Grand unified books thread

[Eddie Teach]

Best novel written in English.

[Razgovory]

Finished Moby Dick. First time I've read it in English. I love this book.

About to start it for the first time.

It takes a while to get going.

[Valmy]

North Americans haven't heard of the term "nation state"?

Of course. But we usually just call it "Texas".

[Capetan Mihali]

Currently reading The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf, all about the life, travels and discoveries of the German scientist. Very entertaining so far.

Odd footnote: Humboldt hung out with Goethe and, allegedly, influenced the latter's characterization of Faust. 

I bought this as Christmas present for my uncle.  I hope he found it entertaining.  Or at least read it.  Or at least might read it.

[The Minsky Moment]

Have you read The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama?

I read the first book.  Haven't gotten to the sequel yet.

[Capetan Mihali]

On the topic of political theory, any C. Schmitt readers among us?  I know Zanza denounced me for referencing him once, since (like Heidegger) he never apologized for his 1933-35 activity and hence wasn't de-Nazified.  I've read The Concept of the Political, Political Theology, and Theory of the Partisan, but I'm trying to decide the next one to pick up.

Interestingly, Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt not only overlapped in epoch and thought (albeit from left vs right) but contributed to the same journal at the same time (c. 1922, IIRC) so it's impossible they weren't acquainted with each other's ideas.

[Savonarola]

The Black Count

Sesame Street has taken political correctness too far!   

Just kidding, the book I actually read was: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss.  I covers the life of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist (and grandfather of the playwright.)  Elements of the general's life serve as the models for both Georges and the Count of Monte Cristo.  (Reiss hints that he may have been the inspiration for D'Artagnan, but I've also read that he was the basis for Porthos as well.)

It's an interesting and thoroughly readable account of the General's life; France in he revolutionary period and Haiti (Saint-Domingue) during the ancien regime.  It might be a little overly light for the more serious scholars on Languish, but one thing that only this forum will appreciate, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was known by the nickname: The Horatius Cocles of Tyrol.

[Capetan Mihali]

The Black Count

Sesame Street has taken political correctness too far!   

Just kidding, the book I actually read was: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss.  I covers the life of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist (and grandfather of the playwright.)  Elements of the general's life serve as the models for both Georges and the Count of Monte Cristo.  (Reiss hints that he may have been the inspiration for D'Artagnan, but I've also read that he was the basis for Porthos as well.)

It's an interesting and thoroughly readable account of the General's life; France in he revolutionary period and Haiti (Saint-Domingue) during the ancien regime.  It might be a little overly light for the more serious scholars on Languish, but one thing that only this forum will appreciate, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was known by the nickname: The Horatius Cocles of Tyrol.

Speaking of Saint-Domingue and Black Counts, I just read Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James' 1938 work -- the 2nd edition from the early 1960's, which came with a new preface but only added footnotes that (rather unsubtly ) point out his prescience concerning WWII and the postwar African independence movements.

It is somehow timeless, despite the démodé Marxism-Leninism that powers the whole enterprise, in its spirited assault on the popular opinion of Toussaint L'Ouverture and Haitian sovereignty at the time. 

But the work argues most passionately (and most interestingly, IMO) to establish the connection of both Toussaint's life history and Haiti's independence to the course of the French Revolutionary (esp. the Directory) and Napoleonic period.  Bourgeois imperialist readers won't enjoy it quite as much, I expect, but there is much of Orwell's plain-spoken urgency in this work. 

It's to my discredit that it took me so long to read this work, a classic in historiography if nothing else, and then only because I grabbed it from the window of a local used bookstore promoting their Black History Month stock.

[Oexmelin]

On the topic of political theory, any C. Schmitt readers among us?  I know Zanza denounced me for referencing him once, since (like Heidegger) he never apologized for his 1933-35 activity and hence wasn't de-Nazified.  I've read The Concept of the Political, Political Theology, and Theory of the Partisan, but I'm trying to decide the next one to pick up.

Interestingly, Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt not only overlapped in epoch and thought (albeit from left vs right) but contributed to the same journal at the same time (c. 1922, IIRC) so it's impossible they weren't acquainted with each other's ideas.

