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jbschirtzinger

jbschirtzinger@bookwyrm.social

Joined 2 years, 6 months ago

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Autopsy on a Empire--Worth Reading for the history alone.

4 stars

Growing up in the eighties, most of the images of Russia in my world were limited to submarines, hammers and sickles, and many, many spies. The word “comrade” was meant to make you perk up your ears, and the word “revolution” when it came to Russia was about the same as referring to Nazi Germany. In other words, we were mostly taught the USSR was over there, and was most often unfriendly. My family had a set of encyclopedias from the 1960’s which were not especially helpful concerning what the USSR was up to. New countries had come and gone, and basically I learned that if you heard a Russia accent in James Bond films, there was a good chance that person was “not a good guy”.

Russia Politics Back Then So, I picked up Autopsy on an Empire with some hesitation in the sense that Russian politics are about …

Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon (Paperback, 2000, Arrow/Children's (a Division of Random House) 4 stars

E-book extras: "Stephensonia/Cryptonomica": ONE: "Cryptonomicon Cypher-FAQ" (Neal addresses "Frequently Anticipated Questions" and other fascinating facts); …

Review of 'Cryptonomicon' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

As I have mentioned elsewhere, I tend to be a somewhat sporadic Neal Stephenson reader in the sense that our magisteria--to borrow a term from Stephan Jay Gould--tends to continue to overlap.

It is somewhat surprising I had not hitherto stumbled on this work previous to now. Certainly, I had heard many references to this particular novel, but had never stumbled across it in my path. It was with some surprise then when I finally did in a used bookstore.

The novel starts out somewhat slowly and since the work is over a 1,000 pages you can expect that the plot will move more slowly than a book of smaller length. Stephenson's writing style is markedly different here than from his other works, but there are certain themes present here that are echoed in his future works. One could posit, in a sense, that each work is a continuation in …

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Skin in the Game (2018, Allen Lane Penguin Random House UK) 4 stars

Review of 'Skin in the Game' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

Having read the Black Swan, as one will discover in my other reviews, I wanted to see if Taleb's more recent work was different than the now more dated aforementioned title. I will summarize this book by saying it is probably the best worst book I have read. Why?

The worst aspect concerns the fact that Taleb is either pagan, or clearly has some idolizing of pagans up to and including Roman Emperors. He states at one point that he believes pagans are intellectually superior to those of believers--or actually his exact words are that is "his heuristic." I will grant him believers have not provided a portrait of stunning intellectual prowess as time has progressed but he should know why. As the belief has persisted and grown, it has been subject to the very phenomena he describes as YHSVH was the foremost Black Swan of the last 2,000 …

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan: The Demon-Haunted World (Paperback, 1997, Ballantine Books) 4 stars

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand …

Review of 'The Demon-Haunted World' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Once in about the year 2001 previous to the events of 9-11, I was in college and not enjoying the experience. I set foot into a store called On Cue which had an assortment of items such as cds and books and lava lamps. In a section, somewhat to my then irritation, marked metaphysics, was the book The Demon Haunted World I was a psychology major at that juncture, and the emphasis was on science and metaphysics was a naughty word. Surely, Sagan, preeminent among scientists would not have written a metaphysical book?

The book, when I read it then, had a huge impact upon me. It was not so much what it said, but rather that I believed much in an opposite way to what it was saying. The same was true of my psychology major which was part of my misery. What Sagan had to say about science …

Review of 'Civilian Warriors' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

While Trump is attempting to drain the swamp, I thought it would be a good time to revisit one of the security contracting agencies that was founded in a swamp--that is to say Blackwater.

