A Taureg nomad in the Sahara. Photograph by Carsten Peter, National Geographic. © “The nomadic strategy is one means by which people adapt to thinly spread resources and to the variability of the resources across space and over time. It is also a strategy for avoiding other deleterious environmental conditions, such as extreme heat […]
WARNING – EXTENSIVE PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD. This week the bloggers of Fabius Maximus have posted several times on the evils of Orson Scott Card‘s popular science fiction book, Ender’s Game. I figure I might as well pile on. I read Ender’s Game for the second time earlier this summer. I noticed it was included in […]
Whilst Reading: A Portrait of Sofia Kramskoya, the Painter’s Wife (Ivan Kramskoi, 1866)Image Source. Earlier this year I asked if the ‘great books’ have a place in the 21st century. Jospeh Sobran says that they do: “Dogged readers of my columns will observe that I habitually quote a handful of classic writings, chiefly the Shakespeare […]
A popular 10th grade world history book by Elizabeth Ellis.Image Source. Earlier this week Al West wrote two short posts about world history and world history books that I found interesting. World history books? Mr. West does not like them: “Usually, they’re lacking in archaeological nous, have little or no accurate prehistoric content (a big […]
In my review of Michael Lotus and James Bennett’s America 3.0 I stated that French anthropologist Emmanuel Todd (whose work is cited extensively in said work) “is the most under-rated “big idea” thinker in the field of world history.” Craig Willy’s most recent blog post explains why: “Emmanuel Todd’s L’invention de l’Europe: A critical summary“Craig Willy. […]
This week I finished Sallust’s The Jugurthine War (translated by A.J. Woodman), Michael J. Lotus and James C. Bennett’s America 3.0, and Vaclav Smil’s fantastic The Earth’s Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change. Before the month is over I hope to read or finish: William Freehling’s Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1850 Ji Junxiang’s The Orphan of Zhao. […]
It is unusual for me to read a book aimed at popular conservative audiences. I am something of a disaffected conservative. Crony capitalism and government overreach have proved to be bipartisan endeavors, and I have long lost faith that the Republican party can ever be more than an organ of America’s governing elite. [1] Outside […]
A selection of the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.Image source. A “proper education” changes with its times. In the days of America’s founding a true education was a classical education. An educated man was not simply expected to be familiar with the great works of Greek and Roman civilization; the study of […]
This post was originally published in December 2010. A comment thread at Zenpundit’s place has inspired me to resurrect it. I recently read a book by survivalist blogger James Wesley Rawles, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It. This reading has prompted a few thoughts on the aims and validity of […]
What impact does culture have on cognition? Psychologist Richard Nisbett has conducted dozens of studies to find out the answer to this question. Presented in The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently, the results of his study are fascinating – and their implications far reaching. “Perception: How Germans and Chinese See Each Other” from […]
