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Gutbliss by Robynne Chutkan Wednesday, January 22, 2014 This book's full title is "Gutbliss, Feel Light, Tight and Bright - The Healthy Way". I loved this book. It was very easy to read and follow. She even has sample meals and recipes in the end of the book. I bought the book because I got stomach flu and had a hard time recovering from it. She talks about what to avoid, what to eat and how to encourage and repopulate gut bacteria. The book talks a lot about what to do about bloating or gas for women. Indeed this is somewhat the main thrust of the book. Women are built differently than men and seem to have more problems with gas or bloating than men do. She has her own site where you can pick up her being interviewed by Dr. Oz and on the Today Show. She is an integrative gastroenterologist and founder of the Digestive Center for Women, just outside of Washington, D.C. Robynne Chutkan is part of Gut Runners. The Gut Runners Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to improving digestive health in the community. They are basically saying if you do not want to constipated, you need to move, you need to exercise. I found a nice lot of reviews on this book at Good Reads. There also a very interesting review of this book by Gena a nutritionist that works with Dr. Chutkan on the Choosing Raw site. There is also another good review on the Huntington News Net by David Kinchen. This article also refers to another interesting one on How Our Stone Age Bodies Struggle To Stay Healthy In Modern Times at NPR Books by Daniel Lieberman. See Robynne Chutkan on the Today Show. She has a very interesting article in The Atlantic talking about the future of probiotics. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell Monday, January 13, 2014 This book’s full title is David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell. I have read his other books. I must admit I was intrigued with them at first, but I was very disenchanted with What the Dog Saw, that I did not even review the book. I bought this book because I had enjoyed some of the others books Malcolm Gladwell had written. But then I saw an interesting and very negative review in CanTech on Malcolm and this book. There is also another very negative review in Economist. There is an interesting review of this book at Kottke.org. I do not believe that his popularity confers any great responsibility on him. It would seem to me that he is just trying to make a living by bring to light some suggestive research on various topics. I got bored with his last book called “What the Dog Saw”, but found this one an enjoyable and easy read. I know that it is not great reading or great research. I pretty much take it for what it is. I see no harm in it if you take it for what it is and that is probably just pop science. Malcolm Gladwell brings up interesting little tidbits about human behavior. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Beware the Dragon by Erik Durschmied Tuesday, January 07, 2014 This book's full title is "Beware the Dragon, China: 1,000 Years of Bloodshed". I found this book quite fascinating to read. I also found it very easy to read. The book starts in 1218, so it does not quite cover 1,000 years. Also, Durschmied starts the book off with the attacks on Europe by the Mongols. The Mongols were not Chinese and they did not control China until after the first attacks in Europe happened. After the Mongols attacks on Europe and the Middle East, he goes on to talk about the advantage Europeans took of China after they discovered it. This was hardly China's fault. The next was about Japan's conquest of China. He does go on to talk about China's conquest of Tibet and there certainly China was awful and still suppresses the Tibetan people. He also covers the USSR and China relationship, including the Chinese attack on the USSR at their mutual border supposedly over an island in the Ussuri River. He also relates China's effort to contact and make diplomatic relations with the US in 1971. He does cover a fair bit of ground in his book. I know from reading history that China was not well liked by the peoples of around them, especially South East Asia when China was powerful. However, this was not much different that the South American's attitude to America. There is a great book review in 2008, which this book was written, in the Guardian by John Gittings. He reviews not only this book but a number of "Dragon" books written in 2008 just before the China Olympics. Telegraph by Nicholas Shakespeare is a critical review of this book. I must admit I found the book interesting and easy to read, but I understand his criticism. Erick has an entry in Wikipedia. There is not much in the way of videos for Durschmied. However, there is a TVO film of "Finding Fidel: The Journey of Erik Durschmied" he started his extraordinary career by interviewing a young Fidel Castro on the eve of the Cuban revolution. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Invisible Armies by Max Boot Monday, December 02, 2013 This book's full title is "Invisible Armies, An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present". I must admit that I found this book a fascinating read. It is well written and a very good and easy read. The Romans were defeated by barbarians or irregular troops. Nomadic empires could inflict catastrophic costs on established states. In fact irregular fighting goes back to tribal warfare. There seldom anything new under the sun. One thing that I did find very interesting is when Max Boot talked about the French in Algiers compared with the English in Malaysia. Max Book has his own web site. He has written some very interesting articles. One article is about the case form cutting off aid to Egypt and another is a blog entry about what is being done to protect the Copts in Egypt. There is a short review of this book on the Foreign Affairs web site. There is a much longer and more interesting review at the New York Times by Mark Mazower. Gary Rosen of the Wall Street Journal does a short interview (6 minutes) with Max Boot Max Boot. Also Max Boot gives an interesting speech at Pritzker Military Library. He talks after introduction for about 35 minutes and then there is Q & A period. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Big Shift by Bricker, Ibbitson Wednesday, November 27, 2013 This book's full title is "The Big Shift, The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business and Culture and What it means for Our Future". This book is byDarrell Bricker and John Ibbitson. I seldom read books on Canadian Politics as politics in general do not interest me all that much. However, I had realized when Harper first got elected that it was because Ontario voted with the West. For most of Canadian history I knew that for a government to get into power, it had to have votes by Ontario and Quebec. When Ontario and Quebec voted together you got a majority federal government. But things have been changing with the rise of the Bloc Quebecois and the rise of the West. The West has been wanted to get in for a long time. With Harper they did get in. I found interesting that 20% of our populations were immigrants. This is quite high. However, what is more interesting is where these immigrants are with 3% in Nova Scotia, 11.5% in Quebec, but 28% of population of in British Columbia and Ontario. With some 70% of our population living in urban areas, it is hardly a surprise that a large portion of our immigrants also live in urban areas. The Literary Review site of Canada has a review of this book by Yuen Pau Woo. I have read quite a bit of Canadian History and I also do not remember any elite group being called "Laurentians" either in the form of Laurentian elite or Laurentian consensus. I find this the best review. She questions some of the assumptions of the book and I think she is right to do so. The iPolitics Site also have a very interesting and insightful review by Colin Horgan. There is also a review in the National Post by Mark Kennedy. This is more a review of what the books says rather than an assessment of what the book says. John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker on their book at Canadian Bar Association cba.org. This is a question and answer type interview. There is a short interview of Bricker on City News. And, finally, what I found a very interesting part of the book was about the Atlantic Canadian Reality Distortion Field by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson. It talks about how Atlantic Canada thinks that the money transfer from west to east via Employment Insurance is very Canadian and logically and see nothing wrong with part time workers collecting money from the plan every year. This is a very worthwhile read. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Conquest of the Ocean by Brian Lavery Wednesday, November 20, 2013 This book's full title is "The conquest of the Ocean: An Illustrated History of Seafaring" by Brian Lavery. Brian Lavery has his own web site. This book has little outside of how the western world interacted with the ocean. It briefly talks about the Polynesian and the Pacific Ocean and Zheng He of Chinese fame. But I doubt of anyone in the western world has not heard of these sailors. One thing I did learn that I had not heard much about was the US military attacks by ship in the War of Independence. This was quite an interesting part of the book. The book is easy to read and has lots of nice illustrations. You can learn things about boats and ships you may not know. It is a good book for what it covers. Brian Lavery is a naval historian. There is a number of book reviews on this book at Good Reads. Most readers liked the book and lots commented on the lovely illustrations. There is also a review on the Literature works Literature Works site. Most of the reviews I found were quite short. Some even mention some of the books short-comings, like on History Extra site. They mention that most of the book covers the period from 1450 to the present. On YouTube there are short videos of Brian Lavery discussing points about his book. Go to the first one and you should be able to access the rest from that page. You can also access these videos from DK's YouTube site. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Thinking the Twentieth Century, Judt, Snyder Tuesday, October 22, 2013 The co-authors of this book are Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder. The book is written as a discussion between Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder. It is obviously a very left wing view of history, but it is a lively and interesting discussion. However, the discussion is about mostly Europe. It does touch on US, but mainly it is a discussion of Europe, so the scope is rather narrow. I had not known about the Europe too much in the 20th century and the fact that it took until 1970 for Western Europe to get back to the same level of prosperity that they had in 1914. Basically, Western Europe suffered a 60 year decline marked by 2 world wars and unprecedented economic depression. The book also dwells a bit on the European Jewish question. Tony Judt is Jewish and he grew up in Europe so this is not a surprising subject. Mostly nothing in the book is new and surprising to me. However, I have read a lot of history, so this maybe why. The Guardian has a great review of this book . See Timothy Snyder talk about this book at Cornell University. This lecture is part of a series of talks at the university called Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series at Einaudi Center's. It is rather long at 1 hour and 20 minutes. Timothy Snyder starts to speak about 8 minutes into this video. Timothy Snyder's lecture last until just after 51 minutes and then there is questions and answers period. There is an interview with New York Times Journalist Tony Judt . It is quite interesting and is just over 7 minutes long. There is also an interesting question and answer period at Boston College in 2007. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Cooked by Michael Pollan Monday, October 21, 2013 This book's full title is "Cooked - A Natural History of Transformation". This is an absolutely wonderful book as all Michael Pollan's books are. You do not need to be a cook to thoroughly enjoy this book. All you need is a sense of wonder and an appetite for food. He interestingly divides in book into cooking methods of fire, water, air and earth. Michael Pollan has an interesting approach to food that makes his books must read books. Here is the Facebook page for the Skylight Inn run by Pete Jones. Here is a site that shows a picture of the Skylight Inn as described in this book. In 'Cooked,' Michael Pollan Reclaims Culture of Cooking, an interview on PBS News Hour on YouTube. This is a longer (over 1 hour) video of Michael Pollan talking about food at UC Berkeley. Michael starts talking about 3 minutes into the video. Michael Pollan talks about Deep Agriculture YouTube by Fora.TV. This is also a rather long video of over 1 hour. Michael Pollan: A plant's-eye view at TED. This is an older video, dated 2008, but a wonderful point to be made about life. Michael Pollan Takes on Cooking video is at THNKR. Michael and a number of people talk about this book "Cooked". Navigating the Supermarket Aisles with Michael Pollan and Michael Moss by The New York Times. This video is showing a short conversation between Michael Pollan and Michael Moss at a supermarket. (They found Yoghurt with more sugar in it than pop has!) 10 Questions with Michael Pollan is a Times video about food. This was done just after Michael Pollan published his book "Food Rules". If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking by Matthew Hutson Wednesday, October 16, 2013 This book's full title is "The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking: How Irrational Beliefs Keep Us Happy, Healthy and Sane". Matthew Hutson has a web site for this book. You can read the introduction to this book from this site. Matthew Hutson also has a blog on this site. This is a great book. We all have irrational beliefs and thoughts. This can be helpful. The thing is not to let such beliefs and thoughts take over your whole life. There is a short review of this book at Publishers Weekly and a much longer review on Jeff Sexton's blog. Matthew Hutson's blog shows up in the Huffington Post magazine. There is an article by Matthew Hutson in the Psychology Today magazine. There are a couple of videos to watch on Big Think. There is a MIT talk by Matthew Hutson. This second video is much long at 1 hour and 20 minutes. A lot of this talk is Matthew Hutson reading from his book and then answering questions. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Barbarous Years by Bernard Bailyn Wednesday, October 16, 2013 This book's full title is "The Barbarous Years, The Peopling of British North America: Conflict of Civilizations, 1600 to 1675". We live in such a non-violent world compared to our pass that I think we do not appreciate how violent our pass was. The settling of North America was dangerous and violent. I thought that the depiction of North American natives was quite good and quite sympathetic. However, I realize that there are very different views on this subject. There are also huge variations in, almost staggering, views on the population of North America at the time it was found by Europeans. This is a great book and very readable one on how Europeans came to populate North America. If you are at all interested in the early settlement years of Europeans in North America, this is the book to read. It is not only the violence that might shock you, but also how many Europeans that died trying to settle the "new world". Ironically, without help from the Indians that might now have managed it. There is a review of this book at See Harvard Magazine. The author of this review, Daniel K. Richter, is quite critical of Bernard Bailyn's treatment of the Indians. Alan Taylor, in a The New Republican article is also critical of the book, but is critical on how bleak a picture that Bailyn paints of this period. I cannot find much in the way of video for Bernard Bailyn. However, there is one YouTube video of Bailyn talking about the relationship between the United States federal government and the states. Also, there is Bailyn giving the First White House Millennium Evening Lecture . This lecture is called the "Early American Experience". If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Flight of the Eagle by Conrad Black Tuesday, October 10, 2013 This book’s full title is Flight of the Eagle, a Strategic History of the United States. This is a great overview of American history. Conrad has a unique view of the world and the book is largely quite a sympathy view of the USA. As always this book was a very good read. It is long, but it is also quite hard to put down. The Toronto Star book review by Tony Wong has what is supposed to be a review of this book, but really a review of Conrad Black. I guess that the Star cannot help itself. They have to admit that he is a great writer. Too bad they did not actually say much about the book except that it is a love letter to the US. The Globe and Mail book review by Carol Chin also has an interesting, but quite critical review of Conrad Black’s book. She thinks that the book is light wait history. She thinks better books cover the same ground and Black writes from a basic faith of America’s greatness. The Globe and Mail has an interesting interview with Conrad Black and Margaret Wente, but you have to listen to a commercial first for a very short video of 2 and one half minutes. No one is impartial when it comes to Conrad Black. He does bring out strong views from anyone he comes in contact with and anyone who reads him. This includes the review by Rafe Mair for The Tyee. He is not very complementary in his review but admits that he could not put the book down. He complains that Black is biased. The fact is all history is biased and this is why you should read lots of history from different authors with different axes to grind. This reviewing also brings up the fact that reading the writings of Black will add to your vocabulary. He has an interesting way with language, for example when he says Obama chose as his running mate the “malapropistic” Joseph Biden. There is book review by an American paper Washington Times. However, they farmed it out to a Canadian, Victor Fic, and it is rather mediocre. There is a much better review at The National Interest site. There is a 10 minute interview with Conrad Black on Book TV. The full 44 minute interview is here. There is a longer one of just over 1 hour on the Agenda Steve Paikin. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

