Review: “Capital and Ideology” by Thomas Piketty

Five years after Capital in the Twenty-First Century dominated bestseller lists,  Thomas Piketty returns with a worthy follow-up. His research spans centuries of inequality regimes, tracing where we came from in order to gather some idea of where we may heading. The book is a history of egalitarianism and the lack thereof, slavery, communism, capitalism, and everything in between.

When I first picked up this book, I felt considerably intimidated. I have been meaning to read Capital in the Twenty-First Century since its publication, but could never quite convince myself to dive into an almost 700-page book by an economist. I imagined I would quickly be in over my head. However, I had made a commitment to read and review Capital and Idealogy, and so I set out to create a strategy to tackle the 1,000+ page tome. The strategy was to divide the number of pages in the book by the number of days I had before the publication date, which made it very manageable.

Never had I expected Capital and Ideology to engross me the way it did. The amount of research that went into it is staggering. The book was enlightening in its analysis of past inequality regimes and their relationship to the present, but also enraging in what it revealed. For example, after Haitian independence in 1825, the country was forced to pay French slave-owners back for the loss of their “property”, for the privilege of not being enslaved. Additionally, during the period of colonization, the common argument made against the proposed emancipation of slaves was that paid labor would make it too costly to compete with rival colonial empires. This sounds suspiciously similar to arguments made today that raising wages would make it too expensive for businesses to compete. This causes me to wonder if maybe society has not advanced as far as we would like to think.

Piketty’s argument for progressive taxation, among many other methods of redistribution to create a more egalitarian society, is thorough and convincing. Although I could not possibly retain even a fraction of the facts he presents, I feel like I came away with a much more solid political position and better arguments to support it (something that will hopefully be valuable in an American presidential election year). Something I particular appreciate about Piketty is that he doesn’t lay out the myriad of problems without also presenting solutions – the final chapter of the book imagines just how modern society may move away from the present trend of further concentration of wealth and toward a more equitable future.

TL;DR: If worldwide inequality is something that gets you riled up, don’t let the size of this book scare you away. Piketty will educate and astonish you, even if it needs to be in bite-sized pieces for a month or so. And if you’d like a preview of what you may be getting into, you can always check out his Ted Talk from 2014.

Find it on Goodreads.

Review: “Nine Hills to Nabonkaha” by Sarah Erdman

[From the publisher] The village of Nambonkaha in the Ivory Coast is a place where electricity hasn’t yet arrived, where sorcerers still conjure magic, where the tok-tok sound of women pounding corn fills the morning air like a drumbeat. As Sarah Erdman enters the social fold of the village as a Peace Corps volunteer, she finds that Nambonkaha is also a place where AIDS threatens and poverty is constant, where women suffer the indignities of patriarchal customs, and where children work like adults while still managing to dream. Lyrical and topical, Erdman’s beautiful debut captures the astonishing spirit of an unforgettable community. 

I picked this book up because I’m desperate to gather as much information as I can about what my experience with Peace Corps in Ethiopia may be like. And I’m really happy that I did. The book is full of beautiful details about the lives of the people living in a small village in the Ivory Coast. It brings to life a community that we in the West can’t possibly imagine.

TL;DR: A terrific read for anyone interested in Peace Corps or life in West Africa.

Amazon | Goodreads

Review: “Unintimidated” by Scott Walker

This one is going to be difficult. I don’t hide the fact that I’m liberal, nor do I pretend to like my state’s governor. In fact, during the lead-up to the 2012 recall election, I was campaigning from Lithuania as best I could. But I also believe that  gathering evidence that only reaffirms my political beliefs is not going to help move my state forward. So with no little amount of trepidation, I picked up Scott Walker’s book from the library (because as fair as I try to be, no way was I going to buy it).

It’s really not so bad, and maybe I should thank his ghost-writer for that, former speech writer for George W., Marc Thiessen. The book humanizes Walker and actually made me consider the 2011 collective bargaining fiasco in a different light, with a little more sympathy for his side. There is, of course, plenty of bias – I know the facts have been spun by both sides, so I can’t only blame Walker for doing it.

My problem comes when he suggests the massive protests in Madison were organized by the “union bosses.” The distress I saw on the faces of the educators I knew – college professors or public middle school teachers – said clearly that they weren’t being directed by any union thugs. This was a real battle against ordinary people, not unions. Whether the battle was fair is up to your politics. The title itself, Unintimidated, is a little silly to me. The book practically screams, “Those big mean unions tried to scare us!” Who was he afraid of? The college students or the public school teachers? I don’t doubt that he got death threats, but he had the money and manpower to protect himself.

