Richard Feyneman – Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman
Not all anecdotes have aged well but there are enough gems to make the book worthwhile.
From its earliest origins math has been seen both as an formalization of divine perfection and as an effective, practical tool for solving real-world problems
Paolo Zellini – The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men
Guided tour through the philosophy of mathematics, seldomly deviating from the expected and missing in-depth reflection on the role of data science in this regard.
Since the invention of the micro processor, chip production has become of imminent strategic importance for both the USA and other geopolitical power blocks
Nice historical overview, very topical in an era where technology significantly affects the Ukraine war and the power play between the USA and China around Taiwan.
The struggle to keep the legacy of the Roman empire alive has shaped much of Ravenna’s history
A front-row seat to the decline and fall of the (Western) Roman empire.
Aging populations and the breakdown of global trade make that very bad things are going to happen all over the world, but less so in the USA
Peter Zeihan – The end of the world is just the beginning
Highly entertaining read with a lot of black humor, but incomplete in its analysis (e.g. of risk of internal conflicts in the USA and likelihood of collaboration between states in Europe).
Elections are not democratic but aristocratic, because only members of the elite get on the ballot
David van Reybrouk – Against Elections (read in Dutch)
It would be interesting to expand the solution space to include not just random selection of citizens but also modes of participation and collaboration from non-political domains like open source software development.
The initial strength of the Hanseatic League was the fluidity of the institution, but that also limited the degree to which it could scale its power
Carsten Jahnke – Die Hanse (read in German)
Nice to read as an example of a successful alternative power structure (in the sense of Graeber en Wengrow), that is nonetheless is firmly rooted in proto-capitalist principles.
The strive for ever greater precision has been a driving force behind all landmark engineering achievements
Simon Winchester – The perfectionists
Nice collection of anecdotes which struggles to become more than just that.
The careful study of ancient wrecks reveals much about how – through the ages and across civilizations – engineers have solved for the same challenges in different ways
Richard Steffy – Wooden Ship Building and the Interpretation of Shipwrecks
It would be worthwhile research topic to map the development of ship building to the principles of disruptive innovation as laid out by Clayton Christensen.
A subversive branch of the French royal family has been responsible for the emergence of the low countries as a geopolitical entity
Bart de Loo – The Burgundians (read in Dutch)
Politics and court life in the high middle ages evoked in a juicy style.
Indigenous societies show that, next to capitalism, there are many alternative blends of violence, knowledge and charisma on which a viable social power structure can be built
David Graeber and David Wengrow – The dawn of everything
The authors attack a overly simplified version of the theories they aim to refute, failing to recognize the necessarily non-linear nature of evolution.
The early 20th century provided a thriving pan-European intellectual and scientific environment, for those men who had the brains and could afford to participate
Margriet van der Heijden – Denken is verrukkelijk (“Thinking is delicious”; in Dutch)
Thorough biography of Paul Ehrenfest and Tatiana Afanassjewa.
One can remove the gods from the story of Troy’s fall, but it is so much better if you leave them in
As engaging as the other parts of the trilogy.
When belief in progress has vanished, populists promise to rebuild the past – at all costs
Timothy Snyder – the road to unfreedom
October 2019: Elaborate and fascinating analysis of Putin’s Russia, which bears striking parallels to what populists in Western countries try, more recently.
March 2022: Chilling to see these themes back in Putin’s messaging around the Ukraine invasion.
From Anime to the Karaoke machine and the Gameboy, Japanese design has had an outsized influence on pop culture
Highly entertaining book, providing entertaining facts and refreshing perspectives.
The US postal service is a success story of the benefits of public funding
Winifred Gallagher – How the post office created America
In theory a fascinating topic, but in practice a boring read; as I should have expected because the Post leveraged rather than drove innovation.
A good archeologist makes Sherlock Holmes’ deductions look rather elementary
The best feature of the book is that the author explains how archeologists infer facts about life 2000 years ago.
Like in other instances of decolonization, forming the USA has been a murky affair largely dependent on chance
Colin Woodard – American nations
The book is more about political realities than about cultures, with little attention given to the role of black people (apart from them being enslaved).
A bunch of anarchists and misfits was able to defy the most powerful nations of the world for a surprisingly long time
Colin Woodart – The republic of pirates
Captivating narrative which juicy details on naval warfare practices and life on board.
Cyber warfare is getting increasingly sophisticated and the USA can no longer contain the threat of Russia and other foreign powers
At some points the investigative journalism is not fully convincing, but it conveys the message effectively.