aristotle and his learned countrymen Adrian Turnebus. This roving humour (though not with like success) I have ever had, and like a ranging spaniel, that barks at every bird he sees, leaving his game, I have followed all, saving that which I should, and may justly complain, and truly, he who's everywhere is nowhere, which Gesner did in modesty, that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for want of good method, I have confusedly tumbled over diverse authors in our Libraries, with small profit for want of art, order, memory, judgement. I never travelled but in Map or Card, in which my unconfined thoughts have freely expatiated, as having ever been especially delighted with the study of Cosmography. I am not poor, I am not rich, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva's tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so am I not in debt for it, I have a competency (praise be to God) from my noble and munificent Patrons, though I still live a Collegiate student, as Democritus in his garden, and lead a monastic life, a theatre to myself, sequestered from those tumults and troubles of the world, and as if placed on a watch-tower, as Heinsius said, in some high place above you all, like the Stoic sage, seeing all ages, past and present, as if in a single vision, I hear and see what is done abroad, how others run, ride, turmoil, and macerate themselves in court and country, far from those wrangling Lawsuits: I laugh at all, only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish, corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, I have no wife nor children good or bad to provide for. A mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversely presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene.

I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland etc., daily musters and preparations and suchlike, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies, and sea-fights, peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, corantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion etc.. Now come tidings of weddings, masquings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds, funerals, burials, death of Princes, new discoveries, expeditions; now comical, then tragical matters. Today we hear of new Lords and officers created, tomorrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth, another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt; now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps etc.. Thus I daily hear, and suchlike, both private and public news, amidst the gallantry and misery of the world; jollity, pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and villainy; subtlety, knavery, candour and integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves, I rub on as my own private person, as I have still lived, so I now continue, in the same condition as before, left to a solitary life, and mine own domestic discontents: saving that sometimes, lest I should like, as Diogenes went into the city, and Democritus to the haven to see fashions, I did for my recreation now and then walk abroad, look into the world, and could not choose but make some little observation, not so much as an acute observer as a simple reciter, not as they did to scoff or laugh at all, but with a mixed passion.

[Schiff for Senate]

Temporarily taken a break from my earlier two readings (Authoritarian Nightmare and The Tools of Argument). In the school library I checked out History of American Presidential Elections: Volume XI, the final volume, detailing presidential elections from 1988-2000, inclusive. I also checked out from my English class library today Woke Racism by John McWhorter (the teacher of my English class is notoriously woke even by my school's/area's standards, as I've documented elsewhere). Started reading the former book just this afternoon, and I think I'll read about the 1988 presidential race first, then decide what to read next after that.

[Schiff for Senate]

Temporarily taken a break from my earlier two readings (Authoritarian Nightmare and The Tools of Argument). In the school library I checked out History of American Presidential Elections: Volume XI, the final volume, detailing presidential elections from 1988-2000, inclusive. I also checked out from my English class library today Woke Racism by John McWhorter (the teacher of my English class is notoriously woke even by my school's/area's standards, as I've documented elsewhere). Started reading the former book just this afternoon, and I think I'll read about the 1988 presidential race first, then decide what to read next after that.

It isn't very good at all. Their profiles of the presidential elections are actually quite brief, and many more pages are taken up with transcripts of the presidential and vice-presidential debates that you can watch online and which are better when watched online. I read their entire profile of the '88 election, and have read through part of their transcript for the first 1988 presidential debate, but I think I'll cut my losses...I'll only read the presidential profiles themselves (which are not that long) for 1992-2000, and then return it to the library. If I want to watch the debates, I'll watch 'em, they're available online. No need to read hundreds of pages of debate transcripts.

[Brother Jonathan]

I've been revisiting Thus Spoke Zarathustra recently, and I am finding it more interesting this time around.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Gotta pick out books to take on my trip. Borrowed a history of Central Asia and Neuromancer from a friend.