This book's full title is Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations. It was written by Even D. G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas. We in the Western world have had great weather and good crops for some time now. . But are we making the same mistakes as other civilizations have with monoculture and deforestation? The book does jump around a bit, but it covers some interesting facts of other civilizations at other times.
There are a number of good reviews on this book at Good Reads. You have to scroll down a bit to find them. There also is a good review by David Barling at the New Castle University site. There is a rather negative review of this book at The Independent by Christopher Hirst.
There is a video at USC Canada by Evan Fraser. This is a talk given in 2010. The talk is in four parts with 3 parts being around 15 minutes long, and one being less than 5 minutes. The link is to the all four parts. Also, the Big History Project talks about the evolution of agriculture.
On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Boeckh. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
The Great Degeneration by Niall Ferguson
This book's full title is The Great Degeneration - How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. I tend to pick up any book written by Niall Ferguson. He is always an interesting writer. You do not have to agree with all he says, few people do. Niall Ferguson always has interesting ideas and he makes you think.
He says that we have structural problems that are holding us back. We are leaving a huge debt for future generations. I certainly agree that we are leaving a huge debt for future generations and I believe we should not do that.
Read a Forbes columnist take on the latest Ferguson- Krugman dustup dustup . The latest from Ferguson is in Huffington Post. There is a Part 2 and a Part 3.
There is a great review of this book at The Wall Street Journal by George Melloan. There is also an interesting review of this book by Dimitri Nasrallah in the Toronto Star
There is a great interview of Niall Ferguson about this book by Charlie Rose on Bloomberg. On CDB Day 6, there is an interview with Niall Ferguson. This last one is radio, not video. There is an older video called the "age of debt" has come to an end by Niall Ferguson in 2012.
On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Ferguson. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.
He says that we have structural problems that are holding us back. We are leaving a huge debt for future generations. I certainly agree that we are leaving a huge debt for future generations and I believe we should not do that.
Read a Forbes columnist take on the latest Ferguson- Krugman dustup dustup . The latest from Ferguson is in Huffington Post. There is a Part 2 and a Part 3.
There is a great review of this book at The Wall Street Journal by George Melloan. There is also an interesting review of this book by Dimitri Nasrallah in the Toronto Star
There is a great interview of Niall Ferguson about this book by Charlie Rose on Bloomberg. On CDB Day 6, there is an interview with Niall Ferguson. This last one is radio, not video. There is an older video called the "age of debt" has come to an end by Niall Ferguson in 2012.
On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Ferguson. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Ashoka by Charles Allen
This book's full title is "Ashoka, the Search for India's Lost Emperor". This book is really written as an adventure in finding information on Ashoka Indian ruler born around 302 BCE by colonial British amateur archeologist. It was however, a thoroughly enjoyable read
The problem is that Ashoka converted to Buddhism. Most Indians today are Hindu (with a large minority of Muslims). The Hindus at one point basically wiped out Buddhism in India so why should they celebrate a great King who was a Buddhist? I must admit I have not read many books on Indian history and would certainly like to know Indian history better.
There is a great review of this book at Winnowed. There is also an extremely interesting book review at Hindustan Times of this book. The reviewer, Patrick French, deployed the fact that Charles Allen talks about and gives most credit for information on Ashoka to British Colonist, not native Indians who did lots of work uncovering Ashoka. There is also another good review of this book by Samanth Subramanian at the Guardian.
Charles Allen talks at the Jaipur Literature Festival about Ashoka. This is an hour long video, which has Q&A at the end starting at around 37 minutes into the video. There is a 6 minute video on YouTube of Ashoka that is worth watching.
On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Allen. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.
The problem is that Ashoka converted to Buddhism. Most Indians today are Hindu (with a large minority of Muslims). The Hindus at one point basically wiped out Buddhism in India so why should they celebrate a great King who was a Buddhist? I must admit I have not read many books on Indian history and would certainly like to know Indian history better.
There is a great review of this book at Winnowed. There is also an extremely interesting book review at Hindustan Times of this book. The reviewer, Patrick French, deployed the fact that Charles Allen talks about and gives most credit for information on Ashoka to British Colonist, not native Indians who did lots of work uncovering Ashoka. There is also another good review of this book by Samanth Subramanian at the Guardian.
Charles Allen talks at the Jaipur Literature Festival about Ashoka. This is an hour long video, which has Q&A at the end starting at around 37 minutes into the video. There is a 6 minute video on YouTube of Ashoka that is worth watching.
On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Allen. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.
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