"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, October 30, 2014

The Rule of the Clan (Mark S. Weiner, 2013)

Saw some favorable references, but this wasn't very interesting.  At least it was pretty short.

The author addresses the difference between traditional clan-based governance systems and the modern liberal state.  I think he's obviously correct in noting that the modern liberal state - with its emphasis on individual rights - can't function without a strong central government.  But he seems to fear that the government (U.S.) in its current iteration can't be scaled back without risk that we'll devolve into something more along the lines of a clan-based system.

Which is pretty ridiculous.  To surpass clan systems, the state does need to be strong - but primarily in matters such as protection of individual rights (property and otherwise), police force, military, etc.  And no doubt some involvement in infrastructure etc.  But the current U.S. system veers far toward usurping individual rights.  So that was kind of an off-target sideshow for the author.

Somewhat interesting discussions about clan systems in various setting - Scotland, Iceland, the middle east, etc.  Concepts of honor and shame.  Subjugation of the individual - especially if you happen to be female.  Why clan systems tend to work in the absence of a centralized state - participants obtain protection in an anarchic setting plus strong group identification - but at the expense of individual liberties.

An unexpected and completely immediate overlap with a just-read book:  as the author describes the transition from clan to state in Britain, who should he cite (at p. 147) but Edwin of Northumbria, a central figure in this piece of historical fiction.  The author discusses the role of religion in assisting the transition from clan to modern state (centralization) - also a theme in the linked work.  Big Religion and Big State work well together!

Author notes the tendency to glamorize those old-timey clan systems - the feeling of inclusiveness can seem attractive as the modern liberal state can leave folks feeling disconnected.  Yet in the end, folks with a choice tend to migrate out of clan-ism.

Clan systems aren't going away.  They are dramatically different than our (U.S.) society - which should make us humble when intervening in middle east situations.  But we seem to remain un-humble.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Isaac's Storm - A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History (Erik Larson, 1999)

Book club selection (via NOC).

Recounts a hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas in 1900.  Story primarily built around the character of Isaac Cline, lead representative in Galveston of the federal government's still-young weather bureau.

A few thoughts:

1.  First part of the book did an interesting job of putting the storm in context.  Gave some basics on hurricane formation plus some history of the manner in which scientific understanding had advanced as to these matters.  I liked this.

2.  Author emphasized the limits of human knowledge of complex weather systems in 1900, and that much uncertainty remains to this day.  Seems relevant to everyone's favorite cause du jour (climate change, formerly known as global warming).

3.  Galveston as an up-and-coming city; economy based on port activities.  Topography seemed risky for flooding, but boosters and others convinced themselves otherwise.  Sounded a bit like the "rain follows the plow" rhetoric employed by Plains States boosters back in the day.

4.  Isaac not a terribly sympathetic character; some conflicts with his weatherman-brother (Joseph), etc.

5.  Author did a good job taking the reader to the scene of the hurricane and letting us imagine how that might have felt.  And the difficult scenes in the storm's aftermath.

6.  Still - as the author points out, source material was very scarce.  So there's an element of "winging it" here.

7.  Galveston didn't recover.  Houston bloomed with the oil industry.

8.  Weather forecasting bureaucracy was a mess - shockingly, key government workers seemed primarily interested in keeping their jobs and enlarging their personal prestige.  For example:  adamantly ignoring folks in Cuba who were pretty experienced in observing these kinds of stories.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Hild (Nicola Griffith, 2013)

Historical fiction - what I'd call a "romp".  Like this.  A category I rarely read.  But I quite enjoyed this, blew through it quite quickly at the gym.  Maybe I should spend more time with this genre?

The author somehow became aware of a figure from 7th-century Britain - St. Hilda of Whitby - limited information available, so the author decided to build a full tale around the scanty record.  I read that this now will become a three-part work.  This first novel covers Hild from her earliest memories (three years old) to her early 20s.  

Hild's mother (Breguswith) positions her as a seer - the "light of the world" - and Hild delivers.  Bright, perceptive, courageous - she becomes seer for her crafty uncle (Edwin of Northumbria) who is a minor king but rapidly consolidating power over larger territories.

Hild grows up with Cian; Begu becomes her "gemaecce" and Gwladus her accommodating body servant; Hild is increasingly adept at seeing patterns everywhere.  Also at cultivating information networks.  So she has better quality information than others, and superior skills at putting pieces together.  In short: highly valuable to someone like Edwin.

So did this give me some insights into 7th century Northumbria?  And if so, are they worth anything?  I think it's "yes" and "yes".  Author is not a historian, but seems to have done enough checking around such that the reader gets a feel for time/place (if only the author's version).  What became England was a bevy of shifting alliances - England was not unique.  Clan behavior.  The importance of trade.  Kings who travel from place to place within their domain(s) - lest allegiance of locals wanes.

Roman ruins.  Old gods - including Woden - giving way to Christianity.  But always with political overtones. Hild is baptized - but not out of any sense of piety.  Edwin believed church backing would help him increase and consolidate his power base (well, that has been a pretty typical strategy before and after the 7th century.)  Priests hanging around - from Ireland or coming over from mainland Europe.  Irish priest - Fursey - teaches Hild to read and write (on Edwin's orders); also emphasizes the value of literacy as the power struggles continue and become more sophisticated. 

