The Briefing Room
General Category => Sports/Entertainment/MSM/Social Media => Topic started by: EC on September 25, 2015, 11:39:36 am
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We all enjoy good books. Ones which entertain us for a few hours, make us think, or inform us.
But - there are a lot of good books out there and time to read tends to be one of the first things squeezed out by life, making you resent time lost to the myriad terrible ones!
So, here is a thread for making book recommendations. Any genre, of course (even poetry!) is welcome.
I would ask though, that you put down a few words about WHY you are recommending it. It makes it more personal and interesting! :laugh:
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I'll start.
I am currently about 3/4 the way through The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, by Thomas Fleming. I am fascinated by those giants among men at the best of times, so when I saw this at the library it was an automatic yes.
It is well researched and written, with a neat mixture of seriousness and gossip, focusing more on the family life (or rake's progress in Franklin's case - the guy had some serious moves!) and it just rounds them out for me.
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In no particulat order:
The Conervative Mind From Burke to Elliot
Theodore Ayrault Dodge on Hannibal, Alexander, Frederick, and Ceasar - all are good.
William Manchester The Last Lion parts 1 and 2 - not completely reliable but good reads.
Les Miserables
A Tale of Two Cities
All of these I have read multiple times so I guess I enjoyed them.
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I've been re-reading and catching up on all the Umberto Eco novels. I strongly recommend Foucault's Pendulum for anyone that likes to dive into the conspiracy world as it is a good reading on the psychology and archetypes behind conspiracies (why some people see them, why the stories about them stay consistent with varying characters, etc).
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OK, for a totally different genre, I really enjoyed Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I'm reading the last one now. Good stuff.
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I've been re-reading and catching up on all the Umberto Eco novels. I strongly recommend Foucault's Pendulum for anyone that likes to dive into the conspiracy world as it is a good reading on the psychology and archetypes behind conspiracies (why some people see them, why the stories about them stay consistent with varying characters, etc).
Foucault's Pendulum?
Yes, you are a geek! (full disclosure, I read it also).
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Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
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Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, by Pu Songling
www.taodirectory.co.uk/phocadownload/strangestoriesf00gilegoog.pdf (there are better translations, but this one is free)
The Way of Chuang Tzu (Thomas Merton translation)
http://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/MertonChuangTzu.pdf
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong
http://self.gutenberg.org/wplbn0002827913-romance_of_the_three_kingdoms-by_guanzhong__luo.aspx
Journey to the West, by Wu Chengen
http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0002827909-Journey-to-the-West-by-Cheng-en-Wu.aspx
Tale of the Heike (平家物語 Heike Monogatari)
http://library.uoregon.edu/ec/e-asia/read/heike-whole.pdf
[float=left]The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sāla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.[/float]
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"The Devil's Horsemen" by David Chambers: A highly readable book about the greatest army in history, culminating in the greatest campaign - the Mongol conquest of Russia, and the invasion of Europe in 1241.
"The Nazi Doctors" by Robert Lifton: Lays out the route from U.S eugenics through the T 4 program to the camps. Chilling yet eerily prescient about the road we're on.
"Custer Victorious": Custer's Civil War career.
"Snow and Steel": Battle of the Bulge
"The Desert Fox" by Desmond Young. First of the Rommel biographies. Should be read with the latest, "Field Marshal: The life and death of Erwin Rommel"
"The Lord of the Rings": J.R.R. Tolkien
Anything by H.P Lovecraft and/ or Robert E. Howard
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Latest books read, in no particular order:
Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires---The absolute best history I have ever read about the Five Families of New York and the manner in which official and unofficial America did or didn't deal with the Mafia. (Including, among other things, just why J. Edgar Hoover---when it came to the Mafia---had his head so far up his ass he could give you the play by play of his own root canal procedure.)
Peter Guralnick, Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll; How One Man Discovered Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, and How His Tiny Label Sun Records of Memphis Revolutionised the World---The complete story of Phillips and his legend, and some intriguing commentary on some of his musical discoveries including one of the most poignant looks at Phillips's relationship with Howlin' Wolf---and, of Wolf's early life---you'll ever read.
Peggy Noonan, The Time of Our Lives---a terrific collection of her Wall Street Journal columns and other writings.
Dennis McNally, Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom---As told well by way of such stories as those of Bessie Smith, Charlie Patton, Buddy Bolden (legendary jazz trumpeter), Robert Johnson, the Austin High Gang (a group of young Chicago musicians who went jazz nuts in their teen years; Benny Goodman was only the most famous of the group), Louis Jordan, Miles Davis, Jack Kerouac, Elvis, Bob Dylan, and others. (Note: Among other things their common threads included having been born and reared in places adjacent to Highway 61.)
Charles C.W. Cooke, The Conservatarian Manifesto---You could consider this a contemporary application of the former rightward fusionism most upheld and argued by National Review legend Frank Meyer (in In Defense of Liberty and the columns that made up Meyer's splendid lost anthology The Conservative Mainstream) and, more recently, Ryan Sager (in The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party).
Paul Trynka, Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones---The Stones themselves and assorted historiographers have often tried to downplay the role of the band's founder and best musician; this biography restores Jones's place and debunks a small volume of the Stones' mythology. (Hint: it only begins with the fallacy that Keith Richards first got hip to open guitar tunings by way of Ry Cooder.) It affirms Jones could be (and often was) his own worst enemy, but it also affirms that Jones's early music passion---and push to form the Stones in the first place after making a small rep of his own around the Cheltenham and London clubs---had as much to do with the foundation of British blues as any other's.)
Bob Woodward, The Last of the President's Men---As in, Alexander Butterfield, the man who installed and later revealed the Nixon White House taping system, then served as chief of the FAA until Gerald Ford asked him to resign.
F.H. Buckley, The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America---Argues very persuasively against Americans' apparent hunger for a kind of "elected monarch" as president: We have now entered into a fourth constitution, one of strong presidential government. The executive has slipped off many of the constraints of the separation of powers. The president makes and unmakes laws without the consent of Congress and spends trillions of government dollars; and the greatest of decisions---whether to commit his country to war---is made by him alone . . . He is rex quondam, rex futurus---the once and future king. And, as the author notes, it didn't begin with Obama.
Frances Wilson, How to Survive the Titanic; or, The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay---Retelling the disaster by way of the enigmatic Ismay's story . . . including the real reason, which Ismay himself couldn't bring himself to disclose at official inquiries, he ended up in one of the lifeboats. (Hint: it actually had nothing to do with any kind of cowardice.)
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I would highly recommend William Manchester's three volume bio of Winston Churchill "The Last Lion" which I finished last year. Churchill was one of the most remarkable men in history. Among other things Manchester provides some interesting info about Churchill's role in the Gallipoli disaster of WWI which exculpates him from much of the blame. Churchill was not in complete control of the operation, and lesser lights doomed it. But Churchill took all the blame.
Another book I found very interesting was Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism." Goldberg, like his columns, is always humorous. But he accurately dissects the liberal movement for more than a century with fascism as its basic impetus.
Every conservative should read Hayek's "The Road To Serfdom." I've yet to read Goldwaters's "Conscience of a Conservative" or Buckley's "Up From Liberalism," but I'll bet they're both good reads.
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Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans.
http://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068?ie=UTF8&keywords=blacklisted%20by%20history&qid=1464226543&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
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Jim Butcher's Dresden Files are my favorite guilty pleasure.
He has a great sense of humor, keeps it entertaining, and ties things together throughout the course of the series.
As a side note, James Marsters' narration of the Audible version is amazing.
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Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans.
http://www.amazon.com/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068?ie=UTF8&keywords=blacklisted%20by%20history&qid=1464226543&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
That is a very good book.
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That is a very good book.
Yes it is and an essential read for anyone interested in the truth about 20th century American history.
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Yes it is and an essential read for anyone interested in the truth about 20th century American history.
McCarthy wasn't perfect. Sometimes he went off in the wrong direction. But he was far more right than wrong.
The biggest truth of McCarthy's quest, the amount of communist influence in government, is usually ignored or scorned by the usual sources....the lib media.
The facts are during the Roosevelt and into the Truman admin many subversive people were allowed into the fed. gov to influence policy. There were probably more Alger Hisses out there than were revealed.
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Kids gave me a full set of Watchmen.
It's .... interesting. A hell of a lot more thoughtful than the movie.
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McCarthy wasn't perfect. Sometimes he went off in the wrong direction. But he was far more right than wrong.
McCarthy was FAR from perfect and his imperfections were used against him with great skill!
