Tapology Talks: Books

Here you go Griffy! Let's talk books!

Based on a conversation in the Miscellaneous thread earlier this week, I've concluded that the Tapology community needs an updated book thread. To that, I intend to post bi-weekly books reviews in this thread with the intent of helping fellow Tapology users find interesting things to read. Feel free to join me in posting your own reviews. I have to finish up some studying so I probably won't post any reviews this month. But my goal is to get a new review out every two weeks starting on 8/5/2022. Here are some books that I am interested in covering:

• The Plantagenets: The Warriors Kings and Queens Who Made England (Dan Jones)
• Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Trevor Noah)
• Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
• Black Rednecks and White Liberals (Thomas Sowell)
• Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (J.D. Vance)
• Coolidge (Amity Shlaes)
• Once There Were Giants: The Golden Age of Heavyweight Boxing (Bob Izenberg)
• Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing (George Kimball)
• King Lear (William Shakespeare) (technically a play, but one that I remember enjoying reading)

Feel free to critique my posts once they arrive, or to make suggestions in the meantime. 

I have run into some time constraints based on inflexible life circumstances (nothing bad, just tedious). So my initial book review will be out early next week instead of today. But I think y'all will like it nonetheless.

I'd be interested in hearing some book reviews.  Any one else on Goodreads?

Looks intriguing 

Hello book pals! Sorry I'm a month late! Moving to a new city next week and starting a new job so I've been delayed, but I meant what I said in my original post (even though I've changed my mind several times about what to review first).


Topic: 
Nonfiction - Legal, United States History/Politics


About The Author: 
Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong as American investigative journalists. Woodward is most famous for the work he did with Carl Bernstein looking into Watergate. Armstrong was a staff member on the Senate Watergate Committee who teamed up with Woodward for this book. 


Overview:
The Brethren is an inside look on the interactions of various Justices during the first half of the Burger Court (1969-1977, with Burger's tenure continuing until 1986). It focuses on the Justices' personalities, their relationships with one another, the major political and legal divides on the Court, and how the Court shaped and was shaped by the political climate in Washington DC. 


The book opens with the impending retirement of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the scion of Supreme Court liberals and probably the most influential Chief Justice of the twentieth century. Warren attempted to retire during President Johnson's administration and have the President replace him with fellow Justice Abe Fortas and replace Fortas with Fifth Circuit Judge Homer Thornberry. In the interest of not spoiling everything, let's just say that didn't work out. President Johnson decided not to run for re-election for reasons that I won't get into here, and ultimately the task of replacing Warren went to 1968 election winner Richard Nixon.


One of Nixon's major campaign themes was the need to reign in activist judges and ensure that the Supreme Court and other federal courts would be populated by "strict constructionists." Many Americans, particularly legal and political conservatives, believed that the post-New Deal Courts in general and the Warren Court in particular were eager to re-interpret the Constitution to create rights and powers where they did not exist in the service of promoting a liberal worldview (Note: when I say liberal, think FDR to Jimmy Carter; anything before or after is probably anachronistic). Nixon would have the opportunity to put four Justices on the Supreme Court, and while his appointments did not bring about a "strict constructionist" or "conservative" legal reaction, they did dramatically change the Court's trajectory.


The Brethren is the first and best historical work that looks at the Court's inner workings. Every Justice's background and personality is examined in detail and put in context. The Brethren gives readers insights into the deliberations and machinations surrounding several of the most important cases of the era, including United States v. Nixon, Roe v. Wade, Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia, Miller v. California, etc. Every hot button issue of the era from the Vietnam War, to school desegregation, to abortion, to federal minimum wage laws, is dissected from the Justice's perspectives. In addition, The Brethren shows how opinions are crafted, how majorities form and shift, and how the Justices interact (or chose not to interact) with the political actors around them.


The primary informant for this book was actually a man on the inside; Associate Justice Potter Stewart. Stewart was an Eisenhower appointee, a political moderate, and a frequent dissenter during the latter half of the Warren Court. He and the other "moderates" on the Court will play a key role in shaping its decisions. When you read the descriptions of other Justice's personalities, be mindful of the fact that you are reading about them primarily from Stewart's perspective (and secondarily from Woodward and Armstrong's).



High Points:
Too many to pick. The discussion about the Justices' attitudes toward obscenity cases were hilarious. Potter Stewart's role in the 1976 death penalty cases and National League of Cities v. Usery is fascinating and not talked about often enough. Then Associate Justice William Rehnquist's sense of humor is on display a lot. 