From the Ruins of Empire by Pankaj Mishra Tuesday, September 24, 2013 This book’s full title is “From the Ruins of Empire, The revolt against the west and the remaking of Asia. Pankaj Mishra has his own web site. He writes from the point of view of Asia being colonized by Europe. Of course, his view is just as distorted as some Western writers of European imperialism, but it is a fascinating book on Asian viewpoints. There is a great review of this book at The Guardian. There is also a very interesting review at The Telegraph which also touches on the argument he got into with Niall Ferguson. There is a radio interview of Pankaj Mishra by Anna Maria Tremonti on CBC. Pankaj Mishra and Ian Buruma discuss Mishra's new book, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.in a YouTube video. The introduction last some 7 minutes. Ian Buruma interviews Pankaj Mishra. The interview lasts about 30 minutes and then there is a Q&A. There is another interview by Michael Woods of Pankaj Mishra at The British Library . There is a lecture by Pankaj Mishra at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Denver University. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Restless Empire by Odd Arne Westad Tuesday, July 30, 2013 The full title of this book is Restless Empire, China and the World since 1750. There is a good review of this book at Kirkus. This is a short review, but it covers what this book is all about. The review in the telegraph is longer and more wide ranging, but it also includes in its review another interesting China book The End of the Chinese Dream: Why Chinese People Fear the Future by Gerard Lemos. And, there is another interesting review at Origins. This is short 3 and a half minutes video in which Westad explains his book. Another video is at Ustream however, you have to watch a short ad first. Westad started speaking around 8 and half minutes into the video. Some 15 minutes into the video is another ad and so on. I did not find this inserting of ads seamless as video did not always resume where it left off. We hear a lot about how awful the Europeans were to China when they started to explore the world in the 18th and 19th century. But it was not the Europeans' fault of China's decline. It just happened that China was in decline when the Europeans came along. They did not help, of course, but they did not cause any decline. What the future holds for China is uncertain. China is certainly a rising power. Europe, and especially Britain, could not handle the rise of Germany. The fighting left Europe gutted twice. Britain handled the rise of America quite well. Hopefully, America can handle well the rise of China. However, it not only depends on America, but on China as well. So far China seems to be behaving in an aggressive fashion as a rising power. But, they still have enough time to choose to co-operate with others in the east and with America. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Double Entry by Jane Gleeson-White Monday, May 06, 2013 This book's full title is Double Entry, How the merchants of Venice created modern finance. This book started off as a well told story and was interestingly written. However, she ends with big rant against corporations. Too bad she goes from being a good historian to being a raving idiot on a rant against corporations. There is a good interview done by the economist on YouTube. It is only 5 minutes long. There is a good review of this book at Wall Street Journal. This review concentrates on the history of the double entry method which is the best part of this book. This is also another good review at the Management Today site. This reviewer, Luke Johnson, ends the review with a remark on the deterioration of this book at the end. "It is a shame the book deteriorates into a left-wing diatribe, because the key story - the history of bookkeeping - is an interesting one, and well told." One of things she talks about and about which I think one of the stupidest ideas I have heard is the one where people look at the worse possible characteristics of a corporation and use the Mental Disorder test and declare corporations psychopaths (by their very nature). Corporations are run by people. To say that we should not expect corporations to behave like a "good corporate citizen" is just giving some business leaders a license to behave badly. I do not think that we should tie corporations up in so much read tape that they cannot function. However, it is proper to regulate them. For example, government rules about (or against) pollution is decidedly good for society as a whole. We should go after executives who falsify accounting records. (However, putting them in jail for hundreds of years is pointless, but this is a whole other conversation. I think that we can be more innovative than jailing non-violet offenders. It is too bad that we are so set in our ways that if any Judge decides to be innovative in sentencing (beside jail), we talk about cruel and unusual punishment.) The author seems to just now be realizing that money is not everything. Yes, we do need a certain amount of money to live, but there is a limit to what we need. Of course, people look at this differently and calculate differently what they required, but after a certain amount of money or level of living, we want more than just money. We do want things like pollution control. And, the western world has moved strongly in this direction. We have done a lot to clean up our environment. Yes, more needs to be done, but we have still done quite a lot. GDP is just money, but I do not decide to stay in Canada just because of its GDP. Life is good in Canada. No, it is not perfect and we do have problems, but I believe we will solve them. I also do not believe in the redistributions of money. (This is just another form of plunder.) If people get money for nothing it has no value. This is what is wrong with welfare. It was a great idea that did not work. I think we need to get families that have been on welfare for 3 to 4 generations off it so we can spend more time and money on more current problems, like the homelessness problem. Our current welfare programs have done nothing to solve homelessness. She has a chapter on "How Accounting Could make or Break the World". I think that accounting (or Double Entry Bookkeeping) cannot do everything. If you want to save the world, perhaps you should use other methods. To just view our world through the eyes of an accountant is wrong on so many levels. There is far more to life than money and accounting for it. Sorry, but to make accounting as a view to life is so short sighted. However, a big problem I see today is that everyone wants things like pension and health case, but they want someone else to work and pay for it. At some point people are going to have to realize that if they want pensions and health care, they will have to work and pay for it themselves. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark by Mary Janigan Monday, February 25, 2013 This book is called "Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark, The West versus the Rest since Confederation". Mary Janigan has her own web site. The site hosts a time line that is covered by the book. When I was young, I like the history that Pierre Berton wrote. I grew out of him, but there has not been much in the way of good history books for Canadian History. This is the first Canadian History book I have read for a while that I thoroughly enjoyed. The book provides an interested perspective on how people in different parts of our country viewed the west and what it meant to them. It is well written and easy and enjoyable to read. It gives a western perspective that being in central Canada, I had not realized before. This book is largely about the west (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan) fighting to control their own resources. It took forever as the Federal government wanted to use western resources to fund settlement and railways. It was not until 1930 when King was Prime Minister that western resources as finally turned over to the western provinces. The book also goes into the rage that was felt in the Maritimes. They felt that they had bought and paid for the west and that they should be compensated for the loss of western resources. Quebec and Ontario got huge amount of land carved out of the land purchases from the Hudson Bay Company, but the Maritimes got nothing. There are good reviews at Toronto Star, at National Post, at Winnipeg Free Press and at The Chronicle Herald (of Nova Scotia). If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The The Better Angles of Our Nature by Steven Pinker Monday, January 23, 2012 This book’s full title is The Better Angels of Our Nature, Why Violence has Declined. Steven Pinker is an extremely engaging writer. He has written several books, I must admit that they are long, but highly readable. One of the most interesting things Pinker says is about the “Moralizing Gap”. He says that people think that harm that they inflict to be justified and forgettable. However, they think that the harm they suffer to be unprovoked and grievous. This can explain some long standing disputes between peoples. One of things he talks about is ideology. The really big body counts in history pile up when a large number of people have a motive than seems to transcend selfishness. With ideology, the end is idealistic. But its ideology that have driven many of the worse things that people have ever done to each other. Just think of the pile of deaths attributable to communists. Another interesting thing is the rise in crime in the 1960’s. A number of people thought the rise in crime in the 1960’s was because of the 1960’s culture. The relaxation of self-control was glorified. Do your own thing. Let it all hang out. The crime rate started to come done in the 1990’s and it is almost back to where it was in the 1950’s. You can find Steven Pinker on my favourite video site of www.ted.com. You can hear Steven Pinker give a 20 minute speech on the subject of the myth of violence at TED. This is well worthwhile listening to and does not take long. Not everyone believes him. You can see this at in a column by Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian. She admits to not reading the book, thinking it is too long. She interviews him at Guardian Videos. However, this is not the only book I have read on this subject. I have read and reviewed Azar Gat, an anthropologist’s book called War in Human Civilization on my site. Gat’s book is not as well known or as popular, but he also is an engaging writer and well worth reading. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Horse, the Wheel and Language by David Anthony Monday, December 26, 2011 I love the way this book starts. David Anthony says we should look into a mirror and see not only you but your ancestors. We see not only our own face, but a museum. Although you see your face, it is composed of a collage of features you have inherited from your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. David Anthony identifies the prehistoric peoples of central Eurasia's steppe grasslands as the original speakers of Proto-Indo-European. This is the Steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas. This is important because roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. The Steppes of Eurasia go from Eastern Europe to China. These steppes were changed forever by the horse and the covered wagon. Apparently, there was a Secondary Products Revolution that swept Europe in between 3500 and 3000BCE. This revolution included the plow, wool sheep, dairying and the beginning of horse transportation. The secondary products of this this revolution included items like wool, milk and muscular power than be harvested continuously from an animal without killing it. This SPR is an economic explanation for widespread changes in settlement patterns, economy, rituals and crafts. Much of this has been ascribed by an older generation of archaeologists to Indo-European migrations. If you like history and anthropology, this is a great book. It also tells us where our language might have originated from and how we got it. For a preview of this book, see Princeton University Press. Amazon does have surprisingly good book reviews, but you have to scroll almost to the page bottom to find them. For such a review, see Amazon. Another good review is at Dreamflesh. Plus another one at Thinking Out Aloud. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Freedom in the Ancient World by Herbert Muller Sunday, December 18, 2011 I was attracted to this book by the title. I have read a lot of history, but I never thought of the ancient world having any freedom. However, I guess all movements must start somewhere. He talks about the Axial Period from 800 to 200 BC. It was in this era, outside of Greece, that there emerged all the basic religious ideas on which man has lived ever since, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Judaism. He talks about a revolutionary change in mentality in about 6BC, when we start to hear of individuals who were not kings or gods. Such people were Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, Leo-Tse Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Home Thales, Salon, Aeschylus, Socrates and Plato. If you like to read about the ancient world, this is a great book to read to get a different perspective on what was occurring then. There is a Wikipedia entry for Herbert J. Muller at Muller. For a review of this book, see Professor Carroll Quigley site. Professor Quigley’s main criticism of this book is “Prof. Muller's inability in this work to carry out his special task, the history of human freedom, seems to me to rest on his failure to distinguish between "freedom" (the existence of alternative personal choices in a society) and "liberties" (the existence of a social pattern which permits a man to develop his potentialities).” This book won a Ralph Waldo Emerson award in 1962. See Wikipedia. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

After the Reich by Giles MacDonogh Friday, December 16, 2011 This book is about what happened after the Armistice of 1945. It is not a pretty story. Women, of course, suffered tremendously. The German women were basically raped by everyone. The Russians and French were atrocious. The Americans tried to stop their soldier from raping. The British were somewhat better where they basically tried to use chocolate to get sex. There was ethnic cleansing of the German peoples by Czech nationalists, and by the people in Poland, Silesia, and East Prussia. There are no Germans today in what was East Prussia. Russia moved eastward their border with Poland and told Poland to move their western border to include previously German lands, which they did. And, they did so with great cruelty to the German peoples in the area they took over. We sort of know about the harsh treatment of German soldiers by the Russians, but the British and Americans were no far behind them in the appalling treatment of German soldiers after the Armistice. Of course, it is not only German soldiers that died. A lot of women, children and old people died too. The thing is that we should know our history. Hopefully, by knowing it, we can avoid the same mistakes in the future. This is one very good reason for reading history. One very good review of this book is at Dialog International. The title of the Telegraph review tells a great deal of the story. Their title is how 3 million Germans died after VE Day. See The Telegraph. Another great article I is at Rense. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Civilization by Niall Ferguson Tuesday, November 22, 2011 This book is very readable. However, this is what you can really say about all Niall Ferguson’s books. I know some talk about him as being very right wing. Personally, I do not think that he is so easily cataloged. What he certainly is, is opinionated. What I liked about this book was him talking about the rise of the West because of 6 killer apps. The killer apps were competition, science, property rights, medicine, consumer society and the work ethic. For a quick review of these points, see the bottom of the Guardian article, linked to below. Niall Ferguson also thinks that when civilizations fall, it is not a slow decline, but civilizations, basically fall off a cliff. Is the US going to going that way? It is hard to say, but they seem to ignoring parts of the 6 killer apps that made them so powerful in the past. He asks if the threat to Western Civilization is not from others, but the west’s lack of understanding or faith in our own cultural heritage. With China, it is trying to use some of these killer apps without others. For example, to Niall Ferguson, democracy goes with property rights and China does not want to go that way. He thinks that nationalism might become a problem with China. (He says if religion is the opium of the masses, then nationalism is the cocaine of the middle classes.) He thinks the problem with Islam is that it could not reconcile itself to scientific progress and that this has been disastrous for them. He also asks if the head scarf is freedom of expression or subjugation of women. On the Russians, he notes that they could duplicate the atomic bomb, but not blue jeans. He quotes Regis Debray in that there is more power in rock music, videos, blue jeans, fast food, news networks and TV satellites than in the entire Red Army. For a good review, that also explains the 6 killer apps, see the one in the Guardian. Also, Amazon has some excellent reviews, see Amazon. Look towards the bottom of the page. On YouTube you can hear a lecture on this book by Niall Ferguson. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Origins of Political Order, Francis Fukuyama Monday, November 21, 2011 I remember reading a review of this book. One of the comments said why would anyone buy a book by Fukuyama? The commenter went on to say that Fukuyama was totally wrong with his book called The End of History. There is a very good reason for this. Fukuyama is a very interesting writer. I have never been dissatisfied with any book by him. Both the End of History and this book is discussed in a Globe and Mail article. This particular book is from Pre-human Times to the French Revolution. Fukuyama expects to write a 2nd volume on this subject. I certainly look forward to it. This book is not only about economics, it is also about history. Like his remark about the Ming Dynasty. He says that it failed to tax citizens adequately to support an army to defend the country against the Manchus. He also talks about the needs of Democracy. He says it needs a state that is effective and powerful, the rule of law and a government that is accountable. He talks of Afghanistan, which has a weak state and it cannot uphold laws on its territories. He says that Russia has a strong state, it holds democratic elections, but their problem is the rulers are no bound by law. He also says that Singapore has a strong state, the rule of law, but only an attenuated form of democratic accountability. He talks about why Europe is different. It was only in Europe that the state was not build on top of tribally organized institutions. Apparently Europe exited tribalism via the rule of the Catholic Church. This is very interesting. Another great review of this book is at PLOS Blogs. To hear a John Hopkins lecture by Francis Fukuyama, go to YouTube. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Forge of Empires, Michael Knox Beran Wednesday, October 19, 2011 This book covers the years of 1861 and 1871 and the revolutions of Abraham Lincoln, Tsar Alexander II, and Otto von Bismarck. The subtitle is “Three Revolutionary Statesmen and The World They Made”. What did these men do? Lincoln freed 4 M slaves, Alexander freed 27M serfs and Bismarck swept away an archaic jumble of completing sovereign ties, so many duchies and grand bailiwicks, and secured the prosperity of a region. Free states like England and US liberated their people’s energies and the institutions of freedom were poised to carry all before them. But there was a countervailing reaction that set in the privileged cases to defend their prerogatives. In Russia, Germany and America, grandees with their backs to the wall meet the challenge of liberty with a philosophy of coercion to protect their power. (Slavery is a system of coercion.) A couple of methods came with this philosophy. One was paternalism in which the master is a father to the works and looks after them. This is designed to regulate the masses. Another idea was militant nationalism. This is the right of superior people to impose their will on inferior people. The book also talks about the southern people being Cavaliers. Like the Cavaliers who, in the 17th Century, fought for Charles I in England. Kevin Phillips brings up this point in his book, The Cousins’ Wars. Read an interview with Kevin at PBS. One thing I learned from this book that I did not know was they Tsar Alexander II send the Russian fleet to US in 1863. He sent the Atlantic fleet to New York and the Pacific fleet to San Francisco Bay. This ended hope of England and France to intervene to help the South. There is not much online about this book or author, but there is one book review at foreign affairs. Michael Knox Beran also writes for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. See some of his writings at their site. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

Going Dutch by Lisa Jardine Tuesday, September 29, 2011 The full name is Going Dutch, How England Plundered Holland’s Glory. Of course, this is not really what happened. It is the Dutch that took over England. However, the Dutch did feel aggrieved by the wealth, power and influence that seeped away from to England at the beginning of the 18th Century. The Dutch take over, called the Glorious Revolution occurred in 1688, the later part of the 17th Century. History seems to deal with this take over quite softly. The Dutch invasion went remarkably smoothly, with William mounting a propaganda campaign. William’s declaration was a very fine piece of spin. James more or less just sneaked away with his government basically declining to stop the invasion. The Dutch States General needed the alliance with England. They were afraid that James would make an alliance with France and that France would again attach them. (About a quarter of the Irish Army fighting William at the battle of the Boyne were French Troops.) However, the main part of this book is devoted, not to history really, but an effort to show that culturally, the English and the Dutch has a lot in common. Jardine tries to show that the Dutch and English share a remarkable amount in terms of outlook, fundamental belief, aspirations and sense of identity. There is a Wikipedia entry for Lisa Jardine. The Guardian has a rather negative view of this book . I must admit she does go on and on about little culture things. The Independent has a much more positive view of this book . If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Hammer and The Cross by Robert Ferguson Tuesday, September 13, 2011 This book’s full title is The Hammer and The Cross, A New History of the Vikings. There is a good review of this book at The Sunday Times. The era covered is from the late 8th century when Viking raiders suddenly burst upon the shores of Western Europe and "roughly speaking all the Scandinavian peoples were Heathens" until "roughly the 11th or 12th when "roughly speaking all the Scandinavian peoples thought of themselves as Christians". The Vikings felt that their culture was under threat and lashed out at the Christians who were threating their culture. The Germans started the trouble with the trying to forcibly convert the Saxon tribes to Christianity. These Saxon tribes were related to the Danish. Of course the attack on English monastery at Lindisfarne was a complete surprise to the English. They knew who the Vikings were, and they probably had traded with them in the past, but to them this attack was a big shock. But Ferguson tries to bring some understanding to why it happened. Basically, the Vikings were acting like terrorist trying to protect their culture. This is a rather interesting perspective. Of course, he talks of the Vikings going to Iceland, Greenland and on to North America. He also talks about their invasions into the British Isles. He talks of the Viking raids into Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. And, lastly about the Vikings that went east, down the rivers to the Black and Caspian Seas to Constantinople. Hear an interview with Robert Ferguson on this book at YouTube podcast. Part 2 of this podcast is at YouTube podcast. See a short interview with Robert Ferguson on YouTube. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