The biggest truth of McCarthy's quest, the amount of communist influence in government, is usually ignored or scorned by the usual sources....the lib media.
The facts are during the Roosevelt and into the Truman admin many subversive people were allowed into the fed. gov to influence policy. There were probably more Alger Hisses out there than were revealed.
And we are still suffering mightily for that to this very day! Especially so in the U. S. Department of State. The Soviet Union would have fallen apart under it's own weight LONG before it did without the influence of people like Walter Durante, Armand Hammer and his bought and paid for U.S. Senator Albert Gore Sr., and a great many others.
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I really enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey. There's an omnibus edition through Amazon and I think now a "graphic novel" which I have not seen. This is the sci-fi/fantasy genre. The premise being that some kind of destruction has happened on the earth's surface and people now live in a big underground facility. People are assigned jobs to keep the place running. There is a camera system to the outside with a big monitor in the top story of the facility so people inside can see how horrible the outside is. The punishment for committing a crime is to be suited up and sent outside with a ball of wool to clean the lens of the camera; the suit will protect them only temporarily from the outside elements and they end up dying. Someone that gets sent outside finds out that things aren't what they've been told they are.
I also like Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. Another fantasy genre. It's the story, told by the man, of his youth, growing up in a traveling troupe of musicians/actors, being made an orphan by some mysterious creatures who killed everyone in his troupe except him and his life's mission to get revenge on the killers.
And my third recommendation is The Remaining series by DJ Molles. Another fantasy/end of the world type novel. A flu/vaccine combination is mutating people. The lead character is a man who was contracted by the US gov't to help re-establish civilization in the event of some extinction event. He has counterparts in each state with the same mission. After losing complete contact with his gov't contacts after receiving the alert to bunker-down, he makes the mistake of leaving his bunker a few days earlier than the protocol and, although carrying out his original mission, is considered to have gone rogue by whatever gov't is left.
Please don't judge the books based on my pathetic description of them! :)
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I have to admit I read for mindless entertainment. I don't like non-fiction for the most part as I tend to live that on a daily basis so would rather read for enjoyment. Typically I lean toward Fantasy having started with Tolkien when I was about 12. I read the entire Lord of the Rings series, including the Hobbit, every Independence Day weekend from 1976 through about 1984 (I missed 1985 due to a field exercise in the Army and broke the habit). Now my yearly read is the Harry Potter series as I've grown to like less dark fiction in my older years. I've also done most of the Rick Riordan young adult Fantasy Books. It's nice that I can connect with my 4 nieces as they all tend to read the same things.
I started reading Michael Connelly about 2 years ago and have finished all of his Harry Bosch/Lincoln Lawyer books. We also watched the Amazon TV Bosch Series over the last week (Seasons 1 and 2) and enjoyed those. They take plot lines from a couple of the books and make a season out of them. I'm probably going to start over on his series as well.
I've had people ask me how I can read the same book over again since I already know what happens. My response is "have you ever seen the same movie twice?" The question is typically asked by someone I glean isn't a big reader to begin with and doesn't feel there is any effort needed in watching a film.
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I'm reading a new 964 page biography by Jan Swafford called Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph that is both thorough and fascinating.
Anyone interested??
Anyone???? ^-^
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I'm reading a new 964 page biography by Jan Swafford called Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph that is both thorough and fascinating.
Anyone interested??
Anyone???? ^-^
I have not yet ventured into the realm of Composer biographies. Perhaps I should.
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I've just started reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008TRU7SQ/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title#navbar) by Richard Rhodes.
It's not my usual genre, to be honest, but so far I'm a fan.
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I have not yet ventured into the realm of Composer biographies. Perhaps I should.
The author is a composer, so there's a lot of musical analysis. If you know the works, it's clear. If not, skim. ^-^
But the personal information, the letters and notes Beethoven wrote, the Heilegenstat Testament, his anguish, his multiple physical maladies, his deeply emotional personality, his "raptus"....where he went into almost a trance and composed, the tremendous resolve in spite of his deafness....... it's just remarkable.
He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and in spite of the warts, he's one of the most amazing and admirable people who ever walked the face of the earth.
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Just heading into the last chapter of "A Time For Truth" by Ted Cruz.
I'm angrier at the whole political system than I was before.
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The author is a composer, so there's a lot of musical analysis. If you know the works, it's clear. If not, skim. ^-^
But the personal information, the letters and notes Beethoven wrote, the Heilegenstat Testament, his anguish, his multiple physical maladies, his deeply emotional personality, his "raptus"....where he went into almost a trance and composed, the tremendous resolve in spite of his deafness....... it's just remarkable.
He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and in spite of the warts, he's one of the most amazing and admirable people who ever walked the face of the earth.
History is filled with amazing people but most know only about the Kardashians!
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History is filled with amazing people but most know only about the Kardashians!
My grandfather handed me the Chuck Yeager autobiography probably more than 30 years ago. Even as a teenager I couldn't put it down.
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My grandfather handed me the Chuck Yeager autobiography probably more than 30 years ago. Even as a teenager I couldn't put it down.
Here's a list of some pretty amazing people from just one short period in our history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Medal_of_Honor_recipients_for_the_Vietnam_War
Most people know very little to nothing at all about most of them! Why is that?
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History is filled with amazing people but most know only about the Kardashians!
Eric Metaxas' books Amazing Grace about William Wilberforce, and Bonhoeffer about, well, Bonhoeffer ^-^ are two of the best biographies I've read.
Both remarkable, strong men who stood up again evil forces.
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Eric Metaxas' books Amazing Grace about William Wilberforce, and Bonhoeffer about, well, Bonhoeffer ^-^ are two of the best biographies I've read.
Both remarkable, strong men who stood up again evil forces.
I agree on both!
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/19/52/701952b12876f2d3eec2d8edbd2a3fbf.jpg)
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Here's a list of some pretty amazing people from just one short period in our history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Medal_of_Honor_recipients_for_the_Vietnam_War
Most people know very little to nothing at all about most of them! Why is that?
I may be a high school drop out but I was an avid reader even as a problem teenager. I loved science fiction but I also loved true stories like "5 years to Freedom" by Nick Rowe. I read several first person accounts by Green Berets, Navy Seals and Army Rangers in Vietnam.
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I may be a high school drop out but I was an avid reader even as a problem teenager. I loved science fiction but I also loved true stories like "5 years to Freedom" by Nick Rowe. I read several first person accounts by Green Berets, Navy Seals and Army Rangers in Vietnam.
The biggest FRAUD ever perpetuated is the idea that one can only become educated by sitting in a classroom somewhere! Knowledge is free to anyone who seeks it and WANTS to know! Especially so today!
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Here's a list of some pretty amazing people from just one short period in our history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Medal_of_Honor_recipients_for_the_Vietnam_War
Most people know very little to nothing at all about most of them! Why is that?
He graduated a few years in front of me, but I went to the same high school as Gary Wetzel. It was a big deal in my (then) small town.
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I'm reading a new 964 page biography by Jan Swafford called Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph that is both thorough and fascinating.
Anyone interested??
Anyone???? ^-^
I'm putting it on my to-read list!
Meanwhile, here are some music-related books I've read in the past year . . .
Peter Guralnick, Sam Phillips
Mark Ribowsky, Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul
Fred Goldman, Allen Klein
Tommy James, Me and the Mob and the Music (Tommy James & the Shondells recorded for the label owned by
perhaps the single most corrupt/crooked man in the history of the music business, Morris Levy, who strong-
armed several labels out of even thinking about signing the Shondells when those kids had an unexpected
regional hit with a little number called "Hanky Panky." The irony: Corrupt though he was, Levy gave his label's
artists complete artistic freedom. Go figure . . .)
Timothy O'Brien and David Ensminger, Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin' Hopkins
Joel Selvin, Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues
Darlene Love, My Name is Love
Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Michael Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues
John Glatt, Live at the Fillmore East & West
Dave Marsh, Louie, Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n' Roll Song;
Including the Full Details of Its Torture and Persecution at the Hands of the Kingsmen, J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI, and a Cast of Millions; and Introducing, for the First Time Anywhere,
the Actual Dirty Lyrics (I could be wrong, but this may be the only book ever written
about a single song . . .)
William Bunch, Jukebox America: Down Back Streets and Blue Highways in Search of the Country's Greatest Jukebox
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He graduated a few years in front of me, but I went to the same high school as Gary Wetzel. It was a big deal in my (then) small town.
It should be a big deal in all America IMHO!