Low Points:
I'm probably in the minority on this one, but I think the portrayal of Chief Justice Warren Burger is somewhat unbalanced. I believe much of the negative stuff that is written about him in the book, but personnel management was not really his strong suit. Burger had a solid legal mind and was an effective administrator of the federal court system (which is the arguably primary responsibility of the Chief Justice of SCOTUS, even though this is talked about very little). Also, recent research has revealed that the book's re-telling of Justice Blackmun's draft error in Kuhn v. Flood is incorrect.



Verdict:
9.8/10. If you want to learn about the Supreme Court's inner workers in the 1970s, love learning about American history or politics, or have a lot of time to kill on you commute to or from work, this is well worth your time. I can't think of a better book for a non-lawyer to read to understand how the Supreme Court Justices operate. And of course, if you are a lawyer there's a great deal of depth to it that you will appreciate.


Links:

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Brethren-Audiobook/B07MD6F6SX?source_code=AUDORWS0718179KY7


https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/brethren-bob-woodward/1103109798;jsessionid=DBEA136E2A4AF81AF2F3FADFA0B07C6D.prodny_store02-atgap14?ean=9780743274029&st=AFF&2sid=Simon%20&%20Schuster_7567305_NA&sourceId=AFFSimon%20&%20Schuster


https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743274024?tag=simonsayscom

I probably own 1,000+ books and they're on a lot of different topics. I'm almost exclusively into non-fiction. Lately I liked Endure by Cameron Hanes and Breathe by Rickson Gracie. Killing the Killers was pretty good and so was Rainbow Six by, of course, Tom Clancy.

My next review will be posted on Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy Wendigoon. 

^ *Tuesday. Tired from work lol. 

Sorry for further delay folks! I tried posting Tuesday night but ran into a bunch of technical issues. From here on out I am committed to posting every other Saturday. In any event, at least I've had fun prepping for these.



Topic:
Nonfiction-Politics/Statecraft/Policy, History



About The Author: 
Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian bureaucrat and diplomat who lived from 1469 to 1527. He was active in public life and worked as a civil servant in the city of Florence after the Medici family was temporarily exiled. The return of the Medicis to power in Florence and Machiavelli's dismissal from the civil service prompted many of his most famous writings, including The Prince.



Overview:
The Prince is part of a genre of works known as “mirrors for princes.” These works were essentially handbooks written to instruct young rulers in statecraft and domestic policy. Several notable mirrors for princes we written in medieval and Renaissance era Europe, and most encouraged the ruler to whom they were written to learn to rule as a good Christian. Machiavelli's The Prince is quite radical in comparison in that Christian morality is not its focus. Morality in general is a secondary (though not irrelevant) concern in The Prince. Machiavelli's main concern is to teach his pupil how to acquire and maintain power and to demonstrate the superiority of his observations through historical analysis.


The Prince was first written by Machiavelli in 1513, although it wouldn't be published for mass consumption until five years after his death. It is dedicated to Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino and of Florence from 1516 to 1519. Lorenzo was the grandson of the Medici family patriarch Lorenzo de Medici (same name, different dude), the son of the most recent Medici ruler of Florence before its republican era, and the father of future French Queen Catherine de Medici. Machiavelli probably hoped to use his treatise gain some favor with Lorenzo and slowly work his way back into Florentine politics. Machiavelli lived and wrote in a very politically tumultuous era. The Italy of his day (and several centuries previous) was politically divided among several city states who were constantly at war with each other, as well as the Pope, the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain, Islamic pirates, etc. The fragility of power, the necessity of war, and the importance of luck (fortune) and skill (virtue) are all major themes of The Prince that tie in nicely with this era of Italian history. By reading The Prince you can really see that Machiavelli's concerns are deeply rooted in Italian and Mediterranean history and in the contemporary politics of his day. This makes the enduring notoriety of The Prince and its continuing relevance to our time even more astounding.


The Prince is divided into twenty six chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a single subject (warfare, governmental taxonomy, etc.). The chapters open with some introductory classification or discussion of the title topic, a presentation of various strategies which rulers have taken relating to that topic, Machiavelli's recommendation, and support for said recommendation using historical examples. Machiavelli was a very serious student of history, and he tries to back up everything he said be providing several examples of how and why rulers from the past and present succeeded and failed. I have yet to do a deep dive into any of his examples to see if there are notable errors or examples of cherry-picking, but I am impressed with Machiavelli's commitment to proving his points and his insistence on learning from the past.


