John
The Storm Is Here
Urgent reading on the cusp of 2024 and the coming attempt of the Trumpists to regain power and end American democracy.
Urgent reading on the cusp of 2024 and the coming attempt of the Trumpists to regain power and end American democracy.
Well written and keeps the reader engaged; could have lost some of the dad jokes but overall quite good, especially in an illuminating theme that carries throughout the book in terms of placing cemeteries as the places that became models for much of what America became, especially the grass-lawn suburbia of the post-war era.
Well written and keeps the reader engaged; could have lost some of the dad jokes but overall quite good, especially in an illuminating theme that carries throughout the book in terms of placing cemeteries as the places that became models for much of what America became, especially the grass-lawn suburbia of the post-war era.
Some tremendous sections in here. A chilling read in November 2023, 85 years after Kristallnacht, when a small group of Nazis marched down State St in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday. The back third of the book trying to suss out the “German” character doesn’t hold up well at all, but the first 15 chapters are full of insights and recognizable people who fill the MAGA movement here.
Some tremendous sections in here. A chilling read in November 2023, 85 years after Kristallnacht, when a small group of Nazis marched down State St in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday. The back third of the book trying to suss out the “German” character doesn’t hold up well at all, but the first 15 chapters are full of insights and recognizable people who fill the MAGA movement here.
The low rating for this book is really an average, because there’s some five-star materials in here, and some one-star sections. Maybe there is simply no way to have a good Econ history book within the conventions of popular publishing, which says that anything that smacks of a text book costs you sales — so this book which is constantly making comparisons and drawing analogies, and comparing different eras and places is entirely devoid of graphics to make those things memorable. So it’s really a much harder read than it needs to be. And way longer than it needs to be.
Overall this book was a slog, but I think a slog worth making for some of the insights I just wish it has been boiled down to two or three long read articles and handed to a gifted graphic designer who could have done some explainers to go along with it.
This book is to Economic/world history what a chess book would have been with no chess diagrams and the moves all described in words, rather than in compact and standardized chess notation - bulks up the product considerably, and makes it a lot more work for the reader to identify the insights.
The low rating for this book is really an average, because there’s some five-star materials in here, and some one-star sections. Maybe there is simply no way to have a good Econ history book within the conventions of popular publishing, which says that anything that smacks of a text book costs you sales — so this book which is constantly making comparisons and drawing analogies, and comparing different eras and places is entirely devoid of graphics to make those things memorable. So it’s really a much harder read than it needs to be. And way longer than it needs to be.
Overall this book was a slog, but I think a slog worth making for some of the insights I just wish it has been boiled down to two or three long read articles and handed to a gifted graphic designer who could have done some explainers to go along with it.
This book is to Economic/world history what a chess book would have been with no chess diagrams and the moves all described in words, rather than in compact and standardized chess notation - bulks up the product considerably, and makes it a lot more work for the reader to identify the insights.