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It should be a big deal in all America IMHO!
:patriot:
And...
Amen!
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I just started reading:
Lee: The Last Years
by Charles Bracelen Flood
It opens with Lee's final battle and surrender at Appomattox. From there, it explores his return to Richmond and his post-war efforts to help the nation heal. I am about 80 pages in. Good read so far.
A colleague has recommended a WWII Trilogy (North Africa and Europe) by Rick Atkinson.
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945
Has anyone any page-turning experience with these?
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I just started reading:
Lee: The Last Years
by Charles Bracelen Flood
It opens with Lee's final battle and surrender at Appomattox. From there, it explores his return to Richmond and his post-war efforts to help the nation heal. I am about 80 pages in. Good read so far.
A colleague has recommended a WWII Trilogy (North Africa and Europe) by Rick Atkinson.
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945
Has anyone any page-turning experience with these?
@Lando Lincoln
Lando...what was the title..again...of that book to which you referred...something about Lion's Den....something to do with living in pre-WWII Germany and Hitiler's rise to power...
I forgot and can't locate it. :laugh:
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Typically I lean toward Fantasy having started with Tolkien when I was about 12.
The best thing I have ever read in that genre, outside of Tolkien, is 'Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever' series by Donaldson... It's two trilogies, IIRC, about 300/500 pages per book, and is a pretty well fleshed out tale. Kinda sword and sorcery, serious mind-bender. This is one of my favorite all-time books of any kind.
Other favorites in this genre:
The Pelbar Cycle by Williams (somewhere around 6 books c.200/pgs) Really good post-apocalypse, easy reading
The Belgariad by Eddings (5 books c.300/pgs) kinda predictable sword and sorcery... well written, easy reading.
Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey trilogy, 200+pgs each - Off-world... not what you'd think... easy reading
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@Lando Lincoln
Lando...what was the title..again...of that book to which you referred...something about Lion's Den....something to do with living in pre-WWII Germany and Hitiler's rise to power...
I forgot and can't locate it. :laugh:
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
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I'm putting it on my to-read list!
Meanwhile, here are some music-related books I've read in the past year . . .
Peter Guralnick, Sam Phillips
Mark Ribowsky, Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul
Fred Goldman, Allen Klein
Tommy James, Me and the Mob and the Music (Tommy James & the Shondells recorded for the label owned by
perhaps the single most corrupt/crooked man in the history of the music business, Morris Levy, who strong-
armed several labels out of even thinking about signing the Shondells when those kids had an unexpected
regional hit with a little number called "Hanky Panky." The irony: Corrupt though he was, Levy gave his label's
artists complete artistic freedom. Go figure . . .)
Timothy O'Brien and David Ensminger, Mojo Hand: The Life and Music of Lightnin' Hopkins
Joel Selvin, Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues
Darlene Love, My Name is Love
Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Michael Bloomfield: If You Love These Blues
John Glatt, Live at the Fillmore East & West
Dave Marsh, Louie, Louie: The History and Mythology of the World's Most Famous Rock 'n' Roll Song;
Including the Full Details of Its Torture and Persecution at the Hands of the Kingsmen, J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI, and a Cast of Millions; and Introducing, for the First Time Anywhere,
the Actual Dirty Lyrics (I could be wrong, but this may be the only book ever written
about a single song . . .)
William Bunch, Jukebox America: Down Back Streets and Blue Highways in Search of the Country's Greatest Jukebox
Wow. You are voracious!
Looks like some fine recommendations there! :beer:
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Here is another essential read for anyone interested in knowing the truth about what has happened to our country.
https://www.amazon.com/Dupes-Americas-Adversaries-Manipulated-Progressives/dp/1935191756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470849177&sr=8-1&keywords=dupes
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ktqEE-0aL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
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In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Thank you.
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The Language of The Third Reich is a good one by Victor Klemperer.
In the book he details how the Nazis changed the German language as a means of manipulating the German people into accepting nazi goals.
Klemperer was interesting in the sense that he was a Jew married to a respected German aristocrat and was allowed to remain "free" as long as he remained out of sight. He and his wife fled Germany during allied bombing.
I believe composer Otto Klemperer was his uncle and actor Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink on Hogan's Heroes) was his cousin.
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The author is a composer, so there's a lot of musical analysis. If you know the works, it's clear. If not, skim. ^-^
But the personal information, the letters and notes Beethoven wrote, the Heilegenstat Testament, his anguish, his multiple physical maladies, his deeply emotional personality, his "raptus"....where he went into almost a trance and composed, the tremendous resolve in spite of his deafness....... it's just remarkable.
He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and in spite of the warts, he's one of the most amazing and admirable people who ever walked the face of the earth.
@musiclady I'll add this to my list. Have you read Music in 1853: the biography of a year? It came out a few years ago and I found it very enjoyable. The author, who isn't a music scholar, took a different approach to a biography by focusing on interactions and pivot points in music history in Europe in that year. It was great to read about the intersections of the Schumanns, Wagner, Liszt, and a young Brahms.
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@musiclady I'll add this to my list. Have you read Music in 1853: the biography of a year? It came out a few years ago and I found it very enjoyable. The author, who isn't a music scholar, took a different approach to a biography by focusing on interactions and pivot points in music history in Europe in that year. It was great to read about the intersections of the Schumanns, Wagner, Liszt, and a young Brahms.
Ooooo........... that sounds fascinating @Bunny Watson! I have always been intrigued by the relationship of the Schumanns and Brahms and adding Liszt and Wagner to the mix has got to be amazing!
Thanks for the recommendation.
Still working my way through the Beethoven. He's 50 now and near the end. What a remarkable genius, and all around crazy guy he was! I love him now more than ever! ^-^
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Ooooo........... that sounds fascinating @Bunny Watson! I have always been intrigued by the relationship of the Schumanns and Brahms and adding Liszt and Wagner to the mix has got to be amazing!
Thanks for the recommendation.
Still working my way through the Beethoven. He's 50 now and near the end. What a remarkable genius, and all around crazy guy he was! I love him now more than ever! ^-^
I hope you like it! It was a really quick and pleasant read. Now that I've abandoned musicology, I find that I generally prefer non-musicological writers of music history.
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I hope you like it! It was a really quick and pleasant read. Now that I've abandoned musicology, I find that I generally prefer non-musicological writers of music history.
Quick and pleasant sounds a lot better than 950 pages of scholarship! ^-^
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Picked up a Kindle version of a good old fashioned Sci Fi/Zombie Apocalypse book. A Time To Die by Mark Wandrey. Runner up for the 2016 Dragon Award (best Sci Fi book).
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Die-Mark-Wandrey-ebook/dp/B01GGHJ1VY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
For a zombie book, so far, the attention to detail is really good, plus a fun read. Kind of a cross between Bracken's EFAD and Maximum Overdrive (you'll get it when you read it).
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I have thoroughly enjoyed The Stormlight Archive (Book 1 - The Way of Kings, Book 2 - Words of Radiance) by Brandon Sanderson
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Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, by Steve Coll. The authoritative work in my book.
C O D E: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. Shows you how computers work, from the most basic circuitry on up. Starts with a simple telegraph switch and a light bulb and builds from there. Fascinating read for any science geek.
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Larry Niven - Ringworld, A Gift from Earth, The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton
Larry Niven/ Jerry Pournelle - Footfall, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer
John Ringo - The Last Centurion, Under A Graveyard Sky, Into the Looking Glass, Ghost
Robert Conroy - 1901, 1862
Taylor Anderson - Into The Storm
Robert Heinlein - Time Enough for Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land
H. Beam Piper - Little Fuzzy, Space Viking,
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I just started reading Churchill's six volume set of WW II.
My dad left it to me. I feel honored (or should I write "honoured") to read it.
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Just started reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, a story of Lewis and Clark, in preparation for my husband's and my trip up the Lewis and Clark Trail next summer (NOT in canoes!).
He's reading The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto.
It's remarkable to read of the courage and intrepid nature of those who forged this great nation.
@Idaho_Cowboy @Smokin Joe
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Just started reading Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, a story of Lewis and Clark, in preparation for my husband's and my trip up the Oregon Trail next summer (NOT in canoes!).
He's reading The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited by Bernard DeVoto.
It's remarkable to read of the courage and intrepid nature of those who forged this great nation.
@Idaho_Cowboy @Smokin Joe
Tremendous and intrepid souls, indeed! Another book I'd recommend: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing and Nathaniel Philbrick--another incredible story, but I'd think twice before following in their footsteps!!
