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Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?
- Thread starter Huntn
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Rereading Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. It's long (I have the ebook but I think the hard copy is around 700 pages) and I feel I didn't do it justice the first time around. Coll provides an up-front list of the large cast of characters touched on in his account, which stretches from back in the late 1970s to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Fascinating book and well researched including from sources that were previously classified and thus new to the general public in 2004 when it was published.
Sounds fascinating.
This is not a book I have read, although I have seen it cited. When I sought recommendations as to suggested reading material, names such as Ahmed Rashid, Barnett Rubin, - and, more recently, individuals such as Sarah Chaynes - were proffered.
However, one of the curious things about Afghanistan is that some (by no means all) of the names that feature in a work covering with those years are still on the political stage and in public life in Afghanistan.
Is it worth reading?
Yes I've found Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars very useful and am happy to be delving into it again. In an area of ever shifting alliances within Afghanistan and among the country itself (and or its chieftains, let's say), its neighbors and interested other parties, a book like this provides historical context and overall time lines that no one has a grip on while the described events are occurring.
In fact Coll, who had worked as a correspondent in the region between 1989 and 1992 and eventually served as WaPo’s South Asia bureau chief (and was later the paper’s managing editor until 1998) noted in his afterword that
“One of my purposes in this project was to provide Afghans with
reliable, transparent access to hidden strands of their own history”.
reliable, transparent access to hidden strands of their own history”.
The research that Coll (and his primary assistant, Griff Witte) engaged in seemed very thorough; the book was based on direct interviews, access to relevant archives public and personal, state department cables and document sets, commission report, congressional hearings transcripts, speeches, private papers, journal articles and manuscripts, newspaper articles, court documents and a raft of books. He appears to have gone to appropriate lengths to thread the needle between attribution and personal security or professional cover where those could still be an issue.
The books is a notes heaven. Coll (and/or Witte) sometimes supply four or five references for a single quote or assertion in the body of text. I’m not happy the ebook doesn’t have live links between the note marks and the notes themselves but I’ve learned to live with it and “search” facility still makes it easier to flip back and forth than with the hard copy at least for me. But in this day and age... the publisher should take the trouble to make the notes more usable. Likewise the index. I suppose then it would cost a hundred bucks. Perhaps an updated version will improve the links for at least the notes.
On the matter of Rashid’s book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Coll acknowledged it thus:
“Ahmed Rashid’s book was not only a great
feat of journalism, but an act of personal bravery.”
feat of journalism, but an act of personal bravery.”
Another work of Steve Coll’s that I’ve liked very much is his 1993 book On the Grand Trunk Road: A Journey into South Asia.
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
My Stephen King book finally arrived today. Very late at that, but I don't care. I'm glad I now have a copy to read and add to my collection of hard to find originals. I found Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World while I was looking for biographies on David Lloyd George. Perhaps @Scepticalscribe can give me a recommendation.
My Stephen King book finally arrived today. Very late at that, but I don't care. I'm glad I now have a copy to read and add to my collection of hard to find originals. I found Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World while I was looking for biographies on David Lloyd George. Perhaps @Scepticalscribe can give me a recommendation.
I have read quite a few biographies on David Lloyd George.
Actually, he was a very divisive character, inspiring love, devotion and loathing in almost equal measure.
An excellent look at the Liberal Government (basically British constitutional history 1906-1914) is George Dangerfield's superb book "The Strange Death of Liberal England".
The book was published in the mid 1930s, and the latter chapters (especially the one on the suffragettes) do show its age (essentially, he supported the suffragettes, but thought it rather unladylike to hurl rocks through windows, though his sketching of working class grievances is less judgmental) do show the book's age.
But the first chapter - almost a hundred pages long - is simply superb, and beautifully written, too. In essence, it argues - quite brilliantly - that the Liberals sawed off the branch that they were sitting on.
And the pen portrait sketched of DLG is wonderful - you see him at his irreverent, radical, savagely witty, brave and brilliant best, in this book.
The Labour politician Roy Hattersley has written a balanced, (but fairly biting) recent biography of Lloyd George; to my mind, it is the best of the recent works, and it has the further advantage that it is a single volume - and very readable - biography.
Moreover, it also has the advantage of being able to discuss openly what can best be described as Lloyd George's rather "complicated" private life, (earlier works were very coy on the subject, and there was something both brilliant and sleazy about DLG) and has been able to take advantage of recent scholarship, as well.
However, it is clear, reading it - and Hattersley does allude to this - that he had started his research for the work as an admirer of DLG, but came to dislike the man. Intensely.