I could go on ad nauseam, but I’m not here to talk about politics. The point is, the book is a good summary of Wisconsin’s battle regarding collective bargaining and public employee benefits, albeit with plenty of conservative spin.

Verdict:

It’s not terrible. It gave me some sympathy for a man I really, really dislike, while reinforcing the fact that I will do whatever I can to make sure he is not re-elected in November. The book could serve as an introduction to non-Wisconsinites into the collective bargaining debate that has spread across the country.

Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge is available now from Sentinel.

Amazon | Goodreads

Review: “The Bully Pulpit” by Doris Kearns Goodwin

A fantastic narrative about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, and the lives of each individually. But more than that, it’s a story of how the two men(primarily Roosevelt) used the media to fairly promote themselves and their agendas. It’s about a time when journalists cared about their work and strove to produce great stories that could (and did) change the country.

I got the impression while reading that there really used to be honest politicians that worked for the betterment of society rather than for the empowerment of their corporate lobbyists (the narrative about corporate lobbying in this book is painfully familiar). For example, while Taft lived in the Philippines working to set up a new government just after the Spanish-American war, he sent his own children to one of the newly created public schools along with the native children. These days, politicians preach that they know what’s best for public schools, yet they send their own children to a private school (I’m looking at you, Scott Walker).

Goodwin’s politics are pretty obvious throughout the book, though not annoyingly so. She subtly demonstrates approval for Roosevelt and Taft’s efforts to reign in corporate power, and disapproval for those who opposed said efforts.

This rather large work of non-fiction reads like a novel, Goodwin having included plenty of amusing anecdotes to present a rich picture of her subjects. It took Goodwin seven years to write the book, and the majority of that time must have been spent doing research, much like the iconic journalists she writes about.

Verdict:

This is one of the best books I’ve read of any genre in the past year or so. It’s worth picking up your own copy. The hardcover isn’t cheap – the list price is $40.00. However, there are already used copies out there, and the Kindle edition is a more than reasonable $9.99.

Amazon | Goodreads

Review: “Without Their Permission” by Alexis Ohanian

One of the founders of reddit wrote a book! Don’t know what reddit is? It’s only one of the best websites there ever was, one of the most popular sites in the US (but also popular internationally). It allows users to submit links from around the web and vote them up or down, so that really great links are the most visible, and links that suck fall into oblivion.

It also allows users to create their own sub-forums (called subreddits) around any topic you can imagine. I’ve pulled information from /r/books for this blog before. Besides links, users can also submit text posts to ask questions or share information.

The book is both a memoir of the author’s life thus far and a guidebook for entrepreneurs looking to start their own online businesses or websites. As I am no entrepreneur, I enjoyed the book for its anecdotes and insight into the formation of reddit, as well as Ohanian’s other projects like hipmunk (my favorite place to book flights). It’s also a great inspiration to do anything worthwhile, including charity work or political activism (via the interwebs, of course). However, it could make you feel bad about yourself seeing as Ohanian is now known internationally and he’s barely 30. But his tone throughout is humble, not at all condescending.

It’s a quick read and at times made me laugh out loud. It also introduced me to a lot of great new websites, as well as this guy:

You’ll just have to read the book to figure out what that’s all about. Or Google it. Either way.

If you want to hear Ohanian talk about his book, check out his interview on The Colbert Report from November 14th.

Verdict:

If you’re looking for some inspiration for a business or are a reddit fan, it’s worth picking up a copy of your own, though the $27.00 list price seems a bit much for so small a book. Otherwise, find a copy at the library.

Amazon | Goodreads

Review: “My Age of Anxiety” by Scott Stossel

Stossel has obviously done a great amount of research for this book, not only on the neuroscience behind anxiety disorders, but (more interesting to me) also the history of the disorder, how it’s been explained and treated in the past, and how it has been perceived both in the past and today. He discusses some interesting issues, such as anxiety’s similarity to clinical depression, social anxiety’s similarity to autism, and the development of our modern definition and acceptance of PTSD in soldiers.

