How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn

This book’s full title is How the World Made the West: a 4,000 Year History. Josephine Quinn is a professor of Ancient History and so she has concentrated on how the Ancient World shaped the Western World. Of course it did.

I also think that West was highly influenced their experience by their discovery of the Americas and their movement to the Americas. Josephine Quinn talks about the discovery of the Americas in a very short few pages at the end of her book. But this is understandable as she is into Ancient History.

Just as the Germanic tribes were forced into the Roman Empire by the Mongol Tribes, Western Europe was forced to go further west first the by Arab Tribes and then Turkish Tribes that took over the Middle East, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and Balkans. The western history with the Americas may have only been over 500 years compared the 4,000 years of Ancient History, but it is still a long time.

I also have found that few people realize that the Eastern Roman Empire lasted another 1,000 years to 1453 after Rome was no longer the center of the Roman Empire.

There is an interesting review of this book by Steven Poole in the Guardian. There are some interesting reviews at Amazon at the bottom of the page, including one quite negative one. There is an interesting and short review at Kirkus Reviews. Andrew Wilson on TGC I thought has the most thoughtful and enlighten review of this book.

Josephine Quinn at the Jaipur Literature Festival talks about her book. Josephine Quinn is interviewed by William Dalrymple. Josephine Quinn gives a lecture for around 14 minutes. Josephine Quinn is interviewed by Greg LaBlanc.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Putin’s People by Catherine Belton

This book’s full title is Putin’s People: How the KGB took back Russia and Then Took on the West. I found this book fascinating. I can see from reading this book about Putin in the book why some people depict Putin as similar to a Mafia gang leader. This book was published in 2020.

Daniel Beer on The Guardian writes a good review of this book. The review on The Open Book is from the book blub, but gives you a good idea what the book is about. There is an interesting more recent review of this book and its subject in 2022 by Australian Institute of International Affairs. An article on The Foreign Policy website talks about Catherine Belton and her publisher being sued over this book.

There is a discussion at Atlantic Council. The discussion starts around 4:15 into the video when Catherine Belton talks about her book. It was taped in June 2020. There is a short video interview with Catherine Belton at the British Embassy of Vienna. This is dated October 2022. It is just over 4 minutes.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe

This book’s full title is The Fourth Turning: What the cycles of History Tell Us About American’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny. This was a very interesting read and a unique approach to history. However, I have read a lot of history, so I do wonder about their thesis.

It is basically true that people do not change but I doubt you can predict the future from the past. I should also note that Neil Howe has another book out called The Fourth Turning is Here. It seems that people either loved or hated this book. In the reviews you will see that some think it is all nonsense and others think these ideas are great.

The idea of historical cycles is not a new one. If you read anthropology, you will learn that most past societies thought of time as cycler. They lived through repeated cycles of Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. Time as linear is a rather new idea.

I think the most interesting review is by Dan Reardon. There is a review on Good Reads by Justin who clearly did not like the idea of cycles of History either. There are other reviews on this site, some loved the book and others hated it. All the reviews on Amazon are the positive type. The reviews on Quora are mostly all critical of this book. There is also a video review of this book at BookLab by Bjorn.

There is an interview of Neil Howe on the YouTube show of On the Margin. This interview is some 50 minutes long. A review of this book by Van Neistant. outlines the story of this book. It is an interesting review. It is only 10 minutes long.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Where The Falcon Flies by Adam Shoalts

This book’s full title is Where the Falcon Flies; My 3.400 Kilometer Odessey from my Doorstep to the Artic. This is a great read. Adam Shoalts certainly knows how to tell stories. He was just at my Probus Club of East York as our monthly speaker talking about this book and his others. He is also a very good speaker.

One of the things that stood out for me what the people he met along the way. All these strangers were very kind to him. They provided him with food and other things he needed, like a place to put up his tent. All seems to be happy to help him especially when they realized what he was doing – travelling from him home to the high Artic.

Lor Miller at Wilderness Canoe Association does a great review of this book. There are a number of short reviews at The Story Graph. There is even a negative review which very much surprised me. Allen Lane writes are review for CBC Books. There is also an interesting review of this book at The Padding Magazine.

Adam Shoalts is interviewed on Global News. This short around 5 minutes. The video by The Happy Camper starts with great scenes from Adam Shoalts trip. Adam Shoalts is interviewed on TV Niagara. This is a short interview around 8 minutes.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone

This book’s full title is Four Queens, The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe. I loved this book. It is the way history should be written. This book covers the lives of these sisters, but also the lives of their husbands. These women had a lot of influence and we seldom hear about women having influence in the Middle Ages. However, most history is written by men about men, but this is slowly changing. This book reads more like historical fiction, but it is all true.

Hmalagisi on Adventures of a Tudor Nerd write a good review outlining the story in this book. The blog The Creative Historian gives another fine review of this book. Megan Marshall at The New York Times write a rather critical review of this book. You can sometimes learn more from critical reviews than flattering ones.

There are few videos featuring Nancy Goldstone. This video covers a number of books by Nancy Goldstone. The part on Four Queens starts are 6:39 in the video. See the video by Hudson Library and History.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

World on the Brink by Dmitri Alperovitch

This book’s full title is World on the Brink: How America Can beat China in the Race for the 21st Century. The author is Dmitri Alperovitch with Garrett M. Graff. I found this a very interesting and well written book. Dmitri Alperovitch explains the history and current tensions between China and the US. He talks about the challenges the US faces because of the rise of China.

If you want to understand the problems with China and what the US could possibly do about their relationship with China, this is the book to read.

There is a good review at the Cipher Brief. There is a review of this book on Reason Magazine. There is a site just for this book. There is also a good review at NYJournalofBooks.

The author is interviewed on Mauldin Economics by Ed D’Agostino. The author speaks at Cornell . Dmitri Alperovitch talks to Jason Kikta on Automox about cybersecurity.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.

The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell

This book’s full title is The Bomber Mafia, a Dream, A temptation and the Longest Night of the Second World War. I always like books by Malcolm Gladwell. It writes very readable books. I do like his style of writing. I do not generally read war books, although a read a lot of history. I picked this up mainly because it was written by Malcolm Gladwell. I have read other books by him and they were all very readable.

There is a review of this book on Wikipedia. It says that the book got mixed reviews on release. I am not surprised. It is light reading of a complex subject. There is a review and some background on a site called Pushkin. It is offering the book as an audiobook. This review by Brian Castner on The Wrath-Bearing Tree is long and critical. With critical reviews, sometimes to learn more than in reading the book you are covering.

Malcolm Gladwell is interviewed on How to Academy. This is part 1. Part 2 is here for the How to Academy interview. Morning Joes interviews Malcolm Gladwell . This is a shorter interview of 11 minutes. Malcolm Gladwell is interviews by Amanpour and Company . This is also short at around 18 minutes.

An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.