Things I Read: December 2005

"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Way of the World (From the Dawn of Civilization to the Eve of the 21st Century (David Fromkin, 2000)

I had liked other Fromkin books quite a bit (Europe's Last Summer, A Peace to End All Peace), but didn't find this very compelling.

The author tries to provide a short overview of the history of civilization. Some useful perspectives but inevitably cursory. He does believe the west generally is on the right track in terms of individual liberty, economic freedom, "progress," etc. But who knows.