Hawaii (James Michener, 1959)

(1095 pages)

This is recommended as useful background for Hawaii visitors - which we plan to be - so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Long (but quick reading); often interesting; in the end not that great - but I think quite helpful for its intended purposes. 

Michener starts with the formation of the islands - very late geologically.  Then arrival of folks from Bora Bora and Tahiti area - this is interesting to think about if speculative.  Then arrival of missionaries - these folks had tremendous influence on the islands, generation after generation of their descendants pretty much ran things.  (The book is fiction, but I think somewhat tracks the trajectory here.). The transit of the missionaries around Cape Horn was quite the adventure.  Cramped quarters; most missionaries married just prior to embarking to brides they just met (missionaries required to be married).  This is in 1820s.

What I'll call native Hawaiians did not thrive - disease, policy, etc. 

Discussion of sugar plantations, arrival of pineapples, arrival of other plants.  Figuring out irrigation. As labor is required - folks are brought in from China (this story centered on the Kee family).  Intended to be temporary workers that would return to China, but most ended up staying.  Founding of Molokai leper colony and arrival of Peter Damian. Later - arrivals from Japan, pretty much the same story (this part centered on Sagakawa family).  Some rise through the system despite intense prejudice.  Being good at (American) football helped.

Pearl Harbor.  Formation of a US army unit of Japanese soldiers - mostly from Hawaii - they end up in intense fighting near Cassino - very much the same time frame as Irvin Bormann, the Japanese unit has the misfortune of being assigned to cross the Rapido River.  Later they are unexpectedly tasked with rescuing the "Lost Battalion" in France - taking way more casualties than the number of folks rescued.

The discussion moves into 1940s and 1950s politics, labor unions, a descendant of Hawaiian royalty who works as a beach bum - this part not so interesting.

Imperial Twilight - The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (Stephen Platt, 2018)

I liked this.  

Some overlap with recent book about Brits in India (some of the same folks, lots of trade, India is where the opium poppies were cultivated, etc.) Some of the same opportunism I associate with British adventurers in India.  Things not really planned, but aggressive action when the right excuse came along.

Opening section does a really nice job of bringing to life Macartney's initial trip to visit the Chinese emperor.  I've seen several renditions of this and enjoyed this author's the most.  Hard to imagine.  The "kowtow" kerfuffle, later used to justify aggression.

Explained the origins of the officially sanctioned trade in Canton; the factories; the fallback site in Portuguese Macao.

Chinese bureaucracy getting corrupted, with a few outstanding examples and then widespread problems.  Wasted lots of money putting down White Lotus rebellion (1790s or so).  This is not directly affecting Canton except the corruption issues spread in that direction as well.

A couple missionaries show up (Manning, Morrison); they are more aggressive about exploring China (one of them even went in via Tibet); this helps spark interest back in Britain.  Manning connected to Charles Lamb, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (always these small world stories in Brit-world),  First European to see Lhasa in a couple centuries.

China navy badly outdated, can't even control local pirates.  Brits well aware.

Useful discussion of the growth of the opium trade. It wasn't legitimate, not all firms participated. Author doesn't exonerate China - corrupt officials, users are making a decision as well - but overwhelming driver is Brit aggression as profits started rolling in. Jardine and Matheson as infamously venal, also constantly calling for British navy to attack - ugh.

It's interesting to see how much opposition to the opium trade was raised on the home front.  This was happening shortly after Britain outlawed slavery, and some of the successful antislavery folks turned to attacking the opium trade.

China wavering on policy; some argue to legalize and tax opium (similar discussions as today); the emperor finally decides on an aggressive crackdown (under Li's leadership).  Which is making some headway, surprisingly enough, perhaps would have worked pretty well.  But Li gets crossways with the Brits.  The government back home never seems to have much time to focus on China - this was a very minor backwater as far as Brit Empire matters went - but finally they decide to take action.  Parliamentary vote was very close, the Opium War (here focusing on the First Opium War, 1839-1842) almost didn't happen.