There is an old statement that comes to mind in regard to this book that one should not get in the way of people doing a job unless one can do the job better. When it comes to security and the assessment on the ground, I believe nearly everything Mr. Prince has to say here. I furthermore believe that Blackwater was used as a pawn politically mostly by Democrats who did not like the fact that Mr. Prince was more conservative. I further believe that Blackwater was making a colossal amount of money through wars that were likely manipulated into existence. Indeed, Blackwater was born after the shooting at Columbine. Likewise, Blackwater appears to have had …

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan (Paperback, 2010, Random House Trade Paperbacks) 4 stars

Examines the role of the unexpected, discussing why improbable events are not anticipated or understood …

Review of 'The Black Swan' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

Mr. Taleb has a problem. He is not fond of randomness. Specifically, he is not fond of catastrophic, unexpected randomness. Likely, this has much to do with the destruction of his own home in Lebanon. These events that are unecpected he calls a Black Swan.

This read is a little dated in the sense that it was written in 2006. Much of the science present reflects the thinking of the period. However, Mr. Taleb succeeds in his quest to be a kind of modern day Socrates basically resisting the Gaussian tyranny and insisting on some level we know nothing. He does exceedingly well at this.

On the other hand, he seems to completely overlook those who can generate a black swan almost single-handedly. The Ultra-Rich banking people who have fueled much of Mr. Taleb's career are likely not affected by the black swans of the world the way the rest …

Review of 'Triggered' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

I am typically not enthusiastic about reading any particular political work for the simple reason that most often such works concern a moment in time with political assumptions that are later proven to be ephemeral.

For instance, once the discussion of "trickle down economics" has passed, one does not find it except in reference to the era in which it existed as a current issue. Therefore, most often, such works, are to me, not worth the time it takes to read them as the political climate has drastically shifted by the time one finishes them.

Perhaps it is because Trump is something of a singular moment in history, or perhaps we as a civilization have produced the moment that encapsulates Trump. Either way, if you were to have told 20 something-year-old me that I would be supportive of Trump in any capacity I would have laughed in your face. I …

Review of 'Stephen A. Douglas the Political Apprenticeship, 1833-1843' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

Mr. Ankrom is definitely in a niche no one else is occupying. Stephen Douglas is now historically viewed as a necessary sideshow to the mythos of Abraham Lincoln. Indeed, one cannot fully understand Lincoln without understanding Douglas and his interaction with Lincoln, and this book does a good job elucidating facts about that often adversarial relationship.

The scholarship is thorough, and there are tidbits of information in here that I had not seen elsewhere. Different astronomical and physical phenomena are mentioned in the telling of Douglas's story. Likewise, there is some not well-known or discussed matters where Douglas and Mary Todd are concerned.

What I found made this book harder to read for me, however, was a lack of a strong narrative voice from Mr. Ankrom. It is not that there is no narration. Indeed, one might suggest that the majority of the book is narration. The missing piece to …

Review of "Lincoln's Virtues" on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

The biographer does a good job on trying to sort out the legendary Lincoln from the mythical Lincoln, mostly. There are times within this book that one begins to feel that the author is projecting his understanding of Lincoln onto the events that happened--such as suggesting that some of his retorts were quips when in fact they probably were not. Everyone, it seems, misunderstands Lincoln at some point or another which was true of his life.

When I began reading this book, I was familiar with the perspective of slavery being a state's rights issue. What this book does uniquely well is that it outlines that this is not so. Since Lincoln was not an outright abolitionist, the position was often confusing in history. What he was, was perhaps, a pragmatist in the sense that he did not politically think slavery could be outright abolished but rather that it could …

Review of 'Witness to a century' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

George Seldes, in this book, finally gets to say exactly what he wants. After many years of being muzzled by the media as a reporter for various agencies, Seldes arrives(d) at a point where he can express the truth of many of the events in history for which he was immediately present. Seldes was lucky enough, or unfortunate enough, depending on how you see the matters he describes, to be present during many pivotal points in the 2oth century.

Since he was quite literally there, he reports the actual truth as he recollects it as opposed to the oft repeated stories we are told on everything from people who actually met Abraham Lincoln to the political contemporaries of JFK and beyond. Many of these facts are in stark contrast to narratives we hold to be true such that they may be shocking to students of history.

I enjoyed this book …