King of Kings, Scott Anderson

 

King of Kings:  The Iranian revolution, a story of hubris, delusion, and catastrophic miscalculation by Scott Anderson

Started: September 5, 2025
Completed: November 29, 2025
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Medium: Audio
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

There was a lot to learn in this book.  It was clearly well researched and worked well as a narrative moving back and forth between time periods as needed and managing to maintain a fairly coherent narrative.  Long as it was, it could easily have been much longer as a vast amount of information was covered trivially in the epilogue.  As an American, there was simply so much here that I did not know.  As a highschooler, I did know some of those who escaped Iran with the Shah, but only in the most trivial way as the people I knew did not speak English well (not a slam, to be expected).  I don't know the details, really, but it seemed like the Catholic school in which I was enrolled harbored these kids while their families tried to figure out what to do.

I am much more sympathetic, oddly, to the revolution in Iran after reading this book (which offers little sympathy).  There is no doubt that the people of Iran felt that they were under constant surveillance and that the Shah was robbing the country.  At this point, it seems clear that they are under more threat from the current government, but there is no way to know how things are going to go.  There is also little doubt that the standard of living has declined, but at least the leaders are not living literally as kings.  Please note, I do not sympathize with the demonizing of America that was central to the acceptance of the government, though there is no doubt that the USA's foreign policy has caused most reasonable people to dislike the United States since the end of the Cold War (and likely before).

The Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan

 

The Silk Roads:  A new history of the world by Peter Frankopan

Started:  August 11, 2025
Completed: October 9, 2025
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody in particular, but I think that this caught my eye because of my niece's recent visit to Morocco where she sent me pictures of ruins that once were part of the silk road.

Review:

This look at the history of the world focuses on what we would call the East (here in the West) and identifies how the countries of the East have been the focus of modern history with the start of everything in the general area (think Babylon or Ur if you know that).  The perspective is refreshing and offers new insights if you are even only thinking about trade (which is how this book looks at it).  Surely there are other ways to view the world, but from the perspective of trade Frankopan makes a good argument that what we think of as the Silk Roads were the entry point of West into the lucrative markets, resources, skills, and culture of the East.  Ridiculously long book with an incredible amount of detail.

The Strategists, Phillips Payson O'Brien

 

The Strategists:  Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Hitler how war made them and how they made war by Phillips Payson O'Brien

Started: January 24, 2025
Completed: February 2, 2025
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  This probably came to me through The Atlantic magazine where O'Brien is a frequent contributor

Review:

This book is neither history nor biography.  It looks at the development of strategic thinking of the major leaders during World War II.  To some extent it is amazing what we now know of how they thought.  It was also interesting to see what drove their thinking.  I cannot say that this will change my thinking (I don't operate on a global scale), but it was interesting to see how failure functioned and how success required deference.

Black Earth, Timothy Snyder

 

Black Earth:  The holocaust as history and warning by Timothy Snyder

Started: October 17, 2024
Completed: October 24, 2024
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This brings the lessons of Hitler's Germany to the future.  It makes some of the moves of the Russians into Ukraine more understandable.  Snyder argues that it is anarchy that results in mass killing--the elimination of the state as a protector of the minority results in the attack on the minority.  Russia is pursuing this strategy with the gay community particularly in Ukraine.  Israel is using Hezbollah as a means to destroy the state of Palestine and, presumably, occupy that land to prevent its return. Trump is talking about "the enemy within" as a reference to his political opponents as did Stalin.  Snyder does a good job of identifying and referring to the parallels.  May God help us not repeat them. 

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here, Jonathan Blitzer

 

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here:  The United States, Central America, and the making of a crisis by Jonathan Blitzer

Started: August 21, 2024
Completed: DNF
Recommendation: None
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I have read too many books recently that document the horribleness of American foreign policy in very personal terms.  I just don't have it in me to read another.

Autocracy, Inc., Anne Applebaum

 

Autocracy, Inc.:  The dictators who want to run the world by Anne Applebaum

Started: August 15, 2024
Completed: August 16, 2024
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a quick wallow into the world of autocrats.  It is, as one might imagine, slimy.  Autocrats do not hide in the shadows.  They are big, bold, and literally attacking democracies on many fronts.  This quick read offers a good flavor of autocratic behavior without getting caught up in the details of each dictator.  Rather, the book looks at what they have in common, how they support one another, and what democracies can do to defend and go on the offensive.  The steps are pretty obvious and can be summed up with:  Do Not Tolerate Corruption.  That goes a long way and it is amazing the many little ways that democracies do, indeed, tolerate corruption.  We must stop!