But once started - it took awhile, but outcome never in doubt.  China humiliated; Brits insist on a long list of concessions. This became a bigger issue once Chinese nationalism became more of a thing in the early 20th century - no doubt still used as a rallying cry. With some justification, it was not a pretty chapter.

The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2007, 2010)

This builds upon "Fooled by Randomness" - some of the concepts reappear but in greater depth, and a lot new.

We evolved in East Africa (presumably) to handle a much simpler world - fewer sources of Black Swans - e.g. a new enemy, a new dangerous animal, a difficult weather change.  In that world one can make quick inferences and generally be largely correct.  Now there are many more sources and many take much longer to play out.

Similar - we automatically seek a cause for occurrences - helpful and efficient but significant risk of being misleading.  Initially valuable for efficiency in a simpler environment.

Similar - categorizing and classifying - much happens unconsciously, it seems.  Misleads all too often.

Similar - we love narratives and explanations - takes much more effort to store long strings of random information.  Our brains unconsciously summarize, theorize, simplify - evolved way of gaining efficiency - again, probably worked well in the long stage of evolution, involves more hazards now  

Positive and tiring effort is required to avoid these wired-in impulses. We can't consistently do so.  Keep reminding oneself.

Not being conscious that there are huge swaths of information outside of what we are aware of. However comprehensive we consider our knowledge to be on any given subject - it's pathetically incomplete.  Need to create the habit of keeping this in mind, would help drive humility as to what we do and can know.

We can often know with confidence that propositions are untrue.  We can seldom if ever know with confidence that propositions are true.  Remember this.

Difficulty or impossibility of identifying causation when looking backward. He mentions the popular business books and states in a better way the problem that caused me to stop reading them - a survivor company looking back in hindsight - even if not perniciously, it's made up.

Looking forward also difficult or impossible - forecaster track records are awful.  It's OK if one is aware of this! 

Futurist writers with the same problem - great at authoritatively telling why things happened a certain way in the past, present/future not so much - I wrote this in 2007 as losing interest in such writers.

He loves Montaigne. (Also here.)

Hayek.  Bottoms-up knowledge.

Off topic in a way, but Taleb adopted an unusual exercise and diet approach - aping primitive man, thinking so many years of evolution in that state suggested modern approaches aren't optimal.  I won't copy this.

It's a little frustrating to hear such a good explanation about limits of knowledge (and limits of knowing), but with little in the way of recommendations about what to do about this.  As well-received as the book was, apparently I'm not the only reader that felt this way.  This edition includes an ~80 page additional chapter through which Taleb took on this complaint . . . though in the end I didn't pick up much in the way of specific action items.  

The value is improving one's ability to keep an open mind, and one's overall approach to recognizing problems and humbly approaching the best response path while recognizing the limits of knowing and remaining flexible as new information filters in.

That's a lot of value.

[Writing about 1987 crash - no internet, we checked market status via phone in those days; not clear what happened or why recovery was so quick.  Later mentions LTCM collapse - Black-Scholes - client companies used their modeling to value stock options.  Big episodes for folks my age.]

Army of Empire - The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I (George Morton-Jack, 2018)

 (528 pages)

This was very much worth reading.  Not just for the role of the Indian Army in WWI (highly interesting for various reasons if not highly affecting the outcome), but for what it reveals about British policy of the times, the evolving Indian independence movement of the times, life in the villages from which the British drew recruits, etc.

Britain continuing to rely on Indians for military personnel in the prewar years . . . but aggressively maintaining "prestige" to keep them in their place.  Also a color barrier existed - Indians were not allowed to fight against white armies anywhere in the Commonwealth (what if they succeeded?!)  Let alone become officers with any form of authority over whites.  Selection by race, not merit.