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I really enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey. There's an omnibus edition through Amazon and I think now a "graphic novel" which I have not seen. This is the sci-fi/fantasy genre. The premise being that some kind of destruction has happened on the earth's surface and people now live in a big underground facility. People are assigned jobs to keep the place running. There is a camera system to the outside with a big monitor in the top story of the facility so people inside can see how horrible the outside is. The punishment for committing a crime is to be suited up and sent outside with a ball of wool to clean the lens of the camera; the suit will protect them only temporarily from the outside elements and they end up dying. Someone that gets sent outside finds out that things aren't what they've been told they are.
I also like Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. Another fantasy genre. It's the story, told by the man, of his youth, growing up in a traveling troupe of musicians/actors, being made an orphan by some mysterious creatures who killed everyone in his troupe except him and his life's mission to get revenge on the killers.
And my third recommendation is The Remaining series by DJ Molles. Another fantasy/end of the world type novel. A flu/vaccine combination is mutating people. The lead character is a man who was contracted by the US gov't to help re-establish civilization in the event of some extinction event. He has counterparts in each state with the same mission. After losing complete contact with his gov't contacts after receiving the alert to bunker-down, he makes the mistake of leaving his bunker a few days earlier than the protocol and, although carrying out his original mission, is considered to have gone rogue by whatever gov't is left.
Please don't judge the books based on my pathetic description of them! :)
Wool sounds interesting to me. But then I have been a fan of dystopian futures since I read The Time Machine in grade school.
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The author is a composer, so there's a lot of musical analysis. If you know the works, it's clear. If not, skim. ^-^
But the personal information, the letters and notes Beethoven wrote, the Heilegenstat Testament, his anguish, his multiple physical maladies, his deeply emotional personality, his "raptus"....where he went into almost a trance and composed, the tremendous resolve in spite of his deafness....... it's just remarkable.
He's been a hero of mine since I was 13 years old, and in spite of the warts, he's one of the most amazing and admirable people who ever walked the face of the earth.
Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a lot more interesting.
It is odd that we live in a time when everyone not already considered "normal" is counseled, medicated, browbeaten (or worse) for being different, even as "diversity" is allegedly "celebrated".
Yet almost no one who achieved tremendous advances in art, science, music, or any field requiring passion or dedication to truly excel has ever been what we would consider 'normal', whether they are able to function in the 'normal' world or not. Almost all have their drives, their passions, their moments of torment, and their obsessions, or they would never achieve the things they do.
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Here's a list of some pretty amazing people from just one short period in our history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Medal_of_Honor_recipients_for_the_Vietnam_War
Most people know very little to nothing at all about most of them! Why is that?
Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either. Audie Murphy, some do, some don't, but few under 40.
We used to celebrate our heroes from wartime, those who demonstrated courage, honor, valor, and above and beyond the call of duty an often self sacrificing love for their brothers (and sisters) at arms.
Now someone is called courageous if they say they are a homosexual
A 'Hero' for bouncing a ball,
or profoundly honored for a few lines of bad poetry,
and valor is a concept left on the sidelines in all but a very few lines of work, where it is practiced routinely.
It's hard to use terms like "courage", 'Heroism", and "honor" to describe the mundane if there are real heroes around. Those accolades, lightly applied, pale in comparison to those earned in combat, burning buildings, enforcing the law, or other situations which can, and too often do, cost the person the life they lay on the line for others.
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The biggest FRAUD ever perpetuated is the idea that one can only become educated by sitting in a classroom somewhere! Knowledge is free to anyone who seeks it and WANTS to know! Especially so today!
Anymore, the fraud is becoming that one can become educated by sitting in a classroom.
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Picked up a Kindle version of a good old fashioned Sci Fi/Zombie Apocalypse book. A Time To Die by Mark Wandrey. Runner up for the 2016 Dragon Award (best Sci Fi book).
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Die-Mark-Wandrey-ebook/dp/B01GGHJ1VY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
For a zombie book, so far, the attention to detail is really good, plus a fun read. Kind of a cross between Bracken's EFAD and Maximum Overdrive (you'll get it when you read it).
That sounds good. I'll have to read it when I get another kindle. (One of my granddaughters borrowed mine and it never made it home).
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That sounds good. I'll have to read it when I get another kindle. (One of my granddaughters borrowed mine and it never made it home).
It's a good investment in your granddaughter. ^-^
(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6nmlmdgtZ1r5akqdo1_500.jpg)
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Anymore, the fraud is becoming that one can become educated by sitting in a classroom.
This is VERY true! :beer:
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Well, when you put it that way, it sounds a lot more interesting.
It is odd that we live in a time when everyone not already considered "normal" is counseled, medicated, browbeaten (or worse) for being different, even as "diversity" is allegedly "celebrated".
Yet almost no one who achieved tremendous advances in art, science, music, or any field requiring passion or dedication to truly excel has ever been what we would consider 'normal', whether they are able to function in the 'normal' world or not. Almost all have their drives, their passions, their moments of torment, and their obsessions, or they would never achieve the things they do.
Many people in Vienna thought Beethoven was a mad man, looking homeless and disheveled, walking around beating the air and humming. He was a social misfit, who most certainly would be medicated now to 'calm him down.' (Perhaps that's why there haven't been any musical geniuses for awhile...).
But let's back up a bit. If you know about Beethoven's parents and his background, it's just as likely now days that he would have been aborted. Disease, alcoholism, not much hope for the future......
And I wonder how many in this generation who would have made a positive difference in this world have never had the chance to breathe their first breath because they weren't going to live a 'happy' life?
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And I wonder how many in this generation who would have made a positive difference in this world have never had the chance to breathe their first breath because they weren't going to live a 'happy' life?
@musiclady
This is what happens when a culture trusts its own sanctimony more than Almighty God. When humans make predictions predicated on what they think creates happiness, they often eliminate or reject the very persons and things which The Almighty, in His Wisdom, put here to teach us, to enlighten us, and to bring us joy. Who knows what miseries might have been alleviated but for the slaughter?
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@musiclady
This is what happens when a culture trusts its own sanctimony more than Almighty God. When humans make predictions predicated on what they think creates happiness, they often eliminate or reject the very persons and things which The Almighty, in His Wisdom, put here to teach us, to enlighten us, and to bring us joy. Who knows what miseries might have been alleviated but for the slaughter?
Amen!
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Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either. Audie Murphy, some do, some don't, but few under 40.
We used to celebrate our heroes from wartime, those who demonstrated courage, honor, valor, and above and beyond the call of duty an often self sacrificing love for their brothers (and sisters) at arms.
Now someone is called courageous if they say they are a homosexual
A 'Hero' for bouncing a ball,
or profoundly honored for a few lines of bad poetry,
and valor is a concept left on the sidelines in all but a very few lines of work, where it is practiced routinely.
It's hard to use terms like "courage", 'Heroism", and "honor" to describe the mundane if there are real heroes around. Those accolades, lightly applied, pale in comparison to those earned in combat, burning buildings, enforcing the law, or other situations which can, and too often do, cost the person the life they lay on the line for others.
Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.
If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions.
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312
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Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.
If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions.
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
I am gradually rebuilding my library.
Rickenbacker remains one of my heroes, not just for his flying, but during the time in the Pacific they were adrift in life rafts, and his survival after a (civilian) plane crash later in life.
Others can be found at http://homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/index4.html (http://homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/index4.html)
and another favorite from the era:
http://homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/2_luke.html (http://homeofheroes.com/wings/part1/2_luke.html)
http://acepilots.com/wwi/us_luke.html (http://acepilots.com/wwi/us_luke.html)
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Most people don't know who Eddie Rickenbacker was, either.
The day Rickenbacker left for good in 1963 (his only mistake: underestimating the appeal and success of jets at first)
was the day Eastern Air Lines' death warrant was signed, even if it took almost thirty years to put the corpse in its grave . . .
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(http://brandedskies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/eal1962.jpg)
(http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac3/Airline/Eastern%20Air%20Lines%20L1049.jpg)
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Eddie Rickenbacker was one of my heroes since I was a kid, so was Bud Anderson. I have a copy of Unbroken and after seeing the movie I haven't worked up the heart to read it just yet, but it's on my list.
