India by Stanley Wolpert

This book's full title is India, Fourth Edition. I bought this book and one on Iran as I have read a lot of history, but I do not know that much of about either of these very ancient countries or areas. What attracted me to this particular book was they it covered not just the history of India. There is a biography of the Arthur Stanley Wolpert on Wikipedia.

As I have said this book covers more than just the history of India. The book covers the geographical area, Religion and Philosophy, Society (caste system etc.), Arts and Science and Polity and Foreign Policy. You get a broad scope about the area, the people and the history.

India, I had already knew had greatly affected the Western World via Math. We got our numerals from India, via the Middle East and so call them Arabic Numerals. I had also known we got the concept of zero from India. What I did not know is that we also got the idea of decimal point.

There are some good reviews on Good Reads. There are some people who really hated this book and found it hard to read. Most gave it a good rating as would I. I found the book very interesting and good to read.

There is not video on this book, but Stanley Wolpert is interviewed by Connie Martinson in a book called India and Pakistan. The second part of this interview is here. There is another interview of Stanley Wolpert on C-Span. (You have to go a bit into the video to get the interview.)

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

Flash Points by George Friedman

This book's full title is Flash Points: The Emerging Crisis in Europe. Here he talks about Europe. George Friedman is always interesting. He has very settled points of view and you may or may not agree with him. He certainly makes you think about what is going on in the world. He is a bit of an alarmist.

However, there is a lot of unsettling news coming from Europe lately. They seem to be in quite a mess, especially financially. Russian seems to be pushy. You have to wonder how all this might turn out. That is why this book caught my interest.

As usual there are some very good reviews at Good Reads. Peter Szopo onIntellinews has written a good review on this book. Brad McMillan posted a good review of this book at the Independent Market Observer.

You can also get a peek at what Stratfor provides here.

George Friedman speaks at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He speaks about 45 minutes into this secession and then there is a Q and A. This was a wonder speech and well worth watching. This is a speech by George Friedman on c-span. It is basically the same speech as the one at Carnegie Council. I have included it because there is a written transcribe of the speech. This is an interesting 6 minute video of MSNBC's interviewing George Friedman.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

100 Million Years of Food by Stephen Le

This book's full title is 100 Million Years of Food: What our ancestors ate and why it matters today. Basically he is saying if we eat the way our ancestors did, we would have far fewer problems. Another way to put this is not to anything our Grandmother's would not recognize as food. He takes us on a great journey to get to this conclusion. Stephen Le has his own web site here .

One thing I found interesting is that a number of cultures would not eat fish. There are drawbacks to eating fish. One is that fish bones can pierce the esophagus or the intestines. Fish are also quite lean and too much protein can be a problem for people. Another drawback is that toxins can accumulate in fish from marine plankton and cause paralysis and death.

Another interest idea was that eating meat may help you be fertile, attractive and strong at a younger age, but it will also help you to an early grave. The thinking is that you should eat little meat while young, but older people should eat more to be stronger and live longer.

There are some good reviews at Amazon but you have to scroll down to almost the end of the page. There is a great review at the Globe & Mail Dilia Narduzzi. There some very good reviews also at Good Reads.

There is a short interview on The Morning Show of Global News.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

How Civilizations Die by David Goldman

This book's full title is How Civilizations Die (and why Islam is dying too) by David P. Goldman, online Columnist Spengler of the Asia Times online. I do not agree with all he says, but David Goldman is a very interesting writer. I had not realized that the fertility rate was falling in the Muslim world. However, there are all sorts of statistics that you can find on the web that verify their drop in fertility.

This is where you find the blog Spengler. It is interesting that the reviews tend to give good or low ratings to this book depending on whether or not they agree with David Goldman. I would give good ratings to someone I disagree with but is an interesting read and shows a different way of looking at the world.

On the Amazon website you often get very good reviews from unknowns. When you go to Amazon website you should start scrolling to the bottom. That is where the good reviews are. There is an interesting review in Forbes by Reuven Brenner. At the site Good Reads there are various views on this book.

Islamic Civilization is Dying talk by David Goldman. There is a interview of David Goldman by Ezra Levant. There is a second interview with David Goldman talking about Europe. In this recent video David Goldman interview with Ezra Levant talks about Iran.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

The Third Plate by Dan Barber

I have gotten way behind on talking about the books that I have read. I read this one almost a year ago. I find books on how we are changing our views about food very interesting. I do love books by Michael Pollan, but Dan Barber in this book also has very interesting things to say on the subject.

This book's full title is The Third Plate, Fields notes on the future of food. Dan Barber has his own web site here. This is a very interesting book about what new things are being done by people to improve the food and the food supply in the US. I found it quite fascinating.

Here again Amazon has come great review. You have to scroll quite far down to get them. There is a good review of this book at the New York Times by William Grimes. There is also a short interesting review at NPR. The Toronto Star has a review by Jennifer Bain that also includes recipes for a third plate.

Food Farmer Earth interviews Dan Barber on YouTube. This is a relatively short video of some 15 minutes. This is a talk between Ira Glass and Dan Barber. This last one is just over an hour. Both these videos have adverts, but the type that let you skip after a few seconds.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

The Voice, The Word, The Books by F. E. Peters

This book’s full title is The Voice, The Word, The Books, The Sacred Scripture of the Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is one of the few books that admit that Islam was spread by conquering armies. First it the armies was led by Mohammed and then later his Islamic followers. The conversion to Islam was not the effect of being conquered, but it was a consequence of it.

What I found interesting in the book that I had not read before was the fact the conquest by Islamic armies Arabized people. First there was Arabic acculturation and then conversion to Islam. It took a while. From Spain to China, in the abode of Islam there was not a majority for the Islamic religion until the mid-10th century.

However, Arabization did not occur everywhere. In Iran the local Daric-Farsi culture refused to yield to Arabization. However, their written script became written in Arabic script. The same thing happened with the Ottomans. Their vernacular was written in the Arabic Script initially. However, when the Turks made Islam their state religion, they changed their script to a Latin script.

There is a review of this book at Princeton University Press. On this site you can also review the table of contents and the Introduction to the book. There are also some reviews at Good Reads. There is also a short interesting review at the Publishers Weekly.

You can read about the author, professor Francis Edward Peters here. He is also on Wikipedia. There is a short except from the film From Moses to Muhammad with F. E. Peters.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

World Order by Henry Kissinger

There is a good review in the Guardian by Rana Mitter. Jonathan Powell of the telegraph gives a thoughtful review of this book. Ultimately, he feels that Kissinger is just trying to justify all he has done. There is also a very good review at the New Republic Anne-Marie Slaughter.

There is a short piece of an interview of Kissinger about this a New World Order, but video is old being dated in 2009. There is a 13 minute interview of Kissinger at MSNBC. This video features clips from a Berlin confab in 2009 where former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other globalists described their vision of a global network of geopolitical regional blocs.

I know there is a lot on the internet of how awful or evil Kissinger is. My god he is calling for a new world order! However, I feel that what he says is reasonable. We need to come together and prevent global misunderstandings that could annihilate civilization as we know it. If you want some thoughtful criticism of Kissinger and his book, the reviews by Jonathan Powell and Anne-Marie Slaughter are very good.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.