Most of the recruits were drawn from select villages in northern India; many (Afridi, Pashtun) from loosely-organized territories outside British India (these areas functioning like buffer states between British India and places like Afghanistan).  The Afridi/Pashtun types were, and definitely considered themselves to be, independent of British India - and so behaved sometimes when serving in the Indian army.

Some British Army leaders foresaw the coming conflict, and prepared even the Indian army to assist.  Thus they were in position to land Indian troops at a critical juncture of 1914 - before the trenches were developed, just as France and Britain were running out of troops to stand up against German units still trying to break through in the initial drive to Paris.  The presence of those Indian troops - even if they didn't end up with lots of fighting - was essential in plugging the weak points.  Then the Western front settled into years of trench warfare.

Some of those troops were cavalry - and used in charges in a few instances - over time they figured out how to somewhat effectively support ground troops following "softening up" bombardments.

Indian troops were kept in Europe for years in many instances; it seems that they were well treated by the French citizenry in particular.  This was an eye-opener as compared to treatment by the Brits.

I don't want to sound too negative toward the Brits - I think the author does a pretty balanced job on this topic - many of the Brit officers were really good about how they treated their men.  But still.

I also thought the author did a good job exploring the mixed feeling of various of the Indians serving the British.  Genuine loyalty mixed with the primary driver - serving in the Army was a pretty good job for those recruited, and they were able to help the folks back home.  The Indian independence movement didn't have all that much traction as yet - folks like Gandhi were early in the process - and folks recruited from villages into the Indian army were mostly unaware of "independence" as a concept.

While some of the Indian troops - especially those with lesser preparation - were ineffective, the author points out that the Indian army - due to action in various skirmishes or engagements around the British empire - had greater experience than many or most of its European counterparts. They were not struggling "fish out of water" as the artillery boomed - they had seen versions of this, if smaller scale. 

Something I hadn't appreciated - Indian units fought all over the world during WWI. Heavy action in Iraq.  Chasing Germans around East Africa. Gallipolli.  Palestine (including encounters with "Lawrence of Arabia" - who had unfriendly encounters with their officers).  Minor forays into Afghanistan.

Indians transferred from the Western front often were unhappy about this - they enjoyed being in France.

Significant number of Muslim soldiers - this was a touchy subject as fighting occurred in Iraq (Ottoman emperor as caliph, after all).

Lots of change among those who served outside India - they came back with different views - but still tended to remain participants in the Indian army - resentful of some of the mistreatment, but the compensation remained attractive and they had been through a lot of shared experiences alongside their white officers.  Independence movement slow to gain traction among this group.

Amritsar massacre in 1919 - mostly Indian troops firing at the order of their white officers.  Led to repressive steps.

Folks like Gandhi had supported Indians fighting in WWI based on promises that this cooperation would hasten independence after the war ended.  Disillusionment, the transition to a more confrontational (though nonviolent for Gandhi and his group) style.

Fooled by Randomness - The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2004)

 Author is a good Twitter follow, in part because I sometimes if not often disagree with him or dislike his tone.

And I enjoyed the book a lot, in part because I agree with much of it and have absorbed some of the ideas over the years.  There are elements of math, probability, and the like that I don't understand.

The "fooled by randomness" concept is crucial - he discusses why it's so difficult for humans to refrain from inferring causation from linked events - partly because we're wired for efficiency/shortcuts and often the inference is fine or at least not materially detrimental. I've had this concept repeated to me often enough that I think, or at least hope, that I'm applying it every now and again.

Another basic - evaluate decisions solely on information available at the time of the decision. Difficult not to use a hindsight lens (which has value in some other ways).

Respect how little we can really know - it's fine. Be wary of those who claim to know. Richard Feynman continually articulated this very well.

Black swan concept as an example of this.  Seeing only white swans doesn't disprove the existence of the black swan. This seems to be a common error.

Karl Popper's idea.