If your looking for stories of true Heroism. Fight On is a great collection of short stories that will put hair on your chest. I like to read one a day with my Bible devotions.
https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Collection-Stories-Persevered-Hardship/dp/1942603312
Wasn't Bud Anderson the kid in Father Knows Best? :smokin:
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Just finished this:
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Next up:
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Here is another essential read for anyone interested in knowing the truth about what has happened to our country.
https://www.amazon.com/Dupes-Americas-Adversaries-Manipulated-Progressives/dp/1935191756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470849177&sr=8-1&keywords=dupes
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41ktqEE-0aL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Just ordered it, Thanks @Bigun
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Just ordered it, Thanks @Bigun
@corbe
You are very welcome and I assure you that you will not be disappointed!
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I've read Prof. Kengor before, God and Ronald Reagan, but it's been years and apparently I gave the book to someone cause I can't find it now.
Thanks again @Bigun.
Were you the one that recommended this to the forum months ago, another great, but to short, read?
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I've read Prof. Kengor before, God and Ronald Reagan, but it's been years and apparently I gave the book to someone cause I can't find it now.
Thanks again @Bigun.
Were you the one that recommended this to the forum months ago, another great, but to short, read?
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516L74bONQL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Could be! I have it in my library and it IS a great book!
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It's not really political, but I read a great book called "The creation of Anne Boleyn". I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the second wife of Henry VIII
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Just finished this:
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Next up:
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The Churchill book looks good. Thank you, @corbe
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I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance.
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck. ... From his website (http://www.jdvance.com/hillbilly-elegy.html)
I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley). Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review (https://newrepublic.com/article/138717/jd-vance-false-prophet-blue-america)published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.
However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."
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I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance. I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley). Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review (https://newrepublic.com/article/138717/jd-vance-false-prophet-blue-america)published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.
However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."
@mountaineer
A friend asked me the other day why I had stopped writing. I responded thusly; "Hell man! I can barely find the time to read all that needs reading! Where am I supposed to find the time to write anything?"
Your suggestion has added to my to do list! Sounds like an EXCELLENT read!
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In posting about Hillbilly Elegy, I just realized it was due back yesterday to the library. Oh well.
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I just read "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance. I saw so much of my own county in it, even though our part of W.Va. is not entirely in the Appalachian hillbilly region, geographically (more of the industrial Ohio Valley). Vance is a contributor to National Review. I had to laugh out loud at the negative review (https://newrepublic.com/article/138717/jd-vance-false-prophet-blue-america)published in leftist rag New Republic. They certainly don't want to accept that the welfare state that started under FDR has destroyed what used to be a hard-working people.
However, the NYT reviewer said, "Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has inadvertently provided a civilized reference guide for an uncivilized election, and he's done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both Democrats and Republicans…Whether you agree with Mr. Vance or not, you must admire him for his head-on confrontation with a taboo subject. And he frames his critique generously, stipulating that it isn't laziness that's destroying hillbilly culture but what the psychologist Martin Seligman calls "learned helplessness"—the fatalistic belief, born of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your lot."
So, what did you think, @mountaineer? I've got this on my list to read. Is it worth it?
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So, what did you think, @mountaineer? I've got this on my list to read. Is it worth it?
Absolutely, especially if you have even the slightest familiarity with the region. Vance's family originally was from a "holler" in Kentucky. His grandparents moved to Middletown, Ohio, for the factory work after WWII (as did many hillbillies), and he recounts how they brought their hillbilly ways up north with them - and how it's been carried down through the generations, which he ties in with the welfare mentality and drug abuse that are so common among them today.
Much of the commentary you can find about the book relates to how these folks went from being die-hard union-supporting Democrats to voting for Bush - to some extent - and for Trump overwhelmingly. But it's really much more than this. Even read as just an autobiography, it shows how young Vance's life was shaped and almost pre-ordained by the hillbilly culture.
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@mountaineer, OK, I will go ahead and download it then. .
I've been trying to understand poverty, and thought that since this one was closer to my background than some other pockets of persistent and durable poverty might be it might be informative. And, I've spent some time in the Appalachians. Love the land there; don't quite understand the culture.
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The book really describes much of white southern culture, not just KY and WV, in my opinion. For all I know, it also may explain much of black culture.
As soon as I returned it to the library (darned 10 cent fine!!), I heard a staff member calling the next guy on the waiting list that he could come get it, so it's getting a lot of attention here. I checked out a book about the Battle of the Bulge, as a good friend who was like a second father to my husband and who died in 2015 lost his arm there. Will advise if it's any good.
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Know I recommended this to @Bigun - didn't realize I hadn't made a general recommendation:
The Sixteen - John Urwin
It's worth the read - if you still have any illusions. :tongue2:
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Know I recommended this to @Bigun - didn't realize I hadn't made a general recommendation:
The Sixteen - John Urwin
It's worth the read - if you still have any illusions. :tongue2:
Bought it! Read it and agree that it was worth the read!
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I'm about halfway through a very good book on World War II: "Those Who Hold Bastogne: The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge," by Peter Schrijvers. He provides a readable chronological narrative, with first-hand accounts from soldiers from both sides as well as the civilians caught in the crossfire.
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Just starting 'DUPES' now, great read, so far.
This looks interesting.
The American Founders Knew A Virtuous Republic Requires Virtuous People
Incredibly, it has become controversial to argue the founding founders supported natural rights and the need to cultivate moral citizenry. In the 'The Political Theory of the American Founding,' Thomas G. West offers a convincing and necessary corrective to modern scholarship.
Mike Sabo
By Mike Sabo
April 28, 2017
“Does this nation in its maturity still cherish the faith in which it was conceived and raised? Does it still hold those ‘truths to be self-evident’?”
This is the pivotal question the political philosopher Leo Strauss raised in the opening pages of his most well-known book, Natural Right and History. Quoting part of the famous second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Strauss implied that the knowledge of founding principles and continued belief in their truth were vital to the success of the American experiment in self-government.
But if recent findings are any indication, Americans’ acquaintance with the founders’ principles and practices seems to be at a nadir. According to a report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a majority of college graduates can’t recall “the substance of the First Amendment, or the origin of the separation of powers.” Perhaps most alarmingly, “nearly 10% say that Judith Sheindlin—‘Judge Judy’—is on the Supreme Court.” A big part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that of the 1,100 “liberal arts colleges and universities” surveyed, just “18%” require students to take a course on American history or government before graduation.
Though certainly more classes and study are necessary to correct these glaring deficiencies, scholar Thomas G. West suggests that the problems go much deeper. While professors are undoubtedly intelligent, he argues that their views on America—especially regarding our nation’s founding—have some serious flaws.
Truth Above All
In his new book The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom, West sets out to remedy this problem. West, professor of politics at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, gives a comprehensive overview of the founders’ political theory and the intricate web of policies that flowed from those principles. (For what it’s worth, I am former student of West.) This sober and deeply learned work represents the culmination of decades of serious study and reflection on the American founding. And it might just be the best book ever written on the subject.
In his previous book Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, West defended the founders’ natural law and natural rights principles and controversial policies from historians and public intellectuals, liberals and conservatives who have attacked them as controversial according to contemporary standards. But as West says in the introduction to his new work, he did not understand at the time how much those principles were simply misunderstood:
After I published Vindicating, I became increasingly aware that for many people—often including scholars who might be expected to know better—the founders’ political theory might well be buried in some deep dark and long-forgotten pit. My task, then, has something in common with archeology—digging up old bones. But these bones, unlike those of long-dead Romans or Chinese, are of interest today because they claim to be living principles based on timeless truths.
What makes West unique among scholars and historians, then, is that he actually “treats the founders’ political theory as if it might be true.” In an age when an easy-going historicism envelops the American mind and History itself is thought to pick winners and losers, this standpoint is refreshing. West comes from the perspective not of the dogmatic skeptic nor the blind zealot but of a concern for the truth of things above all.
West divides his book into three overarching sections: an overview of the founders’ political theory, an argument for why they thought government should inculcate citizen morality and virtue, and an extended examination of their views on property and economics. As he reasonably argues in the book’s introduction, before we can praise or condemn the founders, we must “first know” both “why the founders set up the regime they did” and “how their political order worked.”
West more than lives up to the daunting task he sets before himself.
The Founders’ Political Theory of Natural Rights
In the book’s first section, West argues that a “natural rights doctrine” is at “the core of the founders’ political theory.” This stance sits squarely against the bulk of scholarship on the American founding, which tends to view the founders’ theory as a combination of liberalism (natural rights), republicanism, Scottish enlightenment theory, British common law, and Protestant theology, among other elements.
