2004: the year in books
Commuting by subway and access to big public library systems means that I get a lot of reading done. For some reason, however, I have no patience for fiction; I prefer non-fiction. With that in mind, I'd like to run down the best non-fiction books of 2004. I do it Casey Kasem-style, counting down to my favorite.
Before the countdown, though, there is one book that deserves special mention: "Doubt" by Jennifer Michael Hecht. I separate it from the list because I know the author and my enthusaism for her book might therefore not seem objective. It's a longitudinal history of religious doubt and skepticism (which I am a subscriber to). The book is rich with figures throughout history I'd otherwise never heard of, questioning the prevailing religion of their day, be it ancient Hinduism, medieval Islam, or the Olympian pantheon. The book also discusses the skeptic traditions from unlikely sources, from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament to the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to early Christians. Fascinating and extremely well-written.
OK, now onto the others:
"Blue Blood" by Edward Conlon - interesting account of what it's like to be an NYPD cop in the South Bronx. Well-written, often very funny and valuable for the perspective you get reading it, even if you don't agree with everything the author says. The downside is that the book is a little heavy on the author's personal and family history.
"Rabbi Paul" by Bruce Chilton - biography of St. Paul, exploring the intellectual currents that informed his interpretation of Christianity, which of course came to dominate and define the religion.
"'I Heard You Paint Houses'" by Charles Brandt - oral history of Frank Sheeran, Jimmy Hoffa's now-deceased second-in-command, with some startling (if not totally credible) revelations about the assassinations of Hoffa and JFK, with some insights about life in the mob
"Opening Mexico" by Julia Preston and Sam Dillon - account of how Mexico tranformed from an effective one-party state to a functional democracy in the 2000 election, with some useful historical background
"Fools Rush In" by Nina Monk - entertaining, breezy, and not-terribly-consequential history of the ill-fated AOL-Time-Warner merger with some entertaining anecdotes and background in the telecommunications business
"High Noon In the Cold War" by Max Frankel - interesting account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a particular focus on the internal demons JFK and Krushchev battled
"A Continent For the Taking" by Howard French - a New York Times reporter's itinerary through a handful of African countries, with insights on politics and history, from the war-torn and pathological Congo to the democratic promise of Mali
"Enemy Aliens" by David Cole - a lawyer's view of the indiscriminate post-9/11 roundup of immigrants; a little bit longer than it needs to be but with some very valuable information about the Patriot Act, the Ashcroft DOJ, and their impact on everyday immigrants and the effect on the war on terror
"Out Of Gas" by David Goodstein - very short but jam-packed scientific precis on energy issues in general and the imminent depletion of petroleum resources in particular. If this book doesn't make you want to raise gas taxes (or at least get an electric car) nothing will
"Bull!" by Maggie Mahar - a nice history of the bull market of the '80s and '90s, with very persuasive arguments about its ephemeral nature
"Chain Of Command" by Seymour Hirsch - I've cited this book often in my blog, as it is an extremely valuable treasure trove of information about the bundle of issues, such as the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the Abu Ghraeb scandal, and a host of like issues. It's biggest flaw is that it is essentially a hastily-constructed series of New Yorker article Hirsch has written and doesn't feel terribly well-organized or coherent. But who cares when you've got substance this substantive
"Against All Enemies" by Richard Clarke - about as riveting a book about terrorism as I've read, with a gripping account of life as the "terrorism czar" on 9/11 itself to the best argument I've ever read against the Iraq war
"Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston - an exhaustive, and depressing, compendium of the numerous regressive aspects of our income tax code, from the payroll tax to the perverse unfairness of the alternative minimum tax to endless schemes the rich have to avoid paying taxes to aggressive auditing of the poor taking advantage of the earned income tax credit. Another valuable treasure trove of information.
"Island At the Center Of the World" by Russell Shorto - who else but a New Yorker could name a book about New York as such. This book focuses on the original Dutch settlement of New York/Niew Amsterdam, persuasively making the argument that the Dutch penchant for religious and ethnic tolerance and sophisicated proto-corporate capitalism came to define the character of the U.S. a lot more than, say, the theocratic Puritans in Massachusetts. Makes for fun reading, too.
"Ghost Wars" by Steven Coll - another great book about the war on terror, this one focuses on the development of Al-Qaeda in the Soviet-Afghan War, with more inside information than you would think would be legal to print
"American Dream" by Jason Deparle - even-handed, well-written, poignant examination of welfare reform, including some excellent history of the AFDC program, the Washington politics surrounding the issue in the '90s, and the impact on one extended family in Milwaukee in particular
"Origins Of the Crash" by Roger Lowenstein - similar subject-matter as Maggie Mahar's "Bull", about the overvalued bull market of the '90s, but with greater and pithier emphasis on the role of fraud by corporate chieftains, the fleecing of the ordinary investor, and the shocking scandal of the arcana of expensing stock options
"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig - some topics, like the abuses of intellectual property, really deserve more attention and debate than they get and Stanford law professor Lessig serves it up in a very satisfying way, doing everything from analyzing the issues to deconstructing his oral argument at the Supreme Court on a related case.
Before the countdown, though, there is one book that deserves special mention: "Doubt" by Jennifer Michael Hecht. I separate it from the list because I know the author and my enthusaism for her book might therefore not seem objective. It's a longitudinal history of religious doubt and skepticism (which I am a subscriber to). The book is rich with figures throughout history I'd otherwise never heard of, questioning the prevailing religion of their day, be it ancient Hinduism, medieval Islam, or the Olympian pantheon. The book also discusses the skeptic traditions from unlikely sources, from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament to the Framers of the U.S. Constitution to early Christians. Fascinating and extremely well-written.
OK, now onto the others:
"Blue Blood" by Edward Conlon - interesting account of what it's like to be an NYPD cop in the South Bronx. Well-written, often very funny and valuable for the perspective you get reading it, even if you don't agree with everything the author says. The downside is that the book is a little heavy on the author's personal and family history.
"Rabbi Paul" by Bruce Chilton - biography of St. Paul, exploring the intellectual currents that informed his interpretation of Christianity, which of course came to dominate and define the religion.
"'I Heard You Paint Houses'" by Charles Brandt - oral history of Frank Sheeran, Jimmy Hoffa's now-deceased second-in-command, with some startling (if not totally credible) revelations about the assassinations of Hoffa and JFK, with some insights about life in the mob
"Opening Mexico" by Julia Preston and Sam Dillon - account of how Mexico tranformed from an effective one-party state to a functional democracy in the 2000 election, with some useful historical background
"Fools Rush In" by Nina Monk - entertaining, breezy, and not-terribly-consequential history of the ill-fated AOL-Time-Warner merger with some entertaining anecdotes and background in the telecommunications business
"High Noon In the Cold War" by Max Frankel - interesting account of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a particular focus on the internal demons JFK and Krushchev battled
"A Continent For the Taking" by Howard French - a New York Times reporter's itinerary through a handful of African countries, with insights on politics and history, from the war-torn and pathological Congo to the democratic promise of Mali
"Enemy Aliens" by David Cole - a lawyer's view of the indiscriminate post-9/11 roundup of immigrants; a little bit longer than it needs to be but with some very valuable information about the Patriot Act, the Ashcroft DOJ, and their impact on everyday immigrants and the effect on the war on terror
"Out Of Gas" by David Goodstein - very short but jam-packed scientific precis on energy issues in general and the imminent depletion of petroleum resources in particular. If this book doesn't make you want to raise gas taxes (or at least get an electric car) nothing will
"Bull!" by Maggie Mahar - a nice history of the bull market of the '80s and '90s, with very persuasive arguments about its ephemeral nature
"Chain Of Command" by Seymour Hirsch - I've cited this book often in my blog, as it is an extremely valuable treasure trove of information about the bundle of issues, such as the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the Abu Ghraeb scandal, and a host of like issues. It's biggest flaw is that it is essentially a hastily-constructed series of New Yorker article Hirsch has written and doesn't feel terribly well-organized or coherent. But who cares when you've got substance this substantive
"Against All Enemies" by Richard Clarke - about as riveting a book about terrorism as I've read, with a gripping account of life as the "terrorism czar" on 9/11 itself to the best argument I've ever read against the Iraq war
"Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston - an exhaustive, and depressing, compendium of the numerous regressive aspects of our income tax code, from the payroll tax to the perverse unfairness of the alternative minimum tax to endless schemes the rich have to avoid paying taxes to aggressive auditing of the poor taking advantage of the earned income tax credit. Another valuable treasure trove of information.
"Island At the Center Of the World" by Russell Shorto - who else but a New Yorker could name a book about New York as such. This book focuses on the original Dutch settlement of New York/Niew Amsterdam, persuasively making the argument that the Dutch penchant for religious and ethnic tolerance and sophisicated proto-corporate capitalism came to define the character of the U.S. a lot more than, say, the theocratic Puritans in Massachusetts. Makes for fun reading, too.
"Ghost Wars" by Steven Coll - another great book about the war on terror, this one focuses on the development of Al-Qaeda in the Soviet-Afghan War, with more inside information than you would think would be legal to print
"American Dream" by Jason Deparle - even-handed, well-written, poignant examination of welfare reform, including some excellent history of the AFDC program, the Washington politics surrounding the issue in the '90s, and the impact on one extended family in Milwaukee in particular
"Origins Of the Crash" by Roger Lowenstein - similar subject-matter as Maggie Mahar's "Bull", about the overvalued bull market of the '90s, but with greater and pithier emphasis on the role of fraud by corporate chieftains, the fleecing of the ordinary investor, and the shocking scandal of the arcana of expensing stock options
"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig - some topics, like the abuses of intellectual property, really deserve more attention and debate than they get and Stanford law professor Lessig serves it up in a very satisfying way, doing everything from analyzing the issues to deconstructing his oral argument at the Supreme Court on a related case.
Labels: media
posted by honestpartisan | 1:38 PM
1 Comments:
Jack, what a great blog!Thank you so much for the non fiction info.EB
Post a Comment
<< Home