Got around to reading him earlier this year, rather than read what others wrote about him. Much like your contrition about CLR James, I am ashamed it took me so long.

[Capetan Mihali]

Got around to reading him earlier this year, rather than read what others wrote about him. Much like your contrition about CLR James, I am ashamed it took me so long.

Ah excellent, he's one of those ones (like Benjamin and especially like Lacan, though probably not as much in your field...) that gets little bits cited hither and thither without a real engagement with their work.

(Lacan's writing is a lost cause -- as is his thought and as was his psychoanalytic practice, IMO -- I think Heidegger may be a lost cause in terms of quotability, but not hid thought).  But Schmitt and Benjamin are to blame in part because they write so well, so aphoristically, so biblically.  "Sovereign is he who decides on the exception."  "It is only for the sake of the hopeless that hope is given to us."

At the risk of being overly earnest, I think Agamben is probably the greatest philosopher of our time and I think he has done a great job with Schmitt, but Chantal Mouffe has done a lot, as has David Dyzenhaus up in Toronto, and even [cringe] Žižek at times, so the secondary literature on Schmitt in the last 20 years hasn't been shit, just to absolve your conscience.

[Gups]

The Black Count

Sesame Street has taken political correctness too far!   

Just kidding, the book I actually read was: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss.  I covers the life of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist (and grandfather of the playwright.)  Elements of the general's life serve as the models for both Georges and the Count of Monte Cristo.  (Reiss hints that he may have been the inspiration for D'Artagnan, but I've also read that he was the basis for Porthos as well.)

It's an interesting and thoroughly readable account of the General's life; France in he revolutionary period and Haiti (Saint-Domingue) during the ancien regime.  It might be a little overly light for the more serious scholars on Languish, but one thing that only this forum will appreciate, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas was known by the nickname: The Horatius Cocles of Tyrol.

Speaking of Saint-Domingue and Black Counts, I just read Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James' 1938 work -- the 2nd edition from the early 1960's, which came with a new preface but only added footnotes that (rather unsubtly ) point out his prescience concerning WWII and the postwar African independence movements.

It is somehow timeless, despite the démodé Marxism-Leninism that powers the whole enterprise, in its spirited assault on the popular opinion of Toussaint L'Ouverture and Haitian sovereignty at the time. 

But the work argues most passionately (and most interestingly, IMO) to establish the connection of both Toussaint's life history and Haiti's independence to the course of the French Revolutionary (esp. the Directory) and Napoleonic period.  Bourgeois imperialist readers won't enjoy it quite as much, I expect, but there is much of Orwell's plain-spoken urgency in this work. 

It's to my discredit that it took me so long to read this work, a classic in historiography if nothing else, and then only because I grabbed it from the window of a local used bookstore promoting their Black History Month stock.

You may not be aware that CLR James remains very widely read for his classic book on cricket  "Beyond a Boundary", regularly cited as the best book on the sport (and it's a crowded and competitive field). It's well worth a read, even if you have no interest in cricket.

[Capetan Mihali]

You may not be aware that CLR James remains very widely read for his classic book on cricket  "Beyond a Boundary", regularly cited as the best book on the sport (and it's a crowded and competitive field). It's well worth a read, even if you have no interest in cricket.

Thanks for recommendation, Gups, I knew James was a cricket aficionado, but didn't know about that book in particular, let alone how highly regard it is.  I will definitely take a look.  I've loved Eduardo Galeano's writing on soccer/football/futbol even though I have no interest in that sport either. *ducks*

[11B4V]

Finally out.




His book Days of Battle was well done. It is the only book in English that gave a good descriptive account of the last successful German offensive operation (Operation Southwind) of the war.

[jimmy olsen]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Dawn-Modern-Warfare-History/dp/0803265867

Ordered this, I'll report on it when I get it in the mail.

[The Brain]

Finished Fuchida's autobiography. Which is ironic, since he didn't. Anyway, interesting life and nice descriptions of dramatic moments and what he felt about them.