West, by contrast, posits that although “the conditions and traditions of colonial America before 1776” were surely important, natural rights determined “which traditions would continue and which would be discarded.” This argument is a useful corrective to the popular idea in certain circles that America is a “proposition nation”—meaning that it is defined solely by “abstract principles” without regard to any other considerations such as citizen character.
Citing a copious amount of primary sources, West meticulously pieces together the founders’ political theory. Natural rights are the inalienable liberties all human beings possess, not through government largesse, but by nature. Because “all men are created equal” in the sense “that there are no natural masters or natural slaves,” everyone has the natural liberty to order his life “without interference from other people.” Among these rights are the right to life, possessing and acquiring property, religious liberty, and to seek happiness—what West calls “the goal of human life.”
On the reverse side of rights are the duties all men have not to transcend the moral limits on the use of their rights. The founders called these natural limits the law of nature, or natural law. Natural law, which can be discovered through the faculty of reason, is “both the source of natural rights and a statement of our duties.” West argues that “natural liberty exists only within the moral limits of the law of nature.” Liberty, in other words, does not equal license.
Because all men are created equal, just government can only be founded on the unanimous consent of individuals who want to protect their rights, which are insecure outside of civil society. (The founders called the condition in which there is no common authority to protect against infringements of one’s rights the state of nature.) “The logic of the equality principle,” West contends, “necessarily leads to the right of the people to rule themselves in person or through elected representatives.” Consent, then, must be granted not only at the founding of a regime but also in the course of its operation, lest it degenerate into a tyranny.
Finally, West notes that the government’s purpose is to secure the natural rights of all who are under its auspices. Government violations of the people’s rights may justify the people to resort to what John Locke called an “appeal to heaven”—the natural right of the people to revolt and institute a new government that secures their safety and happiness.
Teaching Virtue
With the founders’ political theory fully sketched out, West turns to an important argument about how they conceived of virtue and the government’s role in inculcating it among citizens.
Against the view of scholars such as Thomas Pangle, Allan Bloom, and Harvey Mansfield, West contends that the founders were far from being concerned only with low bourgeois virtues, such as acquisitiveness, and comfortable self-preservation. In fact, they considered “virtue as a condition of freedom and a requirement of the laws of nature.”
West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way.
Many public documents from the time spoke of the need for social and republican virtues within the populace such as justice (i.e., obeying the law), moderation, benevolence, temperance, industry, frugality, religious piety, and a responsibility among the people’s representatives to secure their good. In times of war, however, virtues of strength such as courage, leadership, bravery, vigor, and manly exertion are required. “Virtue is of concern to government not as an end in itself, but as a means to security and ultimately to happiness,” West concludes.
Opposed to the libertarian ethos that has consumed much of the Right, West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way. The founders thought it was the duty of government (at least at the state level) to encourage virtue through public education, support for religious instruction, and a vast network of laws that discourage crime and promote stable families.
West understands, therefore, the decisive role politics plays in shaping the character of the regime. Contra Andrew Breitbart and most commentators on politics today, politics in its highest sense is not downstream from culture. “To know whether a culture is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, liberating or oppressive,” Charles Kesler once remarked, “one has to be able to look at it from outside or above the culture.” That is, in the founders’ view culture should conform to principles of political justice that are true for all men everywhere.
While West ably proves his arguments here, one wishes he would have critiqued more recent scholarship such as the work of Yuval Levin, whose impressive books and essays deserve a careful and thoughtful appraisal.
Property Rights and Economics
<..snip..>
http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/ (http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/)
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Just read . . .
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51BMF2qriyL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JtBHD%2BA4L._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MP9xR8EZL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
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Just starting 'DUPES' now, great read, so far.
This looks interesting.
The American Founders Knew A Virtuous Republic Requires Virtuous People
Incredibly, it has become controversial to argue the founding founders supported natural rights and the need to cultivate moral citizenry. In the 'The Political Theory of the American Founding,' Thomas G. West offers a convincing and necessary corrective to modern scholarship.
Mike Sabo
By Mike Sabo
April 28, 2017
“Does this nation in its maturity still cherish the faith in which it was conceived and raised? Does it still hold those ‘truths to be self-evident’?”
This is the pivotal question the political philosopher Leo Strauss raised in the opening pages of his most well-known book, Natural Right and History. Quoting part of the famous second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Strauss implied that the knowledge of founding principles and continued belief in their truth were vital to the success of the American experiment in self-government.
But if recent findings are any indication, Americans’ acquaintance with the founders’ principles and practices seems to be at a nadir. According to a report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a majority of college graduates can’t recall “the substance of the First Amendment, or the origin of the separation of powers.” Perhaps most alarmingly, “nearly 10% say that Judith Sheindlin—‘Judge Judy’—is on the Supreme Court.” A big part of the problem seems to stem from the fact that of the 1,100 “liberal arts colleges and universities” surveyed, just “18%” require students to take a course on American history or government before graduation.
Though certainly more classes and study are necessary to correct these glaring deficiencies, scholar Thomas G. West suggests that the problems go much deeper. While professors are undoubtedly intelligent, he argues that their views on America—especially regarding our nation’s founding—have some serious flaws.
Truth Above All
In his new book The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom, West sets out to remedy this problem. West, professor of politics at Hillsdale College and a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, gives a comprehensive overview of the founders’ political theory and the intricate web of policies that flowed from those principles. (For what it’s worth, I am former student of West.) This sober and deeply learned work represents the culmination of decades of serious study and reflection on the American founding. And it might just be the best book ever written on the subject.
In his previous book Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, West defended the founders’ natural law and natural rights principles and controversial policies from historians and public intellectuals, liberals and conservatives who have attacked them as controversial according to contemporary standards. But as West says in the introduction to his new work, he did not understand at the time how much those principles were simply misunderstood:
After I published Vindicating, I became increasingly aware that for many people—often including scholars who might be expected to know better—the founders’ political theory might well be buried in some deep dark and long-forgotten pit. My task, then, has something in common with archeology—digging up old bones. But these bones, unlike those of long-dead Romans or Chinese, are of interest today because they claim to be living principles based on timeless truths.
What makes West unique among scholars and historians, then, is that he actually “treats the founders’ political theory as if it might be true.” In an age when an easy-going historicism envelops the American mind and History itself is thought to pick winners and losers, this standpoint is refreshing. West comes from the perspective not of the dogmatic skeptic nor the blind zealot but of a concern for the truth of things above all.
West divides his book into three overarching sections: an overview of the founders’ political theory, an argument for why they thought government should inculcate citizen morality and virtue, and an extended examination of their views on property and economics. As he reasonably argues in the book’s introduction, before we can praise or condemn the founders, we must “first know” both “why the founders set up the regime they did” and “how their political order worked.”
West more than lives up to the daunting task he sets before himself.
The Founders’ Political Theory of Natural Rights
In the book’s first section, West argues that a “natural rights doctrine” is at “the core of the founders’ political theory.” This stance sits squarely against the bulk of scholarship on the American founding, which tends to view the founders’ theory as a combination of liberalism (natural rights), republicanism, Scottish enlightenment theory, British common law, and Protestant theology, among other elements.
West, by contrast, posits that although “the conditions and traditions of colonial America before 1776” were surely important, natural rights determined “which traditions would continue and which would be discarded.” This argument is a useful corrective to the popular idea in certain circles that America is a “proposition nation”—meaning that it is defined solely by “abstract principles” without regard to any other considerations such as citizen character.
Citing a copious amount of primary sources, West meticulously pieces together the founders’ political theory. Natural rights are the inalienable liberties all human beings possess, not through government largesse, but by nature. Because “all men are created equal” in the sense “that there are no natural masters or natural slaves,” everyone has the natural liberty to order his life “without interference from other people.” Among these rights are the right to life, possessing and acquiring property, religious liberty, and to seek happiness—what West calls “the goal of human life.”
On the reverse side of rights are the duties all men have not to transcend the moral limits on the use of their rights. The founders called these natural limits the law of nature, or natural law. Natural law, which can be discovered through the faculty of reason, is “both the source of natural rights and a statement of our duties.” West argues that “natural liberty exists only within the moral limits of the law of nature.” Liberty, in other words, does not equal license.
Because all men are created equal, just government can only be founded on the unanimous consent of individuals who want to protect their rights, which are insecure outside of civil society. (The founders called the condition in which there is no common authority to protect against infringements of one’s rights the state of nature.) “The logic of the equality principle,” West contends, “necessarily leads to the right of the people to rule themselves in person or through elected representatives.” Consent, then, must be granted not only at the founding of a regime but also in the course of its operation, lest it degenerate into a tyranny.
