Simon Winder (2019)

Lotharingia, the part of Europe lying between what are now the agreed cores of France and Germany, the part of the continent that doesn’t readily fit into the national character of either country. This is a very small-scale history, full of anecdotes and insights as to the connections between the various actors and events that have criss-crossed this area. I read it shortly after reading The Shortest History of Germany, to which I think it makes a very agreeable companion and contrast while picking out a lot of the same themes, especially the difference between the eastern-oriented, Prussian and Hohenzollern Germany and the western-oriented Rhineland.

It’s personal history, though, which means that the author’s life breaks into the narrative quite intrusively. I’ve only given the book four stars because of this writing style, which detracted (for me) from the otherwise excellent research and observations.

4/5. Finished Friday 26 July, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Roger Levy (2018)

4/5. Finished Friday 5 July, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

William Davies (2018)

How did we end up where we are, with a seemingly unstoppable rejection of reasoned argument in favour of blatantly false – if somewhat reassuring – fantasy positions served up by charlatans? Davies presents a very convincing case, and some prescriptions for the future, that should be read by anyone who considers themselves to live in the world of objective reality – and especially those tasked with explaining that reality.

The essence of Davies’ position boils down to the idea that there’s been a change in the nature and purpose of information: that it has gone from being used as a way of understanding a shared reality to instead operating on that reality, with the significance of this change being that the latter requires neither global agreement on a set of facts nor any real persistence in time. It’s perfectly possible to discover, act upon, and profit from something that them disappears without a trace, and this changes both what it means to be a fact and how these (perhaps purported) facts are presented: it doesn’t matter if something is later falsified, since the purpose was not to state a permanent position but to achieve a timely objective.

Davies backs this proposition up with a deep-dive into military history, philosophy, and the emergence of the commercial internet: this is definitely a book fore the widely-ranging mind. His prescriptions are troubling to those of us who work in science: that we need to shed our public scruples and engage politically, not giving up the search for the objective but making sure that we use it to act on the world. In that sense he’s supportive of events like the “March for Science” that were opposed by many scientists as a corruption of objectivity – and I have toi say that that’s not something I wanted to hear, but that I find rather compelling.

5/5. Finished Friday 28 June, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Ian McDonald (2015)

What would living on the moon be like? How would the inhabitants relate to those left on earth? What would be the economics? The sociology?

There’s more than a touch of Robert Heinlein‘s masterpiece The Moon is a Harsh Mistress here, updated for the twenty-first century. McDonald has the moon evolving an clan-based oligarchy that resembles fourteenth century Italy, but with some amazingly clever nods to the science and engineering needed to actually build a viable lunar civilisation, as well as for their social implications.

4/5. Finished Saturday 22 June, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Daniel Ellsberg (2017)

Definitely lives up to its billing, with massive amounts of detail and close reasoning – too much, in fact, and this weakens arguments that it’s meant to strengthen. But still as powerful an argument for disarmament as you’ll ever encounter.

2/5. Finished Thursday 6 June, 2019.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)