I may well go on to read the next two novels if/as they become available.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

If This is a Man (1947) | The Truce (1962) (Primo Levi)

Levi was an Italian Jew - a chemist - deported to Auschwitz.  Survived, and made it back home to Turin.  Felt a need to write down his experiences - not previously an author, but all this seemed to turn him into an effective writer indeed.

Much of the power here is that he was not writing for a commercial audience in 1947.  As this belatedly helped me understand, the "Holocaust" as a concept didn't exist - and wouldn't for many more years.  Levi simply recorded, without hatred, his vivid recollections of surviving in Auschwitz.  To help himself think it through; to record for others.  Spare, non-dramatic - and therefore excruciating.

Here in 2014, have we "heard it all before"?  Yes - but I'd say Levi's book - as a first-person account written very shortly after the war - is in a class by itself.  And worth reading no matter how much other material of this sort one has previously read.  His detailed descriptions of the markets going on in the camp (and involving townspeople) were new to me.  The dreaded "selections."  Cold, hungry, degraded.

Also interesting in respect of the camps:  the large number of countries represented among, and languages spoken by, the prisoners.  Levi encountered several Italians (and a few others) who were crucially helpful allies.

He was one of a handful of survivors out of the 500+ deportees in his group.  Survival aided in part by his skill set - as a chemist, he was assigned to a lab and avoided some of the harsh outdoor work as his second winter in the camp set in.  Also was lucky to be very ill at the time the Russians liberated the camps, as he was left behind in sick bay while the Nazis dealt with many of the other prisoners.

"If This is a Man" didn't find an audience for a number of years.  Levi wrote a number of books after it.  After "If This is a Man" caught on, he wrote a companion piece - "The Truce" - recounting his long journey from Auschwitz back to Turin.  The Russians were in charge of most of the trip, and his stories of the journey are consistently interesting.  It was the days of "displaced persons."  I particularly liked his description of how it felt to pass through Germany on his way back to Italy.

His story is truly amazing (the cliche actually applies here).  PJ recommendation.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (Daniel Okrent, 2010)

This book was written in parallel with a much-promoted Ken Burns mini-series - though not directly used in it.  Burns bores me at this point - same style, too plodding, too formulaic.  But this book was generally informative and useful.  A few take-aways:

1.  Drinking was a problem in 19th century America - there seem to be stats to support this view.  So there was a long run-up to Prohibition.  A need for change, even if this approach was incredibly ill-advised.

2.  It's enormously difficult to amend the U.S. Constitution.  And it happened.  (Actually twice, including repeal.)

3.  The 16th amendment - permitting a federal income tax - was a key milestone in the movement toward passage of the 18th amendment (prohibition).  Feds relied heavily on alcohol excise taxes going back to the Whiskey Rebellion - therefore there could not be Prohibition without an alternative revenue source.  (And Big Gov itself could never have arisen without the federal income tax - a whole different story.)

4.  Interesting discussion of the pre-Prohibition urban saloon as intertwined with urban political machines.

5.  Germans controlled the big breweries - so WWI anti-German environment was exploited to obtain passage.

6.  Amazingly effective leadership - primarily Wayne B. Wheeler - ran the "dry" movement.  I had no idea of the extent of control by "drys" over elections - and therefore politicians - at all levels of government.

7.  Didn't know about the extent of the shipboard rum-running - fleets sitting just outside territorial waters.  Didn't know how much product gushed through Detroit.

8.  Didn't know about the effect on California's somewhat-young wine industry.  They pulled up most of their vines and replaced with cheap grapes - easy to ship, and it was legal for folks to buy grapes (and ferment at home).

9.  Beaulieu Vineyards controls the "sacramental wine" exception - ties to Catholic Church and rabbis - huge plus for them when Prohibition ends.  No need to pull up their vines - religious market was large, plus lots o' product leaked out to non-religious end-users.

10.  Many parallels to today's War on Drugs.  Law enforcement corruption, diversion of resources, over-aggressive enforcement, citizen scofflaws, etc.  Social changes, including changes in drinking patterns (probably especially by women).

11.  Booze cruises - in international waters - led to today's cruise ship industry ("trips to nowhere" didn't exist prior to Prohibition).

12.  Classic coalition of "Baptists and bootleggers" interested in preventing repeal of Prohibition.

13.  Author states there were 1,345 American brewers in 1915 - but only 31 were up and running within three months after return of legal beer.  Prohibition led to a market controlled by a few major players selling bland product - a situation which wasn't corrected for decades.

14.  Interesting overlap with immigration "reform" - with echoes for ongoing debates on the subject.  Immigration in Prohibition era involved unreliable/undesirable southern and eastern Europeans - many Catholics - considerable fear that demographics would lead to votes for "wet" politicians.  Along with other bigotry factors - this leads to passage of the 1924 immigration "reform" law and its annual quotas.  Sets an annual ceiling of 2% of immigrants already in the U.S. as reported in census data.  To achieve the goal of keeping out newcomers - pretty much openly discussed - the act looked back to the 1890 census - before the undesirables started showing up!  

Ah, the fine intentions of the Progressive movement . . .