This ties to what is finally coming to the fore in academia - mountains of studies, research, papers that are useless - impossible to take into account all the variables, let alone that we can't even identify all of the variables. Tease out thought patterns, but mostly:  be humble.

Interpreting statistics can be tricky. I'm not good at the math but at least try to determine the goals of the presenter of the statistics, what might be cherry-picked, etc. Taleb is good on this topic.

Survivorship bias. Hard to overcome.

If Taleb watches TV, he has it on mute! (One of my favorite life rules.) Sounds like he reads a ton and ignores media and much screen-entertainment . . . appealing to my idiosyncrasies . . .

Borrowed from Jr., one of a group of five books (Incerto) that I will continue to read over time.

Goethe - Life as a Work of Art (Rudiger Safranski, 2013)

I spent a lot of time on this biography.  Not quite sure what I think of Goethe, or what I learn from this.

I read a Goethe biography in 2006 that did a very good job of outlining his life; this biography is discussed here.  

The author of the current biography had greater access to diaries and letters of Goethe and folks with whom he was in contact.  That was interesting.

Part of the interest is Goethe as a leading figure starting in the 1770s - royalty doing quite well, even the minor royalty in the German principalities. Along comes the French Revolution (with agitation for democracy and nationalism in France), the Napoleonic era (with this agitation spreading along with the French armies and encompassing the substates in Germany), Napoleon's defeat and the conservative if not reactionary governments throughout Europe, with Metternich as a key figure.  Then the revolution in France again in 1830.  Goethe lived through all of this and was personally acquainted with all these leaders.

He started out with an early "Romantic era" book (The Sorrows of Young Werther) that took the literary world by storm - somehow striking just the right chord at just the right moment. (It's what Napoleon wanted to talk about in their meeting decades later.) This success - of course supplemented by later actions - facilitated "famousness" throughout his long life.  His life took a major turn when the grand duke in charge of Weimar persuaded him to settle there - a smallish state, it was a coup to land Goethe; the grand duke put Goethe in charge of all sorts of things even though Goethe had little expertise. It made him a much more practical person, if not a conservative as the decades rolled along.  Very impressed by Napoleon and wore the French Legion of Honor (awarded to him by Napoleon) all too often for the tastes of many Germans.

Went through a genuine scare when French troops occupied Weimar, including his residence.  Contributed to his dislike of disorder, nationalism, public passions, etc.

Seems like he was an incredibly gifted person in terms of social skills, and could apply this to both men and women. Descriptions of his romantic relationships; seems like he took advantage of his skills in some situations where he should have refrained. 

The 2006 biography talks about the famous people he interacted with.

Uncanny ability to compose poetry and write all sorts of kinds of literature. Difficulty finishing longer works.

Migrating away from Sturm und Drang - he took a great interest in minerology, sparked by his position as official in charge of Weimar mines.  Another favorite topic - how humans perceive color.  As the years by he kept writing but felt that pursuits in the natural sciences were more worthy.

By the time he passed away in the early 1830s - time had passed him by.  Not popular with young Germans.  Seems like his reputation has recovered, though I don't know how much his works are read.

Not sure what to make of him. 

To The Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)

This book is centered around the Ramsey family - Mrs. Ramsey, Mr. Ramsey, eight children; also their several visitors during a stay at their summer home.

I liked it a lot.

Three segments.  In the first, we meet the characters. They are staying at the summer home (a bit shabby). Very little direct dialogue or action, mostly we're seeing how they interact and feel about each other. Mrs. Ramsey seems to be the primary focus. She tells younger son (James) that they can visit the lighthouse (nearby, offshore) the following day, but Mr. Ramsey says the weather will prevent this. References to this continue. I particularly like the dinner scene - so well done - bouncing around the characters as they see, feel, process; no direct quotes - takes place after we've gotten to know most of the characters quite a bit. Effective.

Second segment - short, there is a passage of ~10 years.  Mrs. Ramsey passes away, two of the children die; WWI happens.

