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Al Singh
Author's posts
Jun 17 2008
Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud
Freud doesn’t get a lot of respect these days, but I found this book for the most part lucid and rational, if not exactly scientific. Part of Freud’s thesis borrows from Rousseau in arguing that civilization represents a compromise with the individual for the sake of preserving security, but for Freud this is problematic, because …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/06/17/civilization-and-its-discontents-by-sigmund-freud/
Apr 21 2008
The History of Germany Since 1789 by Golo Mann
This was a beautifully written book that covered Germany from its earliest nationalist stirrings following the French Revolution to the postwar partioned Germany up through 1965. There were colorful portraits of German statesmen such as Bismarck, William II, Adenauer, and yes, the most famous one of all. The chapter devoted to the Nazi episode was …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/04/21/the-history-of-germany-since-1789-by-golo-mann/
Apr 09 2008
Napoleon Bonaparte by Alan Schom
This is a well written and well researched book, but it is the most anti-Napoleon book I have ever read. The author gives the devil his due, acknowledging Napoleon’s outstanding abilities as a battlefield commander, but other than that, he has nothing nice to say about the great man. And he takes the peculiar position …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/04/09/napoleon-bonaparte-by-alan-schom/
Feb 22 2008
A History of Greece to 322 B.C. by N.G.L Hammond
This was a historian’s rather than a layman’s book, a bit more packed with details than I am used to, but it is a thorough one-volume treatment of a subject that has always fascinated me. I can’t do justice to it in 1000 characters, but one observation I would make is that the Spartans have …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/02/22/a-history-of-greece-to-322-b-c-by-n-g-l-hammond/
Feb 12 2008
Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Conrad Black
The author of this book has also written a biography of comparable length of Richard Nixon. I must say that compared to Roosevelt, Nixon comes across as positively principled and idealistic. Black portrays FDR as a bold and gifted but somewhat underhanded and unscrupulous leader. His portraits of all of the major figures of this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/02/12/franklin-delano-roosevelt-by-conrad-black/
Feb 12 2008
Alexander the Great by Lewis Cummings
Many historians have fallen in love with Alexander, but Lewis Cummings remains cold-eyed and immune to his charm. Cummings sees him as a bloodthirsty tyrant, possessed of an impetuous and almost childish nature, whose military genius served only the evil purpose of conquest and imperialism. Yet not even the most hostile biographer can deny what …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/02/12/alexander-the-great-by-lewis-cummings/
Jan 18 2008
The Second World War by Martin Gilbert
Except perhaps for Iris Chang’s *The Rape of Nanking*, no other book I have read captures the horror and brutality of World War II like this one. Martin’s trademark style is historical narrative intermingled with individual stories and anecdotes, and it is the individual accounts, replete with documented proper names and direct quotes, that convey …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/01/18/the-second-world-war-by-martin-gilbert/
Jan 10 2008
The Fall of the Roman Republic by Plutarch
Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, and Cicero, all the major figures associated with the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, except maybe for Cato, who is included in another Penguin volume. A theme in this collection is the way in which the ambition of outstanding individuals can strain the fabric of a society and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/01/10/the-fall-of-the-roman-republic-by-plutarch/
Dec 30 2007
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by Robert Payne
I have read this book many times, and it never fails to fascinate. Hitler’s later career is well known to history; the really interesting part of this book deals with his youth. He appeares to have been an isolated dreamer, alienated from others but not totally devoid of human feeling. For much of his young …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2007/12/30/the-life-and-death-of-adolf-hitler-by-robert-payne/
Apr 11 2007
Future Shock by Alvin Toffler
This was an interesting read, especially since we now live in the time Toffler was making projections about. Some of his predictions have proven wildly off the mark, as when he writes of colonizing the ocean floor, but this was nonetheless an excellent treatment of how the world will cope with the dizzying and accelerating …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2007/04/11/future-shock-by-alvin-toffler/