The Strong Shall Inherit the Earth
In Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, a New York Times bestseller published in 1999, the topic is no less daunting then the evolution of civilizations from the earliest pre-recorded times to the present. The premise is…
Arabian Knights and Lawrence of Arabia
It’s not quite Lawrence of Arabia, but this is a good read. If you’ve ever seen the classic film Lawrence of Arabia and wanted to know the complete, unvarnished story then you must read Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly…
Survival of the Fittest
There are three books I have read and enjoyed immensely, that share the theme of survival. These are: In the kingdom of Ice, by Hampton Sides; Into the Silence, by Wade Davis; and Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. In all three…
All the President’s Men
With Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin proves herself the mistress in the realm of history. Doris Kearns Goodwin has recently written two books on the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, which…
Book Review: Legacy of Ashes By Tim Weiner
The book, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA is Tim Weiner’s new classic standard on the history of the CIA, published in hardcover in 2007 and is 702 pages long. It’s a eye catching cover, and more important: Tim…
Margaret MacMillan and The War to End All Wars
If you haven’t read either of Margaret Macmillan’s epic works on World War I, The War That Ended Peace and Paris 1919, published in 2014 and 2003 respectively, then you are missing out on the new industry standards on the…
Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: Black Gold and Oil
Two history books I highly recommend by the author Daniel Yergin, are The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, and The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. The books were written some twenty…
Sophie’s World: Philosophy 101
What I found to be a really good read of fiction is Sophie’s World, a novel by Jostein Gaarder. It was written in 1991 and translated from its original Norwegian. The translation is a well balanced bit of writing, and…
