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I read “The Virginian” earlier this year and enjoyed it immensely. It’s amazing that Wister was an easterner with limited time in the west when he wrote that.

I just finished “One Secon After” and “One Year After” by William Forstchen. They are highly realistic books about the ultimate SHTF events for which almost nobody can prepare. They are really indictments about government inaction the last 30 years on these well-known and well-understood potential means of attack on the U.S. I really wouldn’t recommend them as holiday fare — wait until the dead of winter in February.

I’m currently reading “The Most Powerful Idea in the World” by William Rosen. It is “a story of steam, industry and invention.” I enjoy reading on these topics. This book is actually highly relevant to the question “why didn’t Muslims invent modern society?” The book won’t be everybody’s cup of tea because there is a HUGE amount of detail on the invention of metallurgy and the making of iron and steel, followed by the discovery of using heat engines to do work and later the scientific analysis of heat engines, ie, thermodynamics. You always read about the most famous and successful inventors such as Watt, but you often don’t realize the top guys had hundreds of competitors chasing them. The story also concentrates on the legal and patent environment in England that rewarded inventors financially.

In the same vein, I really enjoyed “Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II” which I read last year..

Next up: A shift back to politics and culture and why Western Civilization is being lost: “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace: The Cult of Critical Theory and the Subversion of the West” by Michael Walsh. VDH gives this book a great review and recommendation.