Rome and Persia, Adrian Goldsworthy

 

Rome and Persia:  The seven hundred year rivalry by Adrian Goldsworthy

Started: 12/2/2023

Completed: 12/10/2023

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Words for which  I sought help:

escalade -- the scaling of fortified walls using ladders as a form of military attack

Review:

Goldsworthy opens by suggesting that this book will be about more than just war.  It isn't.  It is all about war.  Maybe that is fine because that is the record we have.  Still I hoped to learn about culture exchange between the groups, to learn about trading communities, and to learn about trading paths.  None of that.  Because, what the real time writers talked about was wars.  We have no idea if there are plays that the two cultures have in common.  It is entirely unclear whether there were gladiatorial combats in Persia...or at least this book simply doesn't address it.  Intermarriage is constrained to the intermixing of royal families that led to, you guessed, it, war.  Goldsworthy tells us about wars, fortifications, attack paths, and even elephants (yes, used in war), but nothing about anything else.  Oh well.

Mapping Mass Mobilization, Olga Onuch

 

Mapping Mass Mobilization:  Understanding revolutionary moments in Argentina and Ukraine by Olga Onuch is actually a text book, but I was struggling to understand how so much of the populace rose up to defend Ukraine and this book was recommended.

Started: 2/4/2023
Completed: Did Not Finish
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By:  I'm not entirely sure.  I was wandering around a bunch of websites and this book kept coming up under "further reading."

Review:

This is remarkably dry and assumes a ton about people and places I can hardly identify.  Way too in depth for me and after six months I had to call it quits.

The Nazi Conspiracy, Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

 

The Nazi Conspiracy:  The secret plot to kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch

Started: 3/12/2023
Completed: 3/15/2023
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nikolay

Review:

About 85% of this book is World War II history.  I did learn one thing I didn't previously know about WWII:  Stalin was 5'4".  I was not aware of this conspiracy and the authors worked hard to piece together what they could, but there just isn't much there.  There is a lot of disputed information, a fair amount of reasonable speculation, but that is about it.  As for the conspiracy itself, it may or may not have happened (probably did), but it clearly didn't work.  So, that is mostly what you know walking in the door and walking out, there is not a lot more.  I know a little more about some obscure figures in Nazi government and a little bit more about the Russian KGB (which, it appears, actively worked to protect everyone involved just like you would hope).  Beyond that it is a refresher on America's involvement in WWII from Pearl Harbor to FDR's death.  It felt like there was a single paper that got blown up to a book.

Egypt's Golden Couple, John Darnell and Colleen Darnell

 

Egypt's Golden Couple:  When Akhenaten and Nefertiti were Gods on Earth by John Darnell and Colleen Darnell.  It is hard for me to resist anything about Nefertiti or Tutankhamun.  As a kid I saw Tut's treasures on display.

Started: 2/20/2023
Completed: 2/24/2023
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

If you are an archaeologist, this is probably not written at a level of scholarly expertise you would find useful.  If you are not an archaeologist, this book is very dry despite the author's efforts to "bring to life" these rulers.  I learned some interesting things--most notably that the bust of Nefertiti was really just a practice head to help sculptors practice setting eyes, but nothing particularly shocking.  If you are a Christian or Jew wondering if Akhenaten was worshipping the one true God, you will be disappointed (he considered himself a God on Earth, which might have resonance for Christians, but would likely be considered blasphemy by both religions).  I like that the scientists who wrote this were clear about what was speculation and what was less speculation.  I like that they were comfortable describing how little they did know and how amazed they were by the details they did after 3,000 years.  It helps make the book more approachable by most people who know nothing but what the scholars share.

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty

 

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty is an economist I truly respect.

Started: 8/2/2022
Completed: 8/5/2022
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is a briefer version  of Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century with a little addition for Trump's reign.  I enjoyed this tight read, but it was largely a recap for me.  Highly recommended for anyone who finds a 1,000 page tome a little daunting.

Land, Simon Winchester

 

Land:  How the hunger for ownership shaped the modern world by Simon Winchester looked like an interest take on world history.

