Ian Kershaw – Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis
The second volume, covering the buildup, the war years, and Hitler’s death. It’s amazing how many times throughout the book I thought “that’s horrible, that’s like something the Nazis would… oh, right.”
No matter how many books one reads about the Holocaust, Holodomor, gulag, Maoist China, north Korea, and the like, it remains shocking what people can do to each other. These things really happened.
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Posted in Books, History, Uncategorized
Ian Kershaw – Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris
Another book I read due to my recent interest in populism. This is the first of a two-part work, generally considered the definitive Hitler biography. Kershaw’s approach is that individuals matter, but larger cultural and economic forces are more important for explaining how the Third Reich and its atrocities were possible.
Hitler was not an interchangeable cog. But the times matter, not just the man. Hitler would have been just another mostly harmless drudge without wounded post-WWI German pride, worldwide depression, and intellectual fads including left and right totalitarianism, progressive eugenics theory, and a widespread casual acceptance of racism.
This opening volume traces Hitler’s birth and childhood through his World War I experience, artistic failures and radicalization in Vienna, and his political rise. It ends when he is firmly established as Chancellor, ready to make war again. Despite Kershaw’s institutions-over-individuals approach, he gives Hitler ample personal attention, and the effect is chilling on both levels.
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Anthony de Jasay – The State
This book consists of five chapters. The first imagines what society would look like without any state at all; the last imagines a total state. The chapters in between look at in-between states. De Jasay shares deep insights in social contract theory. For example, states compete with each other in a Hobbesian state of nature, even if individuals no longer do.
Jasay is also skeptical of utilitarianism as a guide to public policy. Because interpersonal utility comparisons are impossible, it is impossible to honestly tell other people what is best for them. This is a major impediment to well-intentioned arguments for state intervention.
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Posted in Books, Philosophy, Political Animals, Uncategorized
Masaji Ishikawa – A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea
Ishikawa was born in Japan in 1947 to a Korean father and Japanese mother. His family moved to north Korea when he was 13. This turned out to be a mistake, and it took him 36 years to escape. Ishikawa’s story is one of hunger, pain, loneliness, drudgery, heartbreak, and loss.
North Korea also has a rigid caste system. Anyone with Japanese lineage or family connections was essentially an untouchable, making Ishikawa’s life even harder. Fortunately, he at least managed to stay out of the north Korean gulag.
As most memoirs do, some parts seem a little exaggerated, especially his early years in Japan, which were dominated by an abusive and thuggish father—who made the fateful decision to move to north Korea rather than South Korea, where he was born. The move changed his father’s personality for the better almost overnight. But Ishikawa does not portray himself as a saint, regretting more than one instance where he inherited his father’s temper.
More to the point, Ishikawa tells stories from the inside of a nation-scale human rights tragedy. By bringing attention to the issue, he is helping to make things better one day. Even if he has not yet found happiness for himself after his escape–a common theme in other north Korean escapee memoirs I’ve read–Ishikawa has still done an immense amount of good for others. May he find some peace in knowing that.
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Posted in Books, International, Uncategorized
Walter Isaacson – Steve Jobs
A biography of the Apple co-founder. Isaacson captures Jobs’ multifaceted character. Jobs created life-changing innovations that improved millions of lives in fields as diverse as hardware, software, movies, music, and retail. He cofounded what would become the world’s most valuable company, and untold thousands of jobs. His minimalist design aesthetic has influenced countless other industries.
But Jobs had an artist’s difficult temperament, wasn’t much of a father, and could be hurtful to people he loved and who loved him. His odd new age beliefs are partly to blame for his likely avoidable death from pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed at an early and likely treatable stage, but insisted on holding off medical treatment for nearly a year, preferring instead such measures as an alternative diet. Jobs was a great man, but not a good one in all ways.
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Posted in Books, Innovation, Technology, Uncategorized
Douglas Irwin – Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression
A non-hyperbolic take on the most notorious tariff bill in American history. The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 was economically harmful, made the Great Depression even worse, and soured international relations at just about the worst possible time.
But the Depression began before Smoot-Hawley passed, so the bill can’t be blamed for causing it, which is a mistake many analysts make. The main culprit was monetary policy—a one-third contraction in the money supply distorted prices, ruined the investment climate, disrupted the financial sector, created massive economic uncertainties here and abroad
Monetary contraction also made Smoot-Hawley’s tariff hikes even more severe. For example, suppose there is a $1 tariff on a good that sells for $5. A rapid deflation lowers its nominal price to, say, $3 in nominal terms, but the tariff remains at $1. What was a 20 percent tariff becomes a 33 percent tariff for reasons having nothing to do with the Smoot-Hawley bill. Outside factors made a bad bill even worse.
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Posted in Books, Economics, History, Trade, Uncategorized
Douglas Irwin – Free Trade Under Fire, 4th Edition
Excellent, except for the carbon tax proposal at the very end. Knowledge problems and incentive problems doom that idea. Otherwise, while a bit long for an introductory text, this book is about as good an intro to arguments for and against free trade as there is. It is also a good guide to institutions such as the WTO and the recent move towards multilateral, bilateral, and regional trade agreements.
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Posted in Books, Economics, Trade, Uncategorized
Adam Hochschild – To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
A superb history of World War I, from the generation-long buildup all the way through the aftermath. What sets this book apart from the standard WWI histories is the substantial attention it pays to the anti-war movement of the time.
The stakes were much higher back then—both in terms of the war’s casualties compared to today’s wars, but also in the treatment of dissidents. Britain in particular went well beyond arrests. Anti-war activists and conscientious objectors were hit with punishments ranging from censorship to imprisonment to, ironically, the death penalty.
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Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
One of the earliest and best expositions of social contract theory. Hobbes also had a more accurate view of human nature than Locke or especially Rousseau, with whom he is often contrasted. The third and fourth parts of Leviathan are bogged down by theology and needless definitions of terms, and Hobbes’ royal absolutism is based more on arguments by assertion and authority than on reason or empiricism. Still, Leviathan has earned its place in political philosophy’s canon.
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Posted in Books, Philosophy, Political Animals, Uncategorized
Joseph Heller – Catch-22
The funniest thing I’ve read in years. In the book, Catch-22 is a fictional rule that fighter pilots cannot fly combat missions if they are insane. But asking out of a mission is proof of sanity, so such pilots therefore must fly combat missions. Similar plays on logic occur throughout the book, making the Abbott and Costello-style back-and-forths even funnier. Other hijinks range from typical young male bawdiness to hilariously petty infighting among the commanding officers, to some of the pilots making some money on the side by using military aircraft to make trade runs to nearby cities, even cornering the markets in various commodities.
The rampant mirth and cynicism only magnify the poignant and tragic scenes, making the book’s anti-war message hit home on multiple fronts. The light makes the shade even darker.
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Posted in Books, Literature, Uncategorized
Inertia Wins! 