Machiavelli's focus on power acquisition and maintenance instead of moral instruction was controversial in his time, and it's this focus which has given the book it's negative reputation. When most people here Machiavelli's name they immediately associate with skullduggery and the Dark Triad. But Machiavelli never proclaimed that moral concerns were irrelevant, nor did he encourage his pupil to behave with wanton cruelty or arbitrariness. Rather, he encourages his pupil to act with prudence and to adopt those strategies which will enable him to remain on top in a dog-eat-dog world without unnecessarily alienating his people. Thus, Machiavelli tells his pupil that if he must commit atrocities, he should do so intensely at the beginning of his reign and then never resort to such atrocities again. This is because the people will forget the atrocities of the past, but persistent cruelty will only breed hatred among the people. This is just one example of his advice.


High Points:
These were, in my opinion, the most insightful and interesting chapters . . .

• CHAPTER V. CONCERNING THE WAY TO GOVERN CITIES OR PRINCIPALITIES WHICH LIVED UNDER THEIR OWN LAWS BEFORE THEY WERE ANNEXED (on why it pays to crush those who have once tasted freedom)
• CHAPTER VIII. CONCERNING THOSE WHO HAVE OBTAINED A PRINCIPALITY BY WICKEDNESS (on why doing evil does not necessarily make you a bad ruler)
• CHAPTER XII. HOW MANY KINDS OF SOLDIERY THERE ARE AND CONCERNING MERCENARIES (on why mercenaries suck)
• CHAPTER XVI. CONCERNING LIBERALITY AND MEANNESS (on why you should blow your treasury money on gifts)
• CHAPTER XVII. CONCERNING CRUELTY AND CLEMENCY, AND WHETHER IT IS BETTER TO BE LOVED THAN FEARED (probably the most talked about chapter, explaining why it is better for a ruler to be feared by his subjects than loved, if he can only be one)

Low Points:
The first three chapters are kinda dull IMO.



Verdict:
9/10. A a seminal work of political science which underrated and and too often misunderstood. 

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Prince-Niccol%C3%B2-Machiavelli/dp/B08WZHBPW6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2UQ0EAKVK5ECG&keywords=the+prince&qid=1664935900&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjQ2IiwicXNhIjoiNC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjMuOTcifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=the+prince%2Caps%2C264&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-prince-by-nicolo-machiavelli-niccolo-machiavelli/1110020736?ean=9781668506448

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1232/1232-h/1232-h.htm#link2H_4_0007

been reading blood meridian, it's pretty cool. glanton is literally me.

* Edited at 03.09.2023, 9:24 AM ET *

My favourite McCarthy, besides The Road. To this day Judge Holden still haunts me in my dreams.

* Edited at 03.09.2023, 7:56 PM ET *

I liked the movie for the Road.  Is he book much different?  I heard there is one point in the book where they want to eat a newborn.  That sounds pretty raw.
I read 2-3 books a week.  I read all kinds.  As an author myself, I like to read what other people put out there.  There seems to be too many D&D and vampire ones out there.  It is difficult to find ones that stick out in those genres.

It's one of the best books I've ever read. Just trust the guy with the Hemingway AV on this one. 

Genre:Nonfiction, 19-Century Biography

Overview:John von Neumann was born in Hungary at the beginning of the last century, but immigrated to the United States as Hitler began to encroach beyond Germany's borders.  Von Neumann studied mathematics, but as a polymath, was groundbreaking in finding ways to apply mathematics to many other fields.  He worked on defense projects in WWII and the Cold War.  He helped to develop early 20th century computers.  He worked on the mathematics underpinning predictive meteorology.  And he forayed into economics.  In his last days, he began to speculate about the nature of the human brain for its similarities and differences with the computer.

Despite having his personal political beliefs, he was a pragmatist, and was willing to work with those with differing political bents to achieve what he saw as beneficial ends.  He was a man whose time needed him, and he answered the call with alacrity.  I found him fascinating both as a human being, and for the many discrete contributions he made to advance human knowledge.  If, like me, you enjoy learning history through biography, then this mid-20th century tome may be just the thing for you.

@ Bellatrix 

He did have an interesting life.  He had an edetic memory and used logic in Pascal's Wager.  The latter being one's smart choice in the afterlife.