Started: 3/9/2021
Completed: 3/16/2021
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

bagatelle -- a thing of little importance

theodolite -- a surveying instrument with a rotating telescope for measuring horizontal and vertical angles

Review:

I love this author.  It is amazing how well he can tell a story.  I learned a ton about all kinds of different kinds of things.  Most notable to me was the concept of crofters.  What a great book!

The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson

The Splendid and the Vile:  A saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the blitz by Erik Larson is a look at World War II.

Started: 4/19/2020
Completed: 4/25/2020
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  My mother, who said that this was not one of Erik Larson's best, but that she really liked the way he wrote.

Words for which I sought help:

snog -- to kiss and caress amorously

Review:

In the end, my mother did not enjoy the book, but worked her way through it.  I, on the other hand, really liked the juxtaposition of the English and German perspective.  This is largely a biography of Churchill during the war, but it also throws in notes from German diaries.  In addition, Churchill's family gets a bit of perspective.  All of these people were very complex and trying to talk about all of them in a single volume (even a small library) is difficult.  I like the way that Larson was able to share the same events from multiple perspectives simultaneously without making the material dull.  Not every event was viewed from each character, but it seems that when there was a single event that multiple people saw differently, Larson honed in on it and provided the different viewpoints.   This made for a rich read.

The Guns of August, Barbara W. Tuchman

The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman is a book that I have literally put off reading.  I'm not thrilled with war stories.  This one just kept getting referenced and I felt that if I was not familiar with it, I would require lengthy explanations and chiding to go read it.

Started: 2/21/2020
Completed: 2/28/2020
Recommendation: Mildly Recommended
Recommended By: This book was referenced in another book I had read, but I cannot remember which book

Words for which I sought help:

pederast -- a man who desires or engages in sex with boys

Review:

The prose is beautiful and insightful.  The mastery of all the components of the first 30 days or so of WWI is amazing.  Ms. Tuchman brings the humanity of the participants to the fore and really helps the reader understand what was happening.  I pretty much hate war.  That makes it hard to give this book more than a mild recommendation--the thing that holds it back from a better recommendation from me, by far, is the topic.

Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond is a Pulitzer Prize (General Non-Fiction) winning book which talks about human societies.  It was also the winner of the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. The book was also recognized by the Royal Society and awarded the Rhone-Poulenc Prize for Science Books. It was recommended to me by my father and I picked up an audio copy to hear on my commute to work.

Started: 8/30/2013
Completed: 9/13/2013
Recommendation:Highly recommended
Recommended By:  My Father

Review:

First, know that this book is very dry. There are plenty of statistics and the book is peppered with unpronounceable tribes, words, and a slew of concepts (particularly, "kleptocrat") that are overwhelming. Despite the approachable title, this is a work that is remarkably detailed and full of "evidence" far more comforting in a technical work then in a book for the masses. Having said that, WOW!

The author covers about 13,000 years in his analysis, he covers every continent, and he covers vast swathes of humanity. While there is an unquestionable love of New Guinea, the author does his best to prevent his personal bias from overshadowing his research. Kudos to him on this effort, it is my firm belief that he has successfully done so.

The argument put forth is that human development is extremely strongly effected by geography (and, hence, environment). Intuitively this makes sense: nobody would expect Eskimos to invent wheat farming. If the climate is not appropriate, then farming is effectively out of the question. OK, so, who cares? Well, it turns out that it is only with farming that societies (on any scale) have enough time to think about inventing stuff and to develop teeming heaps of people among whom might be great inventors. OK, so, who cares? Well, without new technology society remains basically a subsistence exercise and the size of societies constrained by what can be easily gathered. It also turns out that the hunter/gathering life style inhibits birth rate (basically, you have to wait until one child can walk long distances before having another) which results in less population. Even if you look at invention as a game of chance (a million monkeys at a keyboard writing Shakespeare is a worst case scenario) the more people you have trying to get stuff done, the more likely that one will happen on some inventive solution. This is even more true if the person isn't starving, tired from walking, or spending all his time trying to get food.

The author also explains that people basically find strangers threatening. It seems to be a basic human action to kill a stranger. Various societies (of all kinds) have found ways to prevent outright slaughter, but it turns out that hunter/gatherers are among the most likely to go around killing each other. So, the switch not only supports and encourages a higher birth rate, but murders tend to go down among the farmers (they still wipe out hunter/gatherers).

The book is boring.  Take the time to read it.  Read it slowly and think about the arguments.  It is well worth the effort.