So, What Are You Reading?

The Age of Jackson-Arthur Schlesinger while I am still reading 1774: The Long Year of Revolution.

 

Finished American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing (2001) by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck.

A complete biography of Timothy McVeigh's life and the Oklahoma City bombing. The most interesting parts to me were his time in the military but no stone in his life or the attack goes unturned.

 

A quick read, Why The New Deal Matters by Eric Rauchway, then back to 1774: The Long Year of Revolution and The Age of Jackson by Arthur Schlinger.

 

Finished Columbine (2009) by Dave Cullen. Perhaps the most comprehensive exploration of the massacre and the real reasons they did what they did.

They planned primarily a bombing and only fell back on the shooting afterwards. Harris was a homicidal psychopath, Klebold was suicidal and deeply infatuated with a classmate.

A good, but hard read.

 

Back to 1774: The Long Year of Revolution..

 

Socrates,Buddha,Confucius,Jesus. Karl Jaspers
Interpersonal Effectiveness. (DBT) Marsha Lineham
Living your Yoga Judith Lasater

 

As I continue to finally get to the finish line of 1774, I am currently trying to finish 1984 by George Orwell. Should be finished by the end of this weekend.

 

Well, I have read 1776 and April 1865, so who knows...LOL

 

Book about a year with a notably melancholic title: 1967: The Last Good Year. Published 30 years later, Canadian popular historian Pierre Berton argued the country and perhaps the West peaked in the centennial year of Confederation.

 

Inside Delta Force (2002) by Eric Haney. An indepth review of the training and operations of this organization from someone who was there near its founding.

The first half of the book cover the training, the remaining ~200 pages various operations in Iran, Beirut and Libya.

A great read for those who want insight into this very secretive special operations unit.

 

The Girls of Atomic City-Denise Kernan

 

Effective Physical Security by Lawrence J. Fennelly. (3rd ed., 2003) This is a handbook in the true sense of the word. Each chapter covers a different element of physical security including locks, cameras, alarms, entry control, etc., with checklists and diagrams. Ways to defeat each mechanism are covered as well as methods to counter or mitigate them.

If I were working in security or law enforcement this would be an indispensible reference.

 

The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine (2017) by Nathan Thrall is a book about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from 1948 until the end of Obama's Presidency in 2016.

In short, its thesis is that Israel has little motivation to give up territory or negotiate peace because they will gain little and risk a lot - financially, politically and from a security perspective.

On the other hand, Palestine is weak. They have no more territory to give up than they already have and no levers to operate. Repeated military losses to Israel have left them without any land to negotiate with, nor military strength to exert pressure and therefore no basis to even start the conversation. So, the stalemate continues.

The "only language they understand" part of the title refers to the idea that both sides eventually come to the table when forced, either through internal violence or external, usually American, pressure. Lacking those things, nothing changes.

What a quagmire.

 

Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness (2019) by Kenneth Pollack explores why Arab militaries so commonly underperformed when compared to others despite numerical, financial and equipment advantages.

While looking at the effects of politicization and Soviet-era doctrine as contributing elements, the primary influence is the Arab culture. Elements like a strong need to avoid shame, to defer decision-making to higher authorities and an education that emphasized rote learning and obeying under all circumstances (meaning not acting different even if the circumstances have changed) all contribute to militaries that are unable to respond on the modern battlefield. (Modern in the book generally being 1948 and later.)

I'd be curious to see if Japan's military has these same issues, because they demonstrate many of the same cultural elements identified in the book.

 

Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (2011). Each chapter looks at a different conflict over the last 150 years. One of the major takeaways is that barring few exceptions every country in a guerilla war has to re-learn the exact same lessons.

My favorite chapter was the one on the US botched time in Vietnam, where they knew in 1965 (if not earlier), the exact steps to take but simply decided to ignore the principles of counterinsurgency to focus on "body counts" for the next decade.

 

I absolutely loved “1984.” Truly horrifying. I taught a dystopian unit at my old high school. The kids really loved “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451.”