Before reading Steve Coll's "The Achilles Trap," I asked myself, do I really need to read another book about our Iraq and Afghanistan wars? For that bBefore reading Steve Coll's "The Achilles Trap," I asked myself, do I really need to read another book about our Iraq and Afghanistan wars? For that book, the answer was definitely a yes. For this one, it's a maybe. It collects Anderson's reportage from Afghanistan for The New Yorker over more than two decades. He's a fine writer and careful observer, but it's more of a greatest hits, than a coherent whole with the courtesy of retrospect....more
A great survey of Chinese historians and documentarians, shielded somewhat by their own current insignificance, who do their best to chronicle the horA great survey of Chinese historians and documentarians, shielded somewhat by their own current insignificance, who do their best to chronicle the horrors of Maoism, and to a lesser extent more modern times, through their work. ...more
An excellent true-crime narrative about a militia in Kansas planning to bomb a Somali refugee apartment complex in Garden City -- and the everyday herAn excellent true-crime narrative about a militia in Kansas planning to bomb a Somali refugee apartment complex in Garden City -- and the everyday hero who thwarted it....more
A true crime story in which you know the horrible ending. Marred a bit by trying to hard to tie 90s right-wing extremism to the January 6th attempted A true crime story in which you know the horrible ending. Marred a bit by trying to hard to tie 90s right-wing extremism to the January 6th attempted coup and spending too much time on McVeigh's trial. There's always a danger in giving narcissistic mass murderers more attention, even in death....more
Maybe not as revolutionary a perspective as advertised, but this book conveys the ways in which native communities were the subject of colonial US hisMaybe not as revolutionary a perspective as advertised, but this book conveys the ways in which native communities were the subject of colonial US history, not the tragic objects by which they are usually portrayed....more
Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum, Inc. Applebaum is so prolific -- books, Atlantic articles, a podcast, some mysterious post at Johns Hopkins -- thatAutocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum, Inc. Applebaum is so prolific -- books, Atlantic articles, a podcast, some mysterious post at Johns Hopkins -- that she's her own cottage industry. That's a good thing. She lays out a world where a shifting band of autocratic states have infiltrated democracies. The democracies offer little resistance and need to be roused....more
Not as great as the author's book on the Congo, but still a well researched tome on a largely forgotten era of Indonesia. While briefer, Indonesia wasNot as great as the author's book on the Congo, but still a well researched tome on a largely forgotten era of Indonesia. While briefer, Indonesia was Holland's Vietnam. Like during the Vietnam war, the locals thought they should have a say in the matter of whether they should be recolonized. The (re)occupying power engaged in torture, the murdering of civilians and duplicity -- all for naught. The new United Nations and, because of red political winds, played a huge part in Indonesia's liberation. ...more
I rarely give a book under three stars on here for the very fact that I seldom make it through books I don’t like. For instance, I was quickly able toI rarely give a book under three stars on here for the very fact that I seldom make it through books I don’t like. For instance, I was quickly able to determine that the best thing I could do for my copy of The Rape of Nanking, say, or A Visit from the Goon Squad, or The Pedagogy of the Oppressed was to speed their transition from book to coffee cup by putting them in recycling bin. Yet, somehow, I managed to get through this interminable, overwritten mess.
I love novels that take a chapter of history that was quickly forgotten or never recorded in the west and give the era and their characters life. The first strong examples that spring to mind our Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel on the Biafra War or Madison Smartt Bell’s trilogy on the Haitian Revolution. But there are many examples. A History of Burning is best when it is in Uganda and glimpses the lives of Indians there, brought over by the British before becoming a lasting community, before their expulsion by Idi Amin. The last few hundred pages are about exile. Exile is recycling and re-sorting your past, which doesn’t make particularly compelling reading.
This is a novel about finding bravery that isn’t at all brave. For example, the Indian characters at the turn of the 20th century somehow magically escape the endemic racism against Africans then. If they were racist, how could you identify with them? Moreover, a masala of tropes are thrown in from missing persons to the necessary gay character to one-dimensional xenophobic white Canadians. ...more
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