Ill Winds – Larry Diamond

The author is recognized scholar on what makes democracies thrive as well as what makes them die. The central theme of this book is that democracy is under threat around the world and that the defense and advancement of democratic governance worldwide relies heavily on global leadership by the United States. 

He makes the case that in this age of big data, the internet, and social media the very openness of liberal democracies makes them vulnerable to outside interference from authoritarian regimes. He discusses at some length the threat of subversion from Russia and China and details several such successful initiatives those two state actors have launched against not only the US but other democracies as well.

The author makes a distinction between the Russian and Chinese attitudes and objectives. While both focus on undermining confidence in democratic values and institutions their goals are not the same. He says that mostly Russia’s Putin is trying to regain standing as an equal on the world stage and is overcome with rage at the humiliation of the collapse of the Soviet Union. China’s Xi on the other hand is playing a long game pushing a national ambition for global economic and political dominance.

I actually just stumbled onto this book when I was browsing the library. The really most valuable part of it is that the author lays out what we need to do to win the war between democratic and authoritarian governance. I strongly recommend it as a contextual source of what is going on in the world today, how to re-enforce democracy, and especially how the US should relate to Russia and China.

The Shadow War – Jim Schiotto

The author makes the case with factual information and interviews with military and intelligence leaders that the US is currently in a real war with Russia and China, and at this point in time they are winning. He says this undeclared asymmetric war is the greatest danger to our national security that we face.

Since they know they cannot win a shooting war Russia and China are taking aggressive actions that are just below the level that they conclude will provoke the US to act decisively. Their goal is to weaken the US by neutralizing its military advantage and its western alliances so they can exercise much more dominance in the world community. And the more both countries get away with it the more they continue to push the envelope.

The Russian annexation of Crimea, political destabilization of Ukraine, cyber attacks on Estonia, and our own 2016 election interference are examples of this aggression. Likewise he sites the Chinese building and militarizing “islands” in the international waters of the South China Sea and their cyber theft of US military and commercial intellectual property, including detailed plans for our military C 17 cargo plane and F 35 fighter as example of this asymmetric war.

Whether you read this whole book or not you should read chapter 6. It is absolutely sobering. The author details in that chapter the extent to which both Russia and China are establishing offensive weapons in space while the US is not. He discusses how Russian or Chinese space weapons could render our military virtually paralyzed in the early stages of any conflict.

The Town That Started the Civil War – Nat Brandt

Oberlin, a small college town in northern Ohio, became a center of the national battle against the Fugitive Slave Act in 1858 and 1859. The event that created the conflict started on September 13, 1858 when an Oberlin resident, a runaway slave named John Price, was kidnapped by slave hunters with arrest warrants from Kentucky.

Oberlin, Ohio was a very socially progressive community, maybe the most progressive in the nation, in the 1840s and 1850s. It was a fully racially integrated town with a large population of African-Americans, both freemen and escaped former slaves. Men and women of both races worshiped together, dined together, studied together, and lived next door to each other in harmony.

The kidnaping of John Price mobilized virtually the entire community to recovered and free the former slave from his captors, which they succeeded in doing. The book describes the legal and political conflict that event created among local, state and federal authorities and how it all played out.

The Enemy of the People – Jim Acosta

As many people know Jim Acosta is CNN’s Chief White House correspondent. He is a seasoned professional but seen by some conservatives, especially the alt-right and the Trump Administration as too aggressive. His approach to reporting on the White House is in the style of legendary Sam Donaldson. The book reflects his observations and views of this White House, President and staff, as contrasted to others.

Virtually none of the factual information in the book is new to me. Every American has lived it the past 4 years. What is sobering though is reliving it all in its day by day chronology. When every week there is a new crisis or shock coming out of the Administration one tends to forget how often and absurd it really is. It is also easy to see how a strong reporter would naturally become confrontational in light of Trump’s prolific lying as well as the incompetence and/or dishonesty of many members of the White House staff and other Trump political surrogates. The book is well worth the read if you can stand to relive the roller coaster ride!

The Monk and the Philosopher – Jean-Francois Revel and Matthieu Ricard

The authors are father and son. The father, Revel, was an internationally known philosopher; the son, Ricard, is an internationally know Buddhist monk. The son was educated as a scientist and holds a PHD in molecular biology. But he gave up that life to become a student of Tibetan Buddhism. The book is organized as a dialog between the two of them as they discuss the meaning of life.