Third segment - after years without visiting, some or all of the surviving Ramseys and guests stay at the summer home.  Lily Briscoe - an artist - works on a painting abandoned during the prior visit, and reflects on Mrs. Ramsey in particular.  James and Cam (a sister) travel with Mr. Ramsey toward the lighthouse.  Both are resentful about their relationship with their father, but are thinking about it.

Victory City (Salman Rushdie, 2023)

A really interesting idea - to do a fictional version of the rise and fall of Vijayanagar (major city in southern India, now amazing ruins (and an increasingly popular tourist site) named as Hampi.  This occurred over a 300-year arc from early 14th century to early 17th century.

Rushdie relied in part on Sewell's book (linked here) - Sewell was a British civil servant who pulled together various sources, including Portuguese chroniclers.    

Central character is Pampa Kampana - a goddess enters her as a result of an early trauma - she essentially founds the city (from seeds) and tracks its rise and fall across various kings.

Whether for storytelling purposes or a nod to current trends, Rushdie uses mostly all females for the central characters (other than the kings).  

Much fantasy, but some elements that track Vijayanagar history - particularly in the last part of the story.  Portuguese traders show up; Portugal gains power along the west coast (though not significant to Vijayanagar's outcome). Author uses Rama Raya's name as final king; Rama Raya sowing discord among Islamic sultanates to the north which defers pressure from that direction, then they figure it out and attack; he uses the name "Talikota" as the decisive battle. 

Yo-yo swings between religious tolerance and cultural/artistic freedom, or not, in author's description of Victory City's history.

Rushdie describes the ideal state in a way that just sounds like Utopia (unfortunately).

Pampa Kampana's last act is to write down the entire history of her creation in verse.  The power of words.

Overall, I liked this.

The Rural Life (Verlyn Klinkenborg, 2003)

This is a collection of essays that were published elsewhere - broken up into monthly segments.

I liked it well enough, but it turns out that most of the stories are set on the author's farm in upstate New York.  (He grew up in Iowa and has memories there that overlap with mine, but very little of that in this book. Unfortunately.)

Mostly this helps remind one to be attentive to one's surroundings - he does a great job with that.

The Anarchy (William Dalrymple, 2019)

I liked this but it had several annoying aspects, per below.

Faculty-lounge style word choices and denigration of "corporation" and "profit". Then within a few pages he's reciting, apparently entirely un-self-aware, how the corporation started off with tremendous risk, limited resources, and big losses in the early going.

And recites how the Mughals swept into India - but with none of the loaded-negative word choices - apparently that form of conquest or imperialism was just fine?  If a force structured as an imperial dynasty sweeps in and brutally takes, that's somehow different from a force partially structured in corporate form?

Makes a big deal about "corporate" contributions or bribes to MPs - of course that's bad, but we're talking about an era where large-scale bribery was common across governmental forms (still is!) 

The usual "I hate the west" formula.

Which is not to say the East India Company, or Britain writ large, didn't too plenty of nasty things.  I just get tired of the differing treatment from so many current "historians".

But the overall story here is good enough to overlook all this.  Yes the EIC screwed up many things even where intentions weren't terrible, and it was good that Britain took over.  Even if that didn't end the problems.

Useful discussions of key players - Robert Clive; Wellington; Warren Hastings.

Military success was not inevitable.  Somewhat like Mexico or Peru - there were local forces willing to work with the Europeans.  Significant competition from the French.

On Desperate Ground - The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle (Hampton Sides, 2018)

Sides is a very good author - made this highly interesting (it's a great story so didn't need much build).

I don't know much about the Korean war so it's helpful as to the early stages of the conflict.

Douglas MacArthur does not come off well in this telling, and I think that's the consensus of folks who are knowledgeable about this.