Although the author makes reference to the inherent egotism in making himself his prime subject, using his own personal experiences adds an element of familiarity to a book that might otherwise be rather sterile. Stossel seems very forthcoming in talking about his own experiences with anxiety, and I can’t imagine the difficulties he must have had in exposing himself in this way. Likewise, the fact that Stossel is a journalist rather than a mental health specialist only makes the book better. Few could refute a journalist’s research abilities (and so I had little doubt of the reliability of his given facts), and as a journalist Stossel’s writing is much more colloquial and digestible than maybe it would have been if written by someone in the field of health or science.

While the science of the book may at times slow it down, I still think it’s an excellent read for anyone who is suffers from anxiety problems or who has a loved one who does. The more I read the book, the more grateful I became that I haven’t had to live with an anxiety disorder.

The first third of the book discusses the nature of anxiety, its history, how its been approached both in the past and today. The third part of the book, titled Drugs, discusses the development of antianxiety medication, from wine in ancient times to our modern Xanax and Prozac. When mass-market antianxiety pills were first made available in the 1950s, scientist Nathan Kline suggested that psychiatric drugs may be a more important invention than the atom bomb, because if everyone is happy we naturally won’t want to bomb each other.

If only.

I think my biggest complaint is only that Stossel attempts to take on too much. There’s a copious amount of (long) footnotes that don’t always relate to the topic being discussed, and while you might argue that I’m not being forced to read them, let’s be realistic – it’s cheating if I don’t read everything. The time I took to read the footnotes extended considerably the time it took me to read the book.

Verdict:

In general, it’s a good book for amateurs interested in the history and basic science behind various forms of anxiety. But readers that aren’t willing to commit the time to read the book should probably stick to WebMD and Wiki, even if that means sacrificing the personal aspects of the book

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel and published by Alfred A. Knopf is on shelves today.

Amazon | Goodreads

 

Review: “The Origin of Satan” by Elaine Pagels

What I expected here was a book about the early development of the concept of Satan and Hell from the Jewish and early Christian perspectives. What I got was a long description of how early Christians broke up into different groups and saw each other as evil. While there was a running thread about how opposing groups blamed each other’s misguidance on demons, there really was not much on “the origin of Satan.”

Pagels sums up what I perceive as her thesis when she says that the concept of Satan is what began a “cultural legacy” of perceiving “social and political conflict in terms of the forces of good contending against the forces of evil in the world.” In other words, when a disagreement about a social or political issue arises, your side is the “good” side and your opponent is “evil.”

One reviewer on Goodreads, who calls herself simply “Rebecca,” reflects my thoughts perfectly:

What this [the book] actually turned out to be is a description of how the Christians rallied themselves again and again by uniting against an exterior enemy, whether that be fellow Jews at first, then pagans, and finally fellow Christians. She maps this Othering by using the occasional touchstone of who it is the writing in question says has been motivated by Satan…The real point is how different generations of Christians retold Christ’s life and teachings through the lens of their own experiences, and how that influenced both the way the four gospels were each written and also which gospels ended up being canonical and which became heretical.

I had some more problems while reading the book’s conclusion. Pagels makes some broad generalizations about the way people think today. She writes:

Those who participate in this comic drama [God vs. Satan] cannot lose. Those who die as martyrs win the victory even more gloriously and are assured that they will celebrate victory along with all of God’s people and the angels in heaven. Throughout the history of Christianity, this vision has inspired countless people to take a stand against insuperable odds in behalf of what they believe is right…This apocalyptic vision has taught even secular-minded people to interpret the history of Western culture as a moral history in which the forces of good contend against the forces of evil in the world. [Emphasis added]

I most definitely do not interpret the history of Western culture as a battle of good against evil. How absurd and small-minded. I see the history of Western culture as a battle for power and survival, and not much more.

On a side note, both Goodreads and Amazon list this book with the subtitle How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans and Heretics. For some reason, this subtitle appears nowhere on the book – not on the front cover, and nowhere inside the book. It’s just as well; it’s quite a condemnatory subtitle, while the book itself certainly is not condemnatory.

Verdict:

I can’t recommend this to anyone. I’ll look elsewhere for a history of the character of Satan. However, if you’re intrigued, it looks like you can get a used hardcover copy on Amazon for $0.01.

Amazon | Goodreads

Review: “The Reason I Jump” by Naoki Higashida

Naoki is a 13-year-old autistic Japanese boy who has done a very remarkable thing; he wrote an eloquent and moving account of what it is like to be inside the mind of a young person with autism. Written mostly in the form of question and answer, Naoki engages the reader with vivid descriptions of how he feels when he has a panic attack, when he feels happiest, and when he feels ashamed for having disappointed someone. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers; rather, he seeks to bring better understanding to autism so that both people with autism and their caretakers can work together.

This is a book unlike any I’ve read before, both in content and in format. It’s a quick read – if I had read it without a break it probably would have taken less than an hour and a half. Naoki has a higher-functioning form of autism than many people have. He can’t hold a face-to-face conversation, but he does have the ability to type. What’s more, he’s able to understand and empathize with the emotions of the non-autistic people around him.

What struck me most was how wise he is about many things. When asked if he would like to be “normal,” his response was the following:

I’ve learned that every human being, with or without disabilities, needs to strive to do their best, and by striving for happiness you will arrive at happiness. For us, you see, having autism is normal – so we can’t know for sure what your “normal” is even like. But so long as we can learn to love ourselves, I’m not sure how much it matters whether we’re normal or autistic.

The book was translated by Cloud Atlas author David Mitchell and his wife, who themselves have an autistic son. Mitchell got involved with the project when he and his wife, who is Japanese, were looking for more information about autism so they could better understand their son’s disability. Mitchell was on The Daily Show back in October to promote the book, and I really recommend checking out the extended interview. Apparently Jon Stewart does his own work with autism, and so it was an intelligent and enlightening conversation between the two of them.

I would recommend The Reason I Jump for anyone who has an interest in autism or other developmental disorders, whether the reader has a loved one with autism or just wants to know a bit more about it. I think it’s  misunderstood in our society, often because it’s over-diagnosed, making many people skeptical that it’s a disorder at all. If you’d like a sample of it, read an excerpt on NPR.

Get on your library hold list now – it took me more than two months to get it!

Amazon | Goodreads

 

Review: “Judgment at Tokyo” by Tim Maga

Most Americans are chiefly concerned with Germany when discussing World War II, and it was partially for this reason that I chose to read a book about the Japanese war crimes trials. It was also because I’m interested in better understanding why the Chinese hate the Japanese so much. The first thing about the trials that struck me was how convoluted they were; the process of charging, trying, and sentencing was, according to Maga, unnecessarily difficult. Because of this, the trials are commonly thought of as the revenge of racist Americans for Japan’s early war victories. Maga argues that the trials did their best to be just and fair, though I have to say that his argument was not especially convincing to me.

I had the book on my to-read list for more than two years before picking it up at the library. The book is rather dry, and as I already have trouble getting through books about history (because of my issues remembering names and dates, not because I don’t find them interesting), it was difficult at times to concentrate on what I was reading. Honestly, the fact that the book had been sitting on my local library’s shelves for so long, and therefore smelled great, was what got me through it. Never underestimate the value of a book’s smell. Also, the book is only 150 pages long, so I was able to finish it in just over 24 hours.

Because it’s a quick read, I consider Judgment at Tokyo to be a reasonable introduction to the Japanese war crime trials, though I’d advise the potential reader to make sure they know something about Japan’s role in WWII before picking it up.

Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials by Tim Maga

Goodreads

Amazon

 

 

Review: “Did Jesus Exist?” by Bart D. Ehrman

I wanted to like this book, really. A couple years ago I read Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus and it was truly eye-opening, especially to someone who grew up in a Christian school, and so I have a good deal of respect for Ehrman. I picked up this book because I’ve been curious about the question of Jesus as a historical figure, whether there actually was a man that the New Testament is based off of (regardless of whether he was a holy man or not). Ehrman, a staunch and vocal agnostic, makes the argument that of course there was a historical man named Jesus, and sets out to explain why he’s right and “mythicists” (those who argue that Jesus is only a myth) are wrong.

Unfortunately, I came across this article, written by one of the scholars Ehrman slams in his book, just as I was getting into the book. It’s an in-depth critique of the problems with the book that I decided not to read  until after I had finished the book, but knowing that the book received great criticism for being inaccurate made me really slog through it. It took me probably at least six weeks to read because I kept putting it down in favor of something else. I noticed myself that there are parts in the book when he contradicts things he said in the other book of his that I read.

And so I’ll have to look elsewhere for a solid book about the historicity of Jesus, *le sigh*.

Instead of this book, check out Misquoting Jesus.