Another another book post

Gwyneth Cravens, Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy
Interesting and provocative. You realize how badly nuclear power's been sold in this country, and how much bizarre disinformation is out there.

Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman
Really great book. Keynes is the "grand economist" (his term) who is arguably the most intelligent grand strategist of the 20th century--the one guy who best sees war within the context of everything else.

Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the Twenty-First Century
Frustratingly obtuse in all its Marxist BS, but it reminds me of why I loved studying it: like studying another language, it helps you understand your own better. A slew of interesting observations scattered throughout, but too much analysis is captive to declaring--as he must--the decline of the American capitalist world system. A perfect example of over-blowing the historic importance of the neocons. I mean, really, talk about a fart in the wind.

James A. Baker III, "Work Hard, Study . . . and Keep Out of Politics!"
It really is his best book. He writes just like he speaks, which is nice.

I am burning out on book reading!

Seven to go.

Comments

[Michael]

If you can squeeze one more in, I'd suggest THE BREAKDOWN OF NATIONS by Leopold Kohr. I tracked down a copy after someone recommended it on here, and it's pretty good so far. The premise is that the accumulation of too much land-mass, population or power is potentially fatal to a country-- the last stems from the observation that people with more power than accountability tend to make nasty mistakes. The only exception to this rule seems to be a federation of smaller states where none are able to dominate the whole by itself (ex: the US, Switzerland).

Like I said, the superficial points of the book come across as fairly obvious; the payoff I've found so far is the exploration of WHY things seem to work this way.

[Mike Nelson]

Frontline did a pretty nice piece on nuclear power called "Nuclear Reaction: Why do Americans fear nuclear power?" some years back that you may find interesting too. There is still a website active for it with a transcript online at this URL:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction