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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Razgovory

#3570
October 29, 2017, 08:08:04 PM
Quote from: grumbler on October 25, 2017, 05:59:48 PM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on October 24, 2017, 06:27:24 PM
Basically, the more heavily tribes traded with each other, the more likely they were to go to war with each other unless they voluntarily established arbitrary monolopies (i.e. one tribe produces pottery, one produces obsidian blades, etc.). The breaking of such monopolies almost inevitably lead to war.
That's an absurd contention.  Societies in close enough contact to trade probably were also in close enough contact to have causes to go to war with one another, but it is silly to argue that it is the trade that causes the war.  Not even the arbitrary monolopies of melanesia thought that.



Good thing he didn't actually say "Trade causes war".
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

CountDeMoney

#3571
October 29, 2017, 09:43:35 PM
Quote from: Gups on October 29, 2017, 07:13:06 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 29, 2017, 04:23:31 PM
Man, the Chernow book is not very kind to Jefferson and Madison.  Jefferson in particular comes off as a crackpot.

He gives Adams a good kicking too. But he really seems to hate Jefferson. Is that a common view? I'd always assumed he was regarded as one of the all time greats.

Jefferson was particularly fashionable in 19th and early 20th century.  It is a shame all his work seems to get collectively tossed out simply on his economic and political philosophy, though.  People forget what a scientist he was.

When we become an agrarian society again in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, and have to learn how to grow enough food to make it through a winter, he may be in vogue again.  Knowing this country, it'll be the writings of Weezy Jefferson that makes it to the 22nd century.

Razgovory

#3572
October 30, 2017, 12:02:11 AM
Chernow is defiantly a federalist.  I haven't read his Hamilton Book, but I did read his Washington.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

The Minsky Moment

#3573
October 30, 2017, 01:31:23 AM
The Embargo Act was a fiasco, he should have known better than to go against Gallatin's advice.  Other than that, his Presidency was far from a disaster.  As President, he proved more pragmatic than his reputation would suggest.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Valmy

#3574
October 31, 2017, 11:56:33 AM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on October 30, 2017, 01:31:23 AM
The Embargo Act was a fiasco, he should have known better than to go against Gallatin's advice.  Other than that, his Presidency was far from a disaster.  As President, he proved more pragmatic than his reputation would suggest.

Yeah it is amazing how all those high minded ideals get compromised when you yourself are the guy making the decisions.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

11B4V

#3575
October 31, 2017, 12:42:16 PM
Finally digging into White Devil after a false start.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

11B4V

#3576
November 02, 2017, 09:05:55 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on October 31, 2017, 12:42:16 PM
Finally digging into White Devil after a false start.

Good read not as in depth as War on the Run.

On to the next
Hodges Scout
Northern Armageddon: The Battle for the Plains of Abraham
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Admiral Yi

#3577
November 02, 2017, 09:12:51 PM
How in the world can the Plains of Abraham be described as an Armageddon?

11B4V

#3578
November 02, 2017, 09:13:59 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 02, 2017, 09:12:51 PM
How in the world can the Plains of Abraham be described as an Armageddon?

Guess we'll find out
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

grumbler

#3579
November 02, 2017, 09:20:28 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on November 02, 2017, 09:12:51 PM
How in the world can the Plains of Abraham be described as an Armageddon?

Abraham is Old Testament, and so is Armageddon.  Therefor, they are the same thing.  QED.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Sophie Scholl

#3580
November 04, 2017, 03:06:09 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on November 02, 2017, 09:05:55 PM
Quote from: 11B4V on October 31, 2017, 12:42:16 PM
Finally digging into White Devil after a false start.

Good read not as in depth as War on the Run.

On to the next
Hodges Scout
Northern Armageddon: The Battle for the Plains of Abraham

If you're going for F&I reading, I really enjoyed Crucible of War by Fred Anderson and The French and Indian War and the Conquest of New France by William R. Nester.
"Everything that brought you here -- all the things that made you a prisoner of past sins -- they are gone. Forever and for good. So let the past go... and live."

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

11B4V

#3581
November 05, 2017, 03:53:52 PM
Crucible  is on the list.
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

11B4V

#3582
December 11, 2017, 09:47:45 PM
Finally started on The Last Valley
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".

Malthus

#3583
December 12, 2017, 08:44:11 AM
Read one not dealing with warfare: The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet (in translation).

A really bizarre mix of parody on semiotics, French politics, murder mystery and conspiracy, it is far more amusing than it had any right to be (how could anyone dislike a book in which writer and critic Philippe Sollers has his balls cut off after losing a debate to Umberto Eco, for rank in a secret society?).  :D
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

The Brain

#3584
December 12, 2017, 09:03:02 AM
They're friends of decency and taste?
Women want me. Men want to be with me.
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