Actually, I must admit that I am rather partial to well written biographies by politicians - the sort of bright politicians who were equally at home in academia and in public office.
Apart from Roy Hattersley, another, cut from a similar cloth, who was an equally fine historian was Roy Jenkins (his biography of Winston Churchill is excellent).
These individuals, precisely because they had held high office themselves, also knew - and - this is key - also understood - how Government actually worked (as opposed to how it is supposed to work, or should work in an ideal world, which are very different criteria). This makes their insights all the more interesting.
For those seeking even greater depth, John Grigg wrote an outstanding biography of DLG, but it comes in four volumes.
Possibly the most scathing account of all comes from David Lloyd George's own son, his eldest son, Richard Lloyd George. I remember how stunned I was when I read it - and this is not a recent publication, either.
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I finished Kissinger's book, so this is next:
If memory serves me correctly, wasn't Jack Matlock an American diplomat (and a good one, I seem to recall)?
Well, I remember having seen him on TV and I always thought that he always seemed to make some sort of sense - whereas some of them didn't.
Every day this week, the post has brought nice, fat, heavy books.
However, the order of arrival does not determine the order of reading.
One that arrived today is a recent publication: "Alter Egos - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, And The Twilight Struggle Over American Power" by Mark Landler.
However, the order of arrival does not determine the order of reading.
One that arrived today is a recent publication: "Alter Egos - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, And The Twilight Struggle Over American Power" by Mark Landler.
"Alter Egos" was very good - balanced, well researched and very readable.
Even though the events of last night have made it somewhat - perhaps - moot - it is still worth reading.
Even though the events of last night have made it somewhat - perhaps - moot - it is still worth reading.
The post delivered a book that has just been published in the past week, and received excellent reviews. The book is called "All Out War - The Full Story Of How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class" by Tim Shipman.
Now, it is a nice, fat, beautifully produced hardback, the kind of book I love.
And I am looking forward to reading it.
But, not today and not tonight. For some strange reason, I want escapist fiction tonight, rather than hard and high politics.
Now, it is a nice, fat, beautifully produced hardback, the kind of book I love.
And I am looking forward to reading it.
But, not today and not tonight. For some strange reason, I want escapist fiction tonight, rather than hard and high politics.
I just finished Matlock Jr's book on the end of the Cold War, Reagan and Gorbachev - How the cold war ended. Quite an informative and well written book. It's technical at times, a lot of discussion on the preparations for summits etc, but it is definetly worth reading if you're interested on the subject.
The Public Library just texted me that this 1973 book has arrived. I will pick it up today or tomorrow:
[doublepost=1478720308][/doublepost]
Let me know how's the book, the subject is very interesting. Keep in mind that I am not really that familiar with UK politics...
The Public Library just texted me that this 1973 book has arrived. I will pick it up today or tomorrow:
[doublepost=1478720308][/doublepost]
Let me know how's the book, the subject is very interesting. Keep in mind that I am not really that familiar with UK politics...
I just finished Matlock Jr's book on the end of the Cold War, Reagan and Gorbachev - How the cold war ended. Quite an informative and well written book. It's technical at times, a lot of discussion on the preparations for summits etc, but it is definetly worth reading if you're interested on the subject.
The Public Library just texted me that this 1973 book has arrived. I will pick it up today or tomorrow:
[doublepost=1478720308][/doublepost]
Let me know how's the book, the subject is very interesting. Keep in mind that I am not really that familiar with UK politics...
Well, as I mentioned above, I did like 'Alter Egos', and found it exceptionally readable (and pretty fair, as well) - not least because the areas it covers have been - and, in many cases, still are, - very much in the public eye.
Looking for a recommendation based on the following.
I really like Dean Koontz (read pretty much everything outside of the Odd series which I did not like)
Like Stephen King, for the most part.
Looking for something along the supernatural, murder, detective type story line.
Just finished Dean Koontz "Dragon Tears" which is the second time I have read it. One of my favorite books from him.
I really like Dean Koontz (read pretty much everything outside of the Odd series which I did not like)
Like Stephen King, for the most part.
Looking for something along the supernatural, murder, detective type story line.
Just finished Dean Koontz "Dragon Tears" which is the second time I have read it. One of my favorite books from him.
If you like Stephen King you might like "Swan Song" by Robert R McCammon. It's a bit like King's The Stand.
If you like Stephen King you might like "Swan Song" by Robert R McCammon. It's a bit like King's The Stand.
Thank you very much! Looked it up on Amazon and it has a boat load of good reviews! Just picked it up and downloaded it to my kindle! Thank you again!