Finally, West notes that the government’s purpose is to secure the natural rights of all who are under its auspices. Government violations of the people’s rights may justify the people to resort to what John Locke called an “appeal to heaven”—the natural right of the people to revolt and institute a new government that secures their safety and happiness.
Teaching Virtue
With the founders’ political theory fully sketched out, West turns to an important argument about how they conceived of virtue and the government’s role in inculcating it among citizens.
Against the view of scholars such as Thomas Pangle, Allan Bloom, and Harvey Mansfield, West contends that the founders were far from being concerned only with low bourgeois virtues, such as acquisitiveness, and comfortable self-preservation. In fact, they considered “virtue as a condition of freedom and a requirement of the laws of nature.”
West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way.
Many public documents from the time spoke of the need for social and republican virtues within the populace such as justice (i.e., obeying the law), moderation, benevolence, temperance, industry, frugality, religious piety, and a responsibility among the people’s representatives to secure their good. In times of war, however, virtues of strength such as courage, leadership, bravery, vigor, and manly exertion are required. “Virtue is of concern to government not as an end in itself, but as a means to security and ultimately to happiness,” West concludes.
Opposed to the libertarian ethos that has consumed much of the Right, West argues forcefully that the project of sustaining our republic is not satisfied simply by getting government out of the way. The founders thought it was the duty of government (at least at the state level) to encourage virtue through public education, support for religious instruction, and a vast network of laws that discourage crime and promote stable families.
West understands, therefore, the decisive role politics plays in shaping the character of the regime. Contra Andrew Breitbart and most commentators on politics today, politics in its highest sense is not downstream from culture. “To know whether a culture is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, liberating or oppressive,” Charles Kesler once remarked, “one has to be able to look at it from outside or above the culture.” That is, in the founders’ view culture should conform to principles of political justice that are true for all men everywhere.
While West ably proves his arguments here, one wishes he would have critiqued more recent scholarship such as the work of Yuval Levin, whose impressive books and essays deserve a careful and thoughtful appraisal.
Property Rights and Economics
<..snip..>
http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/ (http://thefederalist.com/2017/04/28/the-american-founders-knew-a-virtuous-republic-requires-virtuous-people/)
Dr. West is a brilliant man. I'll buy the book for sure!
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need some good books to read, I think they would cheer me.
I got to get my carcass over to Barnes and Noble.
I like library books but I can't highlight them.
When I was in the hospital my mother's best friend bought me "The cats of Instagram "
I highly recommend it. It's s picture book of cute cats. 88888walking kitty 8888sitting kitty 8888spinning cat
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need some good books to read, I think they would cheer me.
I got to get my carcass over to Barnes and Noble.
I like library books but I can't highlight them.
When I was in the hospital my mother's best friend bought me "The cats of Instagram "
I highly recommend it. It's s picture book of cute cats. 88888walking kitty 8888sitting kitty 8888spinning cat
@Freya
Don't forget to hunt eBay and Amazon. You might find some real jewels, as I did (this book arrived yesterday
and it's an original edition I got for a measly $11 . . .)
(http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1234908600l/1097225.jpg)
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I collect the old MAD magazine books from the 50s to the 70s. Got nigh on 50 of them now - just missing 5, I think. Love the style of humor they had then. Now though ... Ecch.
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I just read "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr and was enthralled. Then I found a ridiculous critique of the book (https://newrepublic.com/article/120769/problem-anthony-doerrs-all-light-we-cannot-see) by someone who appears not to have read it, and became annoyed.
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I just read "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr and was enthralled. Then I found a ridiculous critique of the book (https://newrepublic.com/article/120769/problem-anthony-doerrs-all-light-we-cannot-see) by someone who appears not to have read it, and became annoyed.
The Amazon reviewers seem overwhelmingly to agree with you over the other guy with the snarky review.
I finally got around to "reading" Pillars of the Earth. I bought it on Audible quite awhile back, but had put off tackling 41 hours of listening time until recently.
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I finally got around to "reading" Pillars of the Earth. I bought it on Audible quite awhile back, but had put off tackling 41 hours of listening time until recently.
One of my favorite books of all time. ^-^
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One of my favorite books of all time. ^-^
I've been wondering now why I put it off for so long.
:beer:
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The TV series isn't bad, either.
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I'm reading @EC 's book.
So far it isn't bad.
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I collect the old MAD magazine books from the 50s to the 70s. Got nigh on 50 of them now - just missing 5, I think. Love the style of humor they had then. Now though ... Ecch.
If you can find it, grab this one:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71DQCY7U-BL._AC_UL320_SR218,320_.jpg)
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Finally read Fahrenheit 451, somehow I escaped skrool without reading this one. Highly recommend it. The tech in the book may be a little dated, but the wall size TV's and people with earbuds in all the time certainly haven't changed.
I must say the only criticism was of Bradbury's similes. We get it: things are like other things. But it's not off putting I read thought it in two sittings. And of course my general critique of science fiction: Sci Fi Ending just when things are getting started for the next 1000 years. :laugh: I suppose it was supposed to leave me with questions.
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I remember reading Fahrenheit 451 as a kid and enjoyed it (in a scary "I think this really could happen" kind of way). The movie isn't bad, either.
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I remember reading Fahrenheit 451 as a kid and enjoyed it (in a scary "I think this really could happen" kind of way). The movie isn't bad, either.
I remember wondering if I could memorize an entire book, and then wondering which one? (I have been a bibliophile ever since).
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I stopped by the library to return "All the Light We Cannot See" and noticed a box full of books they were giving away. I picked out "Tin Flute" by Gabrielle Roy (a novel set in Montreal around the beginning of Canada's entry into WWII) and "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer, about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Both very good, very different, but well worth the expenditure!
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I stopped by the library to return "All the Light We Cannot See" and noticed a box full of books they were giving away. I picked out "Tin Flute" by Gabrielle Roy (a novel set in Montreal around the beginning of Canada's entry into WWII) and "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer, about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Both very good, very different, but well worth the expenditure!
Our library remainders out books that for whatever reason they get rid of 25 cents to a dollar, and some magnificent books on occasion. I have been known to check out yard/rummage sales and thrift shops, too. Now, I need to build some serious bookcases...
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My mom and I just started reading"Behold the Dreamers" by Imbolo Mbue for her reading club she just joined.
So far it's pretty good.
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BUMP
Hey, has anyone read anything good recently?
I'm so bored.
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I just finished Flash Boys by Michael Lewis. It's a description of how Wall Street screws pretty much everyone, how it was detected, why the SEC protects THEM, and what happened when someone tried to fight back. Good book, highly recommend for anyone into tech or econ/finance.
Before that was Panic by the same author, which was a collection of essays about the financial panics since 1987. Also good, if you're into that sort of thing.
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Freya - I think you would enjoy this one: The Oddfits, by Tiffany Tsao.
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Currently I'm reading the English translation of a Japanese manga, Your Lie in April (Japanese title, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.) It's a very moving but very sad story; I decided to read the manga after seeing the 22-episode anime series made from the manga on Netflix (it's available there in both Japanese with English subtitles, and dubbed into English). Fair warning, keep the Kleenex handy, and/or have something fun or silly to watch if you need a break from it.
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BUMP
Hey, has anyone read anything good recently?
I'm so bored.
@Freya
What is your preferred genre?
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BUMP
Hey, has anyone read anything good recently?
I'm so bored.
@Freya
@Polly Ticks
My most recently read books:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Hidden_Figures_book_cover.png) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51GHotoWIKL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51C71cpcBRL._SX320_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JtBHD%2BA4L._SX347_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51a1lUf3YDL._SY346_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LhArwxFSL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
And, next on my reading list, due to arrive tomorrow:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ll6PBsjkL._SX307_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
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You might think I'm joking but Nope.
I'm reading this.
(http://www.imagehostplus.com/v2/usr/131/makingnation.jpg)
Part of the Christian Social History series of textbooks used in the Catholic schools. This is 4th Grade Text Book from 1955.
BTW....4th grade reading level then is like HS today.
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Last read: Dog Company Six by Edwin Howard Stevens,
Currently reading: Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose
Next up: Fourteen Months in American Bastiles by F. K. Howard (Memoir by Francis Scott Key's grandson, imprisoned in Ft. McHenry, et. al., during the War of Northern Aggression)
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Last "read" (on Audible):
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51B1sLjhd2L._AA300_.jpg)
Current book:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518jv6pFLrL._SY346_.jpg)
I'm in one of those "I just need something light and ridiculous" phases.
