Posted on 06/09/2003 7:47:33 AM PDT by KC Burke
Okay, fellow bibliophiles and freerepublic readers wanting to get some ideas on books and periodicals, get ready.
This is the Thread.
I've placed it in General Interest because it isn't a thread about a single book or even about a class of books, but instead, a thread to review once in a while to see what others have found interesting to read and why.
It doesn't need to be renewed daily, the software will keep it down to load-easy size on this wonderful forum. It does need to have a few guidelines for proper functioning however.
First, this is not a competition, we don't need lists longer than 25.
Second, make a point and give an opinion about a book, don't just list it. We know you aren't eloquent; you're here aren't you?
Third, trust us, we know the standard criticisms of the various wings of conservatism toward certain icons. We need no food fights on this thread about paeleocons, neocons, objectivists, libertarians, monarchists, stateists, and anarchists. You are welcome to say you didn't care for a book when it is posted, but make one, and only one, negative post in reference to the posting of a book and trust that readers will get your point. The book can be debated elsewhere in depth; in fact, if you are passionate about the issue, create a thread and rant to your hearts' content.
Fourth, remember that the purpose of the thread is to provide readers of the forum a place to find mention of books that they might want to add to their reading list or library. If a book has been added to the thread, discuss it, but let's not post the same books innumerable times. I will try to do a recapitulation every once in a while to make that point.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
You are right about the fiction readers! They can crank them out. My mom reads fiction almost exclusively and it seems like she's always starting a new book.
I'd like to add some additions to this recommended reading list, from other authors -- just two for today.
Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, Stephen M. Barr, 2003.
From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun, 2000.
Both these books are written for the general reader. Barr's is an excellent resource for understanding recent breakthroughs in physical theory. Here's a review from amazon.com:
"Often invoked as justification for unbelief, modern science here provides the basis for an unusual and provocative affirmation of religious faith. A physicist at the University of Delaware, Barr deploys his scientific expertise to challenge the dogmas of materialism and to assert his belief that nothing explains the order of the galaxies better than divine design. To be sure, Barr recognizes that Darwin's work has swept away the arguments of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theologians, who traced the handiwork of God in birds, flowers, and seashells. But the old argument-from-design reemerges with new sophistication after Barr presses evolutionary theory for a plausible account of the origin of what quantum physics demands--that is, a conscious observer--and comes away with nothing but skepticism about the skeptics. Barr indeed relishes the irony of a skeptical logic of random chance that forces unbelievers who balk at one unobservable God to accept, on doctrinal faith, a myriad of unobservable worlds on which the matter-motion lottery has not produced the winning ticket of conscious intelligence. The absurdity grows even more palpable among astrophysicists who avoid acknowledging the human-friendly pattern in subatomic and cosmic architecture found in the observable universe only by theorizing the existence of an infinite number of unobservable universes in which sovereign randomness has dictated other and more hostile architectures. Neither religiously sectarian nor technically daunting, this is a book that invites the widest range of readers to ponder the deepest kind of questions. -- Bryce Christensen"
Barzun's is a magnificent cultural survey. And never since Dante descended into Inferno has there been a better cultural "guide" than Jacques Barzun. Its subject is nothing less than the past 500 years of Western cultural development, from the Rennaissance to modern times. It covers everything: the arts, literature, music, philosophy, science, history. If you want to understand how we got to "where we are now," you've GOT to read this book.
Thanks for writing, KC -- and for the recommendation of The New Science of Politics. I'm delighted to hear you're reading it/have read it!!! (If you want to understand the rise of Hitler and the Third Reich, you've got to read this book.)
I had a reply in mind, wanting to respond to a comment of x made some time ago about how Michael Oakeshott is a very different fellow from Strauss. I wanted to add and say that Oakeshott is to Aristotle, as Strauss is to Plato, but I was shy of making that claim. So I pulled out Rationalism in Politics and read the essay on his view of the science of history. It was a good read, and good for clarity of thought, as Oakeshott moves with such calculated prose (Strauss is cursory and flighty). But that was a week ago.
I'm here now because I happend to be reading Inge and ran into a citation of Emerson which Inge calls Oriental pantheism, the "classical form of mystical philosophy, which by obliterating all outlines makes all things equally divine, and leaves no room for distinctions between right and wrong. Emerson has drunk deeply of this intoxicating draught of self-deification:
There is no great and no small To the soul that maketh all: Where it cometh, all things are, And it cometh everywhere.I am the owner of the sphere, Of the seven stars and the solar year, Of Caesar's hand, and Plato's brain, Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespear's strain."
And I am glad you mentioned Oakeshott who hasn't been listed on this thread yet. I have just read bits and pieces, perhaps for the thread you can add an item of two of his you recommend for the freeper wanting to get a taste of his fine mind. (Again, as you have the time.)
Today, I will add to the list:
Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes (ISBN 0-375-70447-7) It was given good marks by everyone from National Review, the Washington Times and The American Spectator on one side to Literary Review and The New York Times Review of Books on the other.Pipes is a real Russian history scholar and contrasts how Property rights and law have developed in the west to how they developed in Russia and elsewhere to make his points on how Freedom is so closely tied.
Last night I was very happy with my recent purchase from Barnes & Noble: Dover's edition of Heath's Euclid (paperback, 3 vol. $10 each) You have to like it because it gives the axioms (A point is that which has no part; A line is a breadthless length) in Greek! (link for Bodleian MS pic) Shmeion estin, ou meroV ouqen. And then commentary on the Greek replete with references to Plato and Aristotle. Somehow that cigar had come to life last night.
Today its Jaspers on Kant. Jaspers is very readable and this edition is only $9.
My lastest bit of reading is a history tome: The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party- Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War by Michael F. Holt.
This book is making it extremely clear to me that the more things change, the more things stay the same.
However, it is both interesting and heartening to consider that Bush may be doing to the Democrats what Jackson did to the National Republicans.
With Coulter's past fast sales, it appears to be a deliberate under-order issue.
We are in a war in this country, aren't we?!! It is frightening to see the lies and deception that go on now over most anything! We can't let them take our books away!
I was just on Freep Forevers thread "Pray for us - for our religous freedom". Freep Forever is in Hong Kong and describing the 'march for freedom' there.
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