Karl's Reading List
Subscribe to Karl's Reading ListI made an all-too-hasty promise at the start of 2010 to list my reading and comment on the books as I made my way through the year. I failed, in large part, because my book tour (110 cities in 90 days) put me behind on my own reading and way behind on writing about it. While I did a little bit better in 2011, this year I’ll attempt to get my notes on books I’ve read done in a more timely fashion.
So here’s what I’ve knocked out so far, starting with the book I finished most recently and working back to 2010.
51 Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two-Party System
This is another fine book from the University of Kansas series on presidential election. Mr. Cole identifies the seeds of this struggle in the contentious outcome of the four way struggle for the White House in 1824, which left supporters of the defeated Andrew Jackson decrying a supposed "corrupt bargain" between John Q. Adams, who finished in second place but became the eventual winner when the race was tossed into the House of Representatives when Jackson failed to get a majority in the Electoral College, and Henry Clay, the third place finisher.
Cole argues the 1828 election is not simply significant because it gave birth to the Democratic Party, but because it produced a new political system based on parties -- Whig as well as Democratic. He charts the actions and approaches of all the major players on both sides of this contest in a particularly illuminating fashion and shows how the election played out by examining in details the back-and-forth in some of the critical battleground states in that election.
For fans of the era's history and politics, expect a few shots at the people whose books you've read and enjoyed. Check the footnotes: there's not only a political war going on in this volume. There's also an interesting debate among historians and political scientists raging just below the surface.
50 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
I enjoyed Professor Greenblatt’s last book, WILL IN THE WORLD: HOW SHAKESPEARE BECAME SHAKESPEARE enormously but his latest volume, not so much. THE SWERVE is part an historical detective story, part philosophical inquiry, and part celebration of the modern secular culture, with Man shorn of his mistaken beliefs in a God who cares about him and the world and stripped of illusions about the immortality of the soul and eternals truths. Greenblatt traces the beginning of this epic transformation to the rediscovery is 1417 by a papal secretary and book hunter from Florence named Poggio Bracciolini of the Epicurean poet Lucretius’ poem “One the Nature of Things,” written in the century before Christ. Lucretius, he writes, life and the reality in which we exist are accidents, “the soul dies…there is no afterlife…all organized religions are superstitious delusions…religions are invariably cruel…the highest goal of human life is the enhancement of pleasure and the reduction of pain,” all of which (the impression is left that) Greenblatt applauds.
49 Devil's Gate
Into every string of serious books a little, well, a little low brow must fall. I admit I’m a sucker for all things Cussler and this is a juicy, quick-to-read, fun tale of exotic weapons, a stark raving mad African dictator and how the world is saved from destruction by Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala, but without some very close calls, an alluring Russian spy and enough near-drownings to induce paranoia around water.
48 Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America
At the end of last year, I found myself in Florence. There on the River Arno, on a little square and flanked by the St. Regis and Excelsior hotels, was an exquisite chapel long founded by a wealthy member of the Vespucci family. The best-known member of the family is the 16th century merchant, explorer and self-proclaimed master of navigation, Amerigo Vespucci. Fernandez-Armesto limes a wonderful portrait of a hustler, scammer, and visionary whose descriptions of exploits led a group of cartographers in a now forgotten corner of Europe to affix Amerigo’s name to the continent whose southern shores he claimed to have discovered.
47 God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible
This is a remarkable book. It goes behind the scenes to explore why James Stuart, upon rising to the British throne upon the death of Queen Elizabeth, made it a priority to prepare a new version of the Bible, one grounded in the earliest sources scholars could find but expressed in the richest and most passionate words possible. Perhaps the greatest expression of the English language, the King James Bible was born in a desire to unite a fractured nation, exalt its civil authorities, and make the word of God accessible – and understandable – to not just all who could read, but all who could listen.
46 Machiavelli: A Biography
Unger, a New York Times writer, has produced a thoughtful and well-informed study of the life of the Florentine diplomat and government bureaucrat better known for his slim book, The Prince, than for his diplomatic efforts for his beloved city-state, fading in power and influence. Unger presents a side of the cynical and jaded diplomat rarely known by even those who had read Machiavelli’s notorious collection of practical and often amoral advice to the prospective ruler. He was friends with Leonardo and Michelangelo, retainer and adversary to Popes, and civil servant in a city-state that drained his wealth, stripped him of power, exiled him to the country, and yet could not extinguish his passionate patriotism. Placing Machiavelli firmly in the events of late 15th and early 16th century Florence and Italy makes it easier to understand The Prince and Machiavelli’s other works.
45 The Athena Project
Thor’s terror war super-operative, Scot Harvath, makes only a token appearance in this fun, trashy, wild ride of a thriller. The story centers on a special operations team made up of four attractive women, who conduct snatch-and-grab operations in Venice, recon missions of the ruins of former Nazi underground facilities, and an assault on a heavily guarded fortress of a shadowy international conspiracy that’s on the verge of a sci-fi assault on America’s most important research base. It’s just the thing for a long plane ride or two or a rainy afternoon without football.
44 FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944
This is a fun volume on an often-over looked presidential contest. After having lost the Republican nomination in 1940 to Wendell Willkie, now-New York Governor Tom Dewey navigates the 1944 primary season and wins the GOP convention, only to be denied the White House – in large measure – by one effective and biting speech delivered by the dying FDR that crystallizes for the American people the price of changing chief executives in the middle of a world conflict. FDR effectively made it a contest between a candidate (himself) whose values and views have made it possible for the country to win and one whose actions and philosophy in the years leading up to the war the nation now considers wrong. Jordan covers some of the same ground covered by Richard Norton Smith in his THOMAS E. DEWEY AND HIS TIMES, but with more detail and color. This book is worth it for the political junkie who wants to check the 1944 election off their list.
43 Socrates: A Man for Our Times
Once again, the English historian and biographer has written a slim, brilliant volume on a man who moved history. In this instance, it is the ugly, ungainly son of a stone carver and a mid-wife who singlehandedly created the philosophy of ethics, of how every person should strive to understand and attain the “Good Life,” Socrates of Athens. Johnson is a powerful writer whose books are joys to read. This small volume of 198 pages is no exception.
42 Colonel Roosevelt
When it came out in 1979, I read Morris’s THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT in nearly one gulp. The story of TR’s adolescent and rise to political prominence was riveting, powerful and beautifully written. I couldn’t wait for the next of Morris’s three promised volumes. Well, we all had to learn patience because it was nearly 22 years before the sequel appeared: THEODORE REX. It took another decade for the final volume to appear and it’s a great read. It’s not a happy one, however. TR’s worst traits come into full and dominant view after he leaves the White House and grapples with the loss of political power and the spotlight. But even the raging and dying lion makes his mark felt in the affairs of the nation and the world. The final and immeasurably sad chapters of this final book of Morris’s TR trilogy are especially well-crafted and a fitting conclusion to a great life fully lived.