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.