The book explores a range of Buddhist issues including Buddhism as a philosophy or a religion, reincarnation in the Buddhist tradition, reality, inner peace, nirvana, and a variety of other subjects at the center of Buddhist life. One of the most interesting elements for me was their comparison of Wester versus Eastern philosophical thought.

This book was recommended to me by an new friend from Sweden. It is not a new book and many of the topics I have considered before. But it is one of the few where I have reread several chapters. I recommend it for anyone who wants to open up his/her mind to explore humanity from different points of view.

The Saga of Pappy Gunn – Lieutenant General George C. Kenney

This is not a new book. It is mostly a fun read though it is a true story of one American hero of World War II. It details the life of Colonel Paul I Gunn who by most any account was a misfit in the rigid structure of the US military establishment, but nevertheless was highly successful. He fought in the Southwest Pacific as an imaginative pilot, scrounger, engineer, mechanic, and all around problem solver.

The author was Gunn’s commanding officer during the second half of the war. It is not a particularly well organized book in my opinion, but it reflects a reality that we don’t often see when generals write about people under their command.

Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration, and the Future of White Majorities – Eric Kaufmann

This book discusses the erosion of whiteness in Western countries in the face of migration and ethnic dilution patterns. The author makes the point that the rise of right wing populism is not generally about economic issues, but the real and/or perceived decline of the white ethnic majority. He talks a lot about how the left modernists, as he call them, have made it impossible for whites to openly discuss ethnic issues concerning them without being labeled racist or xenophobic.

The author uses mountains of statistical data to make the case that anti-immigration attitudes on the right are not just about foreigners taking jobs of whites or being a drain on social services as frequently suggested in the media and among politicians, but the fear of changing ethnicity. The white population fears becoming the minority.

I did not share some opinions the author offers. As an example I felt he demonstrated inadequate understanding of the uniqueness of the black/white historical relationship in the United States. That’s probably because he is Canadian. Regardless, his arguments throughout the book are well researched and he provides massive amounts of data to support his conclusions. If his research data does not overwhelm you I strongly encourage you to read the whole book. Just make sure you have plenty of time to think about the points he makes and examine his supporting graphs and charts.

Engineers of Victory – Paul Kenny

The author attempts to make the case that there was no specific turning point in World War II. He says a broad range of events, technological advances, and operational organization improvements that occurred between the beginning of 1943 and the middle of 1944 ultimately defined the outcome of the war.

The author identifies and develops the argument that five key strategic initiatives durning that period sealed the fate of the Axis Powers. He dedicates a chapter to each –  1) Getting convoys safely across the Atlantic; 2) Winning command of the air; 3) Stopping the Germain blitzkrieg strategy; 4)  Learning how to seize an enemy held shore; and 5) How to defeat the tyranny of distance in the Pacific. One of the key conclusions he draws is that the war was not won by the Generals and politicians or by the foot soldiers, but that middle level military officers, scientist, technicians, and managers led to the ultimate victory.

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama

This is one of very few books I will choose to reread. It is hard to summarize because it covers so much territory. The author discusses the struggle for identity and associated dignity from antiquity through the Trump Administration. Most of the emphasis, however, is on the past three centuries as modern liberal democracies took root and developed.

In early chapters he talks about thymos, the ancient Greek word roughly translated as soul, or at least that part which encompasses feelings of pride, dignity, shame, etc. He develops that into people’s need to feel respected and treated equally both individually and collectively.

Later he explores how that need for respect and equality plays out in social, religious, and political environments. He relates how the need for collective sense of dignity shaped national and ethnic identity. Finally he discusses how real and/or perceived inequities and indignities among subgroups of people within the world’s liberal democracies are sparking the rise of nationalist, racist, and ethnic unrest.

Reconstruction: A Concise History by Allen C. Guelzo

This was a fascinating book. It is truly concise, exactly as the title says it is – massive amounts of information in a very short volume, about 130 pages. I learned a lot of detail about Reconstruction as well as the political and social mores of the era that I did not fully appreciate before. The book is well researched with a sizable bibliography for reference. It whetted my appetite for more study of specific aspects. Because of its abbreviated nature, however, I sometimes got lost in the chronology and had to go back and reread some portions.