Some of my favorite reading

Current Columnists

Thomas Sowell

Sowell is an economist and historian. His perspective on the clash of cultures and the dangers of playing the race card are important and frightening

Michael Barone

Barone is a coauthor of the Almanac of American Politics and has a good idea of where the American people are, politically.

Books

My recent reading

Dennis Prager – Still the Best Hope

Prager discusses the American world view along with the secular and the Islamic. This is written as a calm dialogue rather than a screed. It is therefore more generally readable and builds better arguments if you are discussing the differences with others.

Jay Cost – Spoiled Rotten

An excellent history of the Democratic Party which describes how the party has put itself in a position where it has too many “clients” (i.e. special interest groups) to be able to govern in the public interest, or even focus on the major problems of the time. It walks through the roles of the interest groups in Obamacare’s enactment as well as Dodd-Frank.

Laura Hillenbrand – Unbroken

This book was described on the CBS Sunday Morning program. It is the account of an Olympic runner who was a bombardier in the Pacific in World War II. His plane went down, he survived forty-six days on a raft and two years in a prison camp. It is very well written. It is hard to put down once you start

George Gilder – The Israel Test

The Nazis helped the allies win World War II by forcing the Jews out of Germany. Gilder argues that the technological work being done by the Israelis is critical for the survival of the west. This is a good book as a political and strategic argument, but it also is eye-opening about the current state of technology.

About History

Author: Paul Johnson

Johnson is a British Catholic. He is a prolific writer and he presents a different outlook on history.

A History of the American People

An excellent account from an outsider. His discussion of the drop in the cost of cotton and the change that made in lives around the world is worth reading the whole book, but the rest is very good and often a surprising take on events.

Modern Times

This is the book that introduced me to Johnson. It covers the period from 1920 forward. It is a thorough account and makes it sadly obvious that Hitler trailed Stalin and Mao as contenders for the most vicious and destructive leader of the twentieth century – the bloodiest century in history.

A History of the Jews

This is an excellent history of the Jewish people including the attacks on them and their high (safe) and low (dangerous) periods. It gave me a different perspective on it.

Other Historians

Jacques Barzun – From Dawn to Decadence

This is a history covering the time from the Renaissance (dawn) to the modern era (decadence). It is an excellent account of all facets of society and history.

James Hannam – The Genesis of Science

Hannam is British and joins other British writers in reviewing and reconsidering the Middle Ages. They are painting a very different picture of that era. This book shows how science was progressing in the later period of the Middle Ages. It traces various developments in medicine, astronomy and other fields

“Global Warming”

Lomborg, Bjorn – Cool It!

A moderate position on global warming. He argues that while there is a risk, there are better ways to spend our resources and help the poor.