Sides introduces various of the key soldiers and officers, describes the incredible bravery under horrible winter conditions.  Sympathetic to Chinese soldiers who quite often were so poorly equipped - both for fighting and for surviving the weather.

The Chinese did have lots of bodies and no qualms about expending them - US soldiers fighting off literal hordes, corpses stack up in the cold.

Also some impressive engineering feats - to get an air strip ready to go in an isolated area, to fix a crossing.  Ingenuity. 

The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green, 2021)

Book club selection, per Zach.

"Anthropocene" in title gave it a scientific feel with pretty much no relevance to the little stories.

Per the introduction, I also thought he was going to talk a lot about how humans affect the earth but then don't know much how to manage the change they're causing.  That didn't seem to happen much at all.

Apparently the guy is a pretty successful author so I'll assume it's just me who's missing out.  But these stories generally seemed pretty shallow, and weren't saved by the "reviews" at the end of each.

I liked the one about the "three farmers" in the photograph.

He's interested in communicating about his anxieties etc.  Written in Covid era and this comes through way too much.

Discussion of pain was thought-provoking. Viral meningitis.  

I liked the "World's Largest Ball of Paint" story a lot.  I need to see it. A good way to think of our miniscule contributions.

I liked the idea of measuring time in Halleys (comet circuits).

My book appears to be signed!

Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)

I liked this quite a bit. 

Novel is set on a single day - Clarissa Dalloway is giving a big party, preparations are ongoing, events in the neighborhood are described, flashbacks are given which help flesh out various characters.

Clarissa Dalloway is the main character; she is married to Raymond Dalloway.  But was pretty much in love with Peter Walsh (it was reciprocated), though she turned him away.

Elizabeth (Clarissa's daughter). Miss Killeen (influences Elizabeth).

Septimius Smith - WWI vet, messed up; married to Lucrezia Smith

Clarissa is aware that she's aging, and there is some interesting musing about that.

Lakota America - A New History of Indigenous Power (Pekka Hamalainen, 2019)

This was a really interesting read - much worthwhile.

Biggest takeaway - this tribe, and no doubt others, was a sophisticated player when it came to trade, politics, war, strategy. This author wouldn't agree with the "victim" portrayal, even though eventually the wars (and territories) were lost.

Lakota/Sioux - complicated sifting through the tribes in the early periods (16th and 17th centuries, approximately) - think of Lakota as westernmost of this group?  Sioux too far west to access guns and French trade goods in quantity - at risk from better-armed tribes to the east.  Sioux seek access, try to work diplomacy with French and Indian allies, it doesn't hold long-term.

Idea - early in book - that the "horse frontier" moved west to east starting or accelerating following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 - interesting, I hadn't thought about "where" the horses came from.

"Gun frontier" was moving east to west - having both was transformational.

Lakota use expands ~1700ff - a big change as they shift attention westward - another impetus was losing French support (and trading posts) which made selling beaver difficult or impossible.  Bison herds, horses, westward ho.

1757 - first reference to Lakota using guns while riding horses.  Groups further east lacked horses.  Groups further west lacked guns.

More on horses; buffalo chase and switch to the plains to the west.

Lots of fighting among tribes as Lakota push into their territories. Lakota have numbers, etc.

1820-30s - Lakota strong; continue to invite traders even up to Ft. Laramie - very much wanting the trade goods, esp. guns - apparently not concerned that settlers might follow in their wake.  Interesting; Lakota must have known what happened in multiple territories in east and midwest. 

Civil War is a distraction, but westward push by Americans continues, accelerates.

Eventually the US Army focuses - we get to Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Custer, denouement.  

Lysistrata (Aristophanes, 411 B.C.)

This is the famous play where - tired of the seemingly endless Peloponnesian War - the protagonist calls together women from all across Greece, and convinces them to stay away from their men until peace is agreed upon.

Mostly humorous, I enjoyed reading.  

Some of the speechifying from the men - justifying war - sounded like warmongering rationalizations from current times.