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You might think I'm joking but Nope.
I'm reading this.
(http://www.imagehostplus.com/v2/usr/131/makingnation.jpg)
Part of the Christian Social History series of textbooks used in the Catholic schools. This is 4th Grade Text Book from 1955.
BTW....4th grade reading level then is like HS today.
I recall having been assigned that exact textbook in my formative years.
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I recall having been assigned that exact textbook in my formative years.
Before "History of the Now" as being taught today! 888high58888
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Thanks! I'm going to the library tomorrow for books.
Hurray!
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You might think I'm joking but Nope.
I'm reading this.
(http://www.imagehostplus.com/v2/usr/131/makingnation.jpg)
Part of the Christian Social History series of textbooks used in the Catholic schools. This is 4th Grade Text Book from 1955.
BTW....4th grade reading level then is like HS today.
Where did you get them from? I'd like to add them to my list for homeschooling.
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Where did you get them from? I'd like to add them to my list for homeschooling.
It was my 4th grade Text book. I think it was being updated the following year so Mom bought it for a Dime.
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It was my 4th grade Text book. I think it was being updated the following year so Mom bought it for a Dime.
Oh, I took it that you had bought it recently.
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Where did you get them from? I'd like to add them to my list for homeschooling.
Found it here:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21812622238&searchurl=kn%3DTextbook%26tn%3DThe%2BMaking%2Bof%2BOur%2BNation%26sortby%3D17 (https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21812622238&searchurl=kn%3DTextbook%26tn%3DThe%2BMaking%2Bof%2BOur%2BNation%26sortby%3D17) (ouch!)
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Found it here:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21812622238&searchurl=kn%3DTextbook%26tn%3DThe%2BMaking%2Bof%2BOur%2BNation%26sortby%3D17 (https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=21812622238&searchurl=kn%3DTextbook%26tn%3DThe%2BMaking%2Bof%2BOur%2BNation%26sortby%3D17) (ouch!)
Thank you!
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Better deal here:
https://www.amazon.com/making-nation-Christian-social-history/dp/B0007FJUUY
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Better deal here:
https://www.amazon.com/making-nation-Christian-social-history/dp/B0007FJUUY
Thanks. I also see there are some newer versions by the same author.
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Thanks. I also see there are some newer versions by the same author.
The older ones would be better regardless.
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Better deal here:
https://www.amazon.com/making-nation-Christian-social-history/dp/B0007FJUUY
Yes, much! eBay had it listed at $60, too.
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Just finished Zane Grey's Twin Sombreros. It was funny as all get out. It's a sequel to Knights of the Range. A cowboy finds himself in love with identical twins who have lost their ranch to rustlers. Hilliarity, heorism, and horse chases ensue.
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I'm reading Cold Harbor by Matthew Fitzsimmons. Good series, hacker turned Marine turned hacker/Marine fighting for justice.
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I'm in the middle of Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, by John Eliot Gardiner.
For a conductor, he's a good writer. ^-^
It's very scholarly, from an "insider's" point of view, and he focuses on Bach's sacred choral works, which warms the cockles of my choral conductor's heart.
For anyone who's into Classical music, and knows a bit, I highly recommend it.
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Finally getting into David McCullough's 1776. Fascinating.
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Finally getting into David McCullough's 1776. Fascinating.
I love McCullough's writing style. Good stuff.
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Finishing up: Citizen Soldiers (Stephen Ambrose)
On Deck: Fourteen Months in American Bastiles by F.K. Howard.
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Just finished Zane Grey's Twin Sombreros. It was funny as all get out. It's a sequel to Knights of the Range. A cowboy finds himself in love with identical twins who have lost their ranch to rustlers. Hilliarity, heorism, and horse chases ensue.
I ain't thought of Zane Grey in a coon's age. I'll have to go on over to the used book store and see if I can build a complete collection. I already did that with Louis L'Amour...
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I ain't thought of Zane Grey in a coon's age. I'll have to go on over to the used book store and see if I can build a complete collection. I already did that with Louis L'Amour...
Max Brand wrote a pretty good yarn, too.
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Finishing up: Citizen Soldiers (Stephen Ambrose)
On Deck: Fourteen Months in American Bastiles by F.K. Howard.
Is the Ambrose book a good read? I LOVE his style. His heart is right there for all to see, and it's refreshing!
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Max Brand wrote a pretty good yarn, too.
That's right! Keep it up. That used book guy needs the money! LOL!
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Is the Ambrose book a good read? I LOVE his style. His heart is right there for all to see, and it's refreshing!
Yes. It was recommended to me by my Father, who was infantry in the Korean War.
This book follows the troops from Normandy to the German surrender.
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That's right! Keep it up. That used book guy needs the money! LOL!
I often haunt thrift shops to check out the books. The public library retires a few pretty cheaply, too, but they are of diminishing value with a lot of later stuff I won't even read.
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I often haunt thrift shops to check out the books. The public library retires a few pretty cheaply, too, but they are of diminishing value with a lot of later stuff I won't even read.
Actually, my Dad was an avid reader before he passed, and went to the same guy I do. He had quite a bit on credit, and the shop keeper is honoring him by giving me and mine half off, with the other half coming out of Dad's account... Which is money long gone, if it ever was money in the first place.
Pretty sweet. that account will probably pass to my grandkids by way of me. All my books turned back have gone back onto that account.
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I often haunt thrift shops to check out the books.
Welcome to the club! I'd say at least half my library at home involves thrift shop finds,
including a full set of the Harvard Classics I received as a gift a few years ago. I also
found plenty of H.L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock and some choice writings about baseball
in the thrift shops, including a rare copy of Casey Stengel's autobiography, not to mention
a ton of books tied to my passion for old-time radio, including:
* Fred Allen's memoirs Treadmill to Oblivion and Much Ado About Me, and a
collection of his letters.
* Four anthologies by radio comedy legend Goodman Ace, from his post-radio years
writing for the Saturday Evening Post: The Book of Little Knowledge: More Than
You Want to Know About Television, The Fine Art of Hypochondria, The Better
of Goodman Ace, and Ladies and Gentlemen---Easy Aces.
* Gerald Nachman's splendid history, Raised on Radio.
* John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.
* Sunday Nights at Seven, the Jack Benny memoir his daughter, Joan, finished
for him after his death.
* How Fibber McGee & Molly Won World War II, a great book reviewing their
war-themed episodes.
* Vic & Sade, a posthumous collection of Paul Rhymer's scripts for that classic
quiet conversational comedy.
* Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel: The Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show, a collection
of all the scripts for that short lived classic.
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Now reading . . .
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Hv5LYimaL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
. . . a chronicle of Branch Rickey's and William Shea's third-major-league bid, the Continental
League, and how it ultimately forced baseball's expansion hand for the first time, hooked
partially around Casey Stengel and the 1960 World Series . . .
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Welcome to the club! I'd say at least half my library at home involves thrift shop finds,
including a full set of the Harvard Classics I received as a gift a few years ago. I also
found plenty of H.L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock and some choice writings about baseball
in the thrift shops, including a rare copy of Casey Stengel's autobiography, not to mention
a ton of books tied to my passion for old-time radio, including:
* Fred Allen's memoirs Treadmill to Oblivion and Much Ado About Me, and a
collection of his letters.
* Four anthologies by radio comedy legend Goodman Ace, from his post-radio years
writing for the Saturday Evening Post: The Book of Little Knowledge: More Than
You Want to Know About Television, The Fine Art of Hypochondria, The Better
of Goodman Ace, and Ladies and Gentlemen---Easy Aces.
* Gerald Nachman's splendid history, Raised on Radio.
* John Dunning's On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.
* Sunday Nights at Seven, the Jack Benny memoir his daughter, Joan, finished
for him after his death.
* How Fibber McGee & Molly Won World War II, a great book reviewing their
war-themed episodes.
* Vic & Sade, a posthumous collection of Paul Rhymer's scripts for that classic
quiet conversational comedy.
* Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel: The Marx Brothers' Lost Radio Show, a collection
of all the scripts for that short lived classic.
I have so much credit on the books at the (three) local used book shops I will never live to use it all up so if you show up in my neck of the woods looking for something contact me.
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I have so much credit on the books at the (three) local used book shops I will never live to use it all up so if you show up in my neck of the woods looking for something contact me.
It's a deal!
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It's a deal!
888high58888 Might even buy you a good steak as well!
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888high58888 Might even buy you a good steak as well!
:beer: