If there is any theme to these titles it might be found in the idea of empires and their decline, or rulers losing power. It's humbling to remind ourselves that nothing -- not kings or countries -- lasts forever.
Benner, Erica. Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli's Lifelong Quest for Freedom. W.W. Norton & Co, 2017.
- Part biography, part history of the city of Florence between 1494 and 1527, this book contextualized Machiavelli's most famous works including Discourses (1517) and The Prince (1513). Along the way it also reminds the reader that republics are precious and worth fighting for, even if it means great personal risk. Reading this book is a clarion call reminder to preserve our own republic in the face of increasing corruption and authoritarianism.
Cantor, Norman F. The Civilization of the Middle Ages. HarperPerennial, 1993.
- This book sweeps through historic events with a very broad brush. Cantor is seminal in historic studies of the Middle Ages, but the well of knowledge he brings to the topic often assumes a baseline for the reader which may not, in fact, exist. One of my favorite sections of this text appears in Chapter Eleven entitled "The Gregorian World Revolution." In it, Cantor describes the colossal power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and German King Henry IV in 1076. If ever there was an event from which we of the 21st century could draw wisdom, it would be this battle between church and state. Cantor is a good read, but be prepared for the big picture.
- Often funny, profound and ever entertaining, the sacred text of the Quiche Maya of Guatemala is a must read for understanding their culture and spiritual ideology. Christenson's translation is excellent, and includes a moving introduction.
Diamond, Jared. Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis. Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
- Jared Diamond is one of those authors who reliably publishes compelling non-fiction every five years or so. Anything you read by him will be provocative and rewarding. In this case, Upheaval identifies the characteristics a nation needs in order to heal from the trauma of crisis. Some of these characteristics include honest appraisal about how the country arrived in crisis, as well as the need for consensus about how to get out of the crisis. Diamond uses case studies from Finland, Japan, Chile and Germany to illustrate the ways societies might respond to their moment of national upheaval. This is a good book for putting U.S. circumstances into perspective. If you are looking for ideas about how to think about the crisis in the U.S. right now, then this is the book for you.
- I love Shakespeare. He is my inspiration and my muse. I love reading about him, as well as reading works by him. So you can imagine my delight at finding this brand new copy of Shakespeare's King Richard II companioned with Forker's critical commentary at my local thrift shop. I swooped it up in a hot second, only to leave it sitting on my book shelf for many months, unread. But now, in the midst of an increasingly autocratic presidency, I have returned to it and find comfort in Shakespeare's portrayal of a king who sells his name and his kingdom only to lose everything. That which he craves most slips through his grasp -- money, affection, power and fame. That which he fears most is at hand -- poverty, disgust, impotency and ignominy. Certainly, the past informs the present.
- Classic. Epic. Enlightening. Hawley's translation of this ancient Hindu text is easy to read and invigorating. The spiritual truths Krishna shares with Arjuna are enduring and relate-able, making Arjuna a kind of Everyman for the soul.
- This is a hard book to read. Mostly because Jones-Rogers uses primary sourced letters and testimonies of white violence on Black bodies in graphic detail. It seems to be a myth that white women were kinder than men with the slaves they purported to own in the Antebellum Period. Jones-Rogers is here to disabuse all of us of that stereotype. Along the way, she presents strong evidence to show that white women used as much physical, emotional and psychological violence on slaves as did white men. Needless to say, reading this book is a grim reminder of the traumatic legacy slavery inflicted on Black folk.
Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013.
- Kimmerer writes a book of healing by weaving together Indigenous stories with the science of the non-Indian world. I like this book. It is poetic and empowering, wide-eyed honest about the natural world and elegant about human spiritual needs.
- This book is a spin-off line of inquiry after reading Susan Buck-Morss' Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History last December. The topic of that text was Black agency in Haiti in the early 19th century, and the ways in which Hegel implicitly wrote about slavery and freedom in relation to his philosophical exploration of universal history. In this text, edited by Landers and Robinson, that idea of Black agency and empowerment takes a central position. Using primary sources from archives in various slave holding regions of Latin America such as Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, various authors articulate the gradations of Black subversion to white power structures between the 16th through the 19th centuries. It's a good book, and especially useful if you are looking for one or two chapters on the topic of slavery and Black responses to it.
McGinty, Brian. Archy Lee's Struggle for Freedom: The True Story of California Gold, the Nation's Tragic March Toward Civil War, and a Young Black Man's Fight for Liberty. Lyons Press, 2020.
- While doing some research in newspaper archives from San Francisco in the 1870s, I ran across a brief reference to Archy Lee, a young Black man who was fighting to remain free in early California. His story piqued my interest and, to my delight, I found McGinty's just published book released only a couple weeks earlier. It's a good read, full of early California history and the laws associated with slavery. McGinty does a great job using legal documents and newspaper archives to construct the story of Archy Lee as he travels from Mississippi to California to British Columbia, Canada in his quest for freedom.
Orange, Tommy. There, There. Vintage Books, 2018.
- As the Native American renaissance which began in the 1960s continues to weave its way into non-Indian consciousness, emerging writers give voice to the lives and issues of contemporary Indians in interesting ways. Tommy Orange is one such writer. In this gritty novel, Orange presents a group of Indians living in Oakland, California amidst the fractured and fractaled shards of their life journeys. Splintered by racism and poverty, each character attempts to connect with themselves and the spiritual forces around them in ways that are sometimes perverse, often sad and yet always dignified. This is a classic metamodern novel in that the stories are loosely disconnected at the beginning, but oscillate toward a cohesive whole at the end. The trauma non-Indians feel when reading it is but a fraction of the trauma Indians have experienced living this reality.
Parker, T. Jefferson. Iron River: A Charlie Hood Novel. New American Library, 2010.
- This is a book about guns. I must have heard a book review about it somewhere, some time before the pandemic broke out; that's the only explanation I can give for why I ordered it in the first place. Like a bad date, it is not my type. Basically the story revolves around a two-bit detective by name of Charlie Hood. He tracks some gun dealers into Mexico and almost gets shot, but then he makes it out okay and the reader is left dangling with the very blatant suggestion that unanswered questions about his love life will be resolved in the sequel. Finishing this felt like cheap sex. Serious.
Powers, Richard. The Overstory: A Novel. W. W. Norton & Co., 2018.
- Reading this book in the middle of a pandemic has been both saddening and encouraging. The story is one of trees -- their life cycle from seed to rotting stumps --, and of a handful of activists who try to protect them. More than once I am reminded of Edward Abbey's Monkeywrench Gang, that funny and radical story of a ragtag band's desperate attempts to save wild lands. But Powers' book is also a soulful exploration of the natural world, and our human impacts upon it. And in the midst of a global crisis such as the one we face in 2020, these questions of survival are not just rhetorical. Perhaps like the trees, individuals will not make it but the seeds of the next generation may just.
Roy, Arudhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: A Novel. Vintage Books, 2017.
- Even before I had reached the end of it, I already knew this was a book I would need to read again. Akin to a prism, it reflects people, ideas, history and experiences across South Asia. Dense with references to India, Pakistan and Kashmir, this novel sprawls across time and through the lives of people in ways that Roy handles deftly, like the master writer that she is. In it, she tells us the story of the Hijra, transgendered people of the slums of Delhi. But this novel is more than that, too, as it places the reader into the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Kashmir, asking us to consider facets of our knowledge and experience before deciding who is right and what is wrong.
- Shakespeare's masterpiece continues to enthrall me, even after reading it several times every year for the past quarter century. Is Hamlet an actor? Will Hamlet ever act? These perennial questions still bare much fruit in our quest to understand the fateful events of a troubled young prince. You should read it, if you haven't already. And you should read it again, if you already have.
- An eye-opening read about the early childhood of Donald Trump. If nothing else, this book helped me realize that the abuse, neglect and dysfunction he experienced as a child is now being perpetrated upon the entire country.
Now that's a list for you!
ReplyDelete