This Time is Different by Reinhart & Rogoff Sunday, August 7, 2011 This book’s full title is “This time is Different, Eight Centuries of Financial Folly”. The authors are Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff. See interviews and a review of this book at Princeton University Press. See a better review of this book at Harvard Magazine. One of the first things that these authors bring up is the trouble with bonds. Their remarks are especially true of government bonds. How governments have ended up buying their bonds debts off, if you could call it that, is by inflation. If you have inflation, the dollars government use to pay off a bond is worth less than the dollars they originally got by selling bonds. The US debt after WWII was 120% of GDP. How US “paid” off their debt from the 2nd world war was a combination of economic growth and inflation. In the current situation of little economic growth and very little inflation, you got to wonder how the US will bring down their current debt except by some hard decisions on taxes and entitlements. Interestingly, there are a few countries that never had a central government default. They are Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Thailand and the US. Europe had a lot of serial defaulter governments in the past. And some are like England, which had its last default in the 16th century, haven’t defaulted lately. There were also no defaults of central governments between 2003 and 2008, but this is far from normal. Countries, institutions and financial instruments have changed over time, but human nature does not. Financial crisis follow a rhythm of boom and bust though the ages. The recent financial crisis that originated in the US and spread across the globe is only the latest manifestation of this pattern. The think is that highly indebted governments, banks or corporations can merrily roll along for an extended period of time and then bang – confidence collapses, leaders disappear and a crisis hits. The thing is that leverage (thin capital to assets) can be fragile and subject to crisis of confidence. This book may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It can get quite technical. Most people might be better off hearing the author speak. However, for an academic paper, I found this book written quite clearly. Below, I have listed a few places where you can hear both Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff speak. See “The Anatomy of Financial Crises: A Global Perspective by Professor Carmen Reinhart” a John Hopkins lecture. See also Carmen Reinhart on Financial Crisis and Fiscal Policy at CATO Institute . See Interview with Kenneth Rogoff on "This time is different" at Jyske Global. Also see Ken Rogoff - Debts, Deficits and Global Financial Stability at INET Economics. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

The Great Reflation by Anthony Boeckh Friday, August 5, 2011 This book is fine for this type. However, personally, I liked the book “This Time is Different by Reinhart and Rogoff, better. However, Boeckh does make some interesting points. He first talks about the Kondratieff wave. This is a popular thing to talk about. What I have found is that a lot of people believe in it, but few agree to just where we are on this wave. The basic problem is that we know where we have been, but we do not know where we are. I think that the best thing that this author points out is that the current reflation going on in the US is an experiment. People thought this sort of action could have save the US from the Great Depression. However, it is all theory. No one has tried it before. He, like a lot of US analysts, feels that we are still in a secular bear market. This author does not say so, but I know that a lot of analysts feel that there will be one more downswing in the market before we start on the next secular bull market. The author provides a lot of charts going back to 1885 in the US and these are very interesting. He talks about how prior to 1960’s, lots of stocks were bought for dividends and dividend paying stocks were more prevalent. There were gradual changes to what people thought companies should do and one of the things is that, especially after 1980, companies cut their dividends and did stock repurchases instead. This was meant as a way to provide more value to taxpaying shareholders, who would have increased capital gain. This is because capital gain is taxed less. Personally, I do not think that this move worked out well for shareholders. I think partly this has to do with the fact that companies got into giving out stock options. Now, it seems that most of the stock repurchasing is to cover the stock options given out. Also, companies tend to repurchases stocks, not at market lows or when their stocks are undervalued. They do not seem to do the repurchasing at at good prices. I know a lot of people talk about the current bull market in commodities. This is because of the big demand for commodities from China and India. However, Boeckh points out that huge demand increases in commodities does not lead to rising prices in the long term. He says that the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that over long periods of time supply has risen sufficiently to sustain a powerful long term inflation adjusted decline in commodity prices as a whole. If you think back to what happened about oil prices in the 1970’s when OPEC increased prices greatly, everyone was looking for oil and they found lots of it all over the world. Another interesting thing he talks about is a long wave in Political Values. I had not heard of this before. He says that politics go from Progressive to Cosmopolitan to Conservative to Parochial. This matches up with an economy going from Expansion to Peak to Decline to Trough. John Sterman wrote a paper on this and it is available at MIT. Paper is called “An Integrated Theory of the Economic Long Wave”. For a 10 minute radio interview with Boeckh, see FinancialSense.com. Anthony Boeckh (pronounced Beck, by the way) has an investment newsletter at Boeckh Investment Letter. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA

War: The Definitive Visual Guide, DK Wednesday, August 3, 2011 The full title of this book is War: The Definitive Visual History, from Bronze-Age Battles to 21st Century Conflict. This is a DK (Dorling Kindersley) book. If you have not had or read any books from DK, you are in for a real treat. DK books are marvelous books. They are gorgeously illustrated and written clearly and beautifully. If you get the idea that I admire their books, you are very correct. I have bought their books before and have enjoyed them immensely. This may not be a subject you will enjoy. It certainly shows human’s violent side. However, we should not forget our history. History is full of battles. We should also not forget how destructive we can be. No matter how we feel about the matter, the truth is that campaigns and conflicts that have shaped world history. I certainly read this book, cover to cover. However, it is just as good as a coffee table book to browse through when you have some spare time. If you are interested in buying his book, click on the book below to get it at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. Amazon.ca, for Canada  Amazon.com, for USA