Andreesen’s fabulous book recommendations

[jon-nyc]

Towards the bottom of the thread.

[George K]

What a list.

Six books on the deep history of the American left....

"Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe"

Interesting. I read that decades ago, and it struck me as a rather odd book...

"STINE! Lenny roared..." is the only thing I really remember. I suppose I should revisit it.

Hoffer and Sowell. Nietzche and Fukuyama.

[Catseye3]

I redd the list, and went away. Then I slept and came back this morning and BM'd it. Now it remains for me to figure out if there is a unifying theme that drew Andreesen to these books. Some of the titles suggest they might be ideological. From the Amazon writeup, the Macaes book History Has Begun seemed like it might be. I'm not interested in how somebody thinks things should be; I'm interested in how things are.

Having said that, it might be too late for me for any sort of deep diving -- whether from age or disillusionment or I don't know what. All that busyness is sort of alarming. I'd hate to get a third of the way through a book and discover it is just somebody's opinion.

[kluurs]

Last thing I need is another list of books I should read - but some interesting thoughts nonetheless.

·
Interesting books on culture and society I've read recently. I don't necessarily agree with any of them, but they're all useful and informative. -->

1. The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges -- the single best book I have found on who we are and how we got here.

2. The Machiavellians, and The Managerial Revolution, by James Burnham -- together, the best explanation for the current structure of our society and politics.

3. Four books on the Spanish Civil War, which was the trial run for the hundred years of Western history that followed.
   The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas
   Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
   Spain In Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild
   Mine Were Of Trouble by Peter Kemp

4. Six books on the deep history of the American right.
   Lindbergh by Scott Berg
   The Ambassador by Susan Ronald
   The Guarded Gate by Daniel Okrent
   The Second Coming of the KKK by Linda Gordon
   War For Eternity by Benjamin Teitelbaum
   The New Right by Michael Malice

5. Two comprehensive biographies of Adolf Hitler.
   Hitler: A Global Biography by Brendan Simms
   Hitler: Ascent and Hitler: Downfall by Volker Ullrich

6. Six books on the deep history of the American left.
   The God That Failed by Richard Crossman
   The Romance of American Communism by Vivian Gornick
   Witness by Whittaker Chambers
   Joseph McCarthy by Arthur Herman
   Days of Rage by Bryan Burrough
   Radical Chic by Tom Wolfe

7. A comprehensive biography and a key chronicle of Vladimir Lenin.
   Lenin by Victor Sebestyen
   Lenin On The Train by Catherine Merridale

8. A New World Begins by Jeremy Popkin, on the French Revolution.

9. Two books on fascism and anti-fascism, titled Fascism and Anti-Fascism respectively, both by Paul Gottfried.

10. The True Believer by Eric Hoffer -- a brilliant book on the nature of mass movements and collective psychology.

11. The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milos

[taiwan_girl]

(You guys are making me feel small! LOL Because here I am reading a Jack Reacher book!! 555

Thanks @George-K !!! )

[Doctor Phibes]

@taiwan_girl said in Andreesen’s fabulous book recommendations:

(You guys are making me feel small! LOL Because here I am reading a Jack Reacher book!! 555

Thanks @George-K !!! )

Not to worry, I too can list lots of very clever sounding books I've seen in the posh bits of Barnes and Noble.

[George K]

@taiwan_girl akshually, I've never read any of the Reacher books. That's @jolly, I believe.