Category: HISTORY

HUMANE WAR

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Humane (How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War)

By: Samuel Moyn

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Samuel Moyn (Author, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University.)

Sameul Moyn’s “Humane” shows America is one of many passengers on a train bound for Armageddon. The idea of a humane war is oxymoronic. War cannot, by definition be humane. There is no denying America’s war against Indians, Filipinos, Japanese, and Germans, with a history of mass violence against Blacks and other American minorities, is inhumane. The reasons for war’s violence range from defense of country to racism, to self-interest, to greed, i.e., the ingredients of human nature. From the crusades of Catholics against Muslims to persecution of Jews through the ages, to today’s Palistinian/Israli mayhem, inhumanity seems an integral part of the human condition.

Though Samuel Moyn makes war’s atrocity clear, it is odd to suggest America has reinvented the definition of war. The definition of war has never changed.

War is a conflict between power elites and the powerless. Though Moyn suggests President Obama revises nation-state war to be more humane, the tools of surreptitious killing by drone is just another weapon of war. It can as easily kill or injure the innocent as a WWI propeller driven dirigible dropping a bomb on an alleged enemy combatant. There will always be collateral damage. War boils down to a government leaders’ political strength whether he/she is President of Russia, America, China, or some other military power. Mistakes will always be made. Misjudgment and misperception are part of being human. Innocents will always die in war.

In accusation, Moyn’s history is an excellent reminder of war’s brutality. It is valuable to be reminded of war’s atrocity and stupidity, particularly in the face of Putin’s Ukraine invasion and attempt to recreate the U.S.S.R.

The galling part of Moyn’s reference to President Obama is to imply America is a lesser villain than other nation-states leaders by reinventing war, subject to rule-of-law. As the election of Trump proves, rational intelligent leadership is never guaranteed in democracy. The idea of targeted strikes in the hands of a Trump rather than an Obama is hard evidence of the ridiculous belief in humaneness of war.

War was designed by human nature to become more lethal with the science of many nations.

There is no reinvention of a humane war by any nation-state, let alone America. The only change in war is in scale, i.e., weapons of mass destruction have geometrically increased the number of human beings that can be murdered, wounded, or victimized by war’s execution. Science has added to potential world destruction with bigger nuclear bombs and viral research that could end life on earth, with many nations’ culpability. The point is America is just another player among nations that carry the risk of corruption of power, not to be an inventor of humane wars but to become hegemons of what they believe is their world. War is never humane.

Moyn recalls the history of George W. Bush’s decision to start a war on terror in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Few Americans, if any, can forget or forgive those who perpetrated that heinous act. To prepare a response, the Bush Administration promoted the USA PATRIOT ACT. To some, that ACT violated American civil rights.

Considering Moyn’s history of the creation and legal defense of the USA PATRIOT ACT, rule-of-law is merely a matter of picking the right attorney to get the result a President wants.

That is what the Department of Justice leader John Ashcroft did in choosing John Yoo. Moyn explains Yoo’s family came from Korea, with their son having become a Harvard graduate and lawyer working for the government. Moyn implies Yoo’s success in America and his family’s knowledge of North Korean repression influenced John Yoo’s legal opinion of the PATRIOT ACT. Legal opinion is a fungible skill based on the biases of its writers.

Being humane is in the eye of the beholder whether the beholder is moral or amoral.

Government leaders may represent a nation or a faction of people, but unless one believes in “the arc of the moral universe” as originated by Theodore Parker in the 19th century (made modern by Martin Luther King in the 20th century), the world will continue to have wars; all of which become inhumane.

QUANTUM

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Helgoland (Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution)

By: Carlo Rovelli, Erica Segre-translator, Simon Carnell

Narrated by: David Rintoul

Carlos Rovelli (Italian author, theoretical physicist.)
Erica Segre (Italian author, born in 1963, deceased 2021, Professor at Trinity College)

Carlo Rovelli’s book title, “Helgoland”, refers to a small island in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. Werner Heisenberg, a pioneer in quantum mechanics theory, visits the island to think about the mystery of matter and energy and how it works at a subatomic level.

Werner Heisenberg (German theoretical physicist, pioneer of the theory of quantum mechanics. Born 1901, died 1976 at the age of 74.)

Rovelli explains this 20-year-old wunderkind had been given an assignment by Niel’s Bohr to determine how a quantum works in a subatomic environment. (A quantum is the minimum amount of a physical property’s interaction with the substance of the world.) The author suggests Heisenberg chooses Helgoland to think about his complicated assignment because he suffers from allergies which would not be aggravated by the austere island’s environment.

Rovelli argues that Heisenberg believes the known postulates of physics, rather than a new theory, held the key to the quantum world.

Using the tools of known physics, Heisenberg observed and recorded the actions of quantum particles. What he found was their actions could be measured mathematically with the addition of a matrix of numbers to finite calculations of known physics phenomena. The matrix introduced the principle of probability rather than certainty to quantum action at a sub-atomic level. This revelation overturned the certainty principles of cause and effect presumed by the Einstein’ physics community.

At a subatomic level, Heisenberg’s observation and number matrix postulate probability rather than certainty as a fundamental law guiding the principle of existence.

Rovelli goes on to explain this fundamental change in the understanding of physics is elemental but not substantively different for life as we know it. The author argues life remains relational at all scales of existence, just as it did before quantum mechanics became physics guiding principle. However, quantum physics remains mysterious and has led to new ideas like the many worlds’ hypothesis, the Copenhagen interpretation, and the Broglie-Bohm theory.

What Rovelli concludes in “Helgoland” is that what humans see, hear, feel, and think are based on relational understanding of the world.

Rovelli argues the world is a material place, but its substantive reality is based on life’s perceiver. This is a comforting and terrifying argument. It explains why humans can be so right about what is perceptually true and advantageous but also wrong and disastrous because of misleading perceptions.

BEHAVIORAL HOPE

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Of Fear and Strangers (A History of Xenophobia)

By: George Makari

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

George Jack Makari (American author, psychiatrist and historian, professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.)

George Makari notes his family emigrated from Lebanon to the United States when he was a young boy. This is an interesting note because of the diverse cosmopolitan history of Lebanon that reaches back more than 5,000 years. Lebanon is a country of many cultural, religious, and ethnic groups including Arabs & Syriac, Armenians, Kurds, Turks, and others.

Makari’s education and family background are well-suited for his explanation and history of the psychology of race and ethnicity. For Beirut to have become a cultural center for a period of time must have required high tolerance for difference among its residents.

Beirut got the name “Paris of the Middle East” following WWII when it became a vibrant cultural and intellectual center, largely influenced by the French.

Makari notes WWII’s end and implies society’s relief ameliorated conflict between Lebanon’s disparate cultures. However, that relief falls away in the 1970’s Lebanese civil war.

Beirut, Lebanon’s capitol, is a city some 40 miles from Makari’s hometown. It became a graveyard and failed state after the Lebanese civil war.

As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said in his 1933 inauguration, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Roosevelt is, of course, referring to fear felt by Americans during the Great Depression.

In “Of Fear and Strangers”, Makari suggests fear is at the heart of race and ethnic discrimination. Undoubtedly, the end of WWII reduced fear in the people of Lebanon. Reduction in fear might be the motivation for Beirut’s acceptance of cultural diversity, peace, and prosperity between 1945 and the 70s.

As a psychiatrist and historian, Makari offers a theory of how and why people become xenophobic.

He suggests it begins early in life. Makari argues the rise of Hitler and the horrid reality of the Holocaust lay at the feet of an authoritarian culture that suppressed freedom, demanded conformity, and used vilification of the “other” to reinforce a false belief in superiority.

Makari explains discrimination is largely based on fear of those who are different from us, i.e., us being anyone of a different race or ethnicity.

Makari’s history is about xenophobia, i.e., the fear or hatred of people who are different. The definition of xenophobia is first noted in 1880 with the combination of two ancient Greek words, i.e., “Xenos” meaning stranger and “Phobos” meaning fight or fear.

Makari argues the key to ameliorate fear of strangers or the “other” lies in the way parents raise their children.

Realigning fear of the stranger will not change the past and seems unlikely to change the future. However, Makari argues the key to ameliorate fear of strangers or the “other” lies in the way parents raise their children. He argues parenting that is less authoritarian and more open and nurturing will fundamentally change society to be more empathetic. Makari persuasively argues the rise of Hitler is partially related to German culture and the relationship between parents and their offspring. He suggests only with childhood experience of freedom will equal rights and equal opportunities be realized by society.

Makari suggests that family dynamic before WWII created German psychological projections for distrust of “others” and displacement that exhibits itself as anger and sometimes rage.

Makari suggests German family’ dynamics are culturally stricter and more demanding than those of many countries. He implies relationship change between parents and children would create a more empathetic generation in Germany.

Makari’s theory goes beyond individual psychological projection (an ego defense mechanism against unconscious impulses) by explaining how group psychology works to heighten rage against the “other”. Displacement (a redirection of a negative emotion) takes the form of rage against the “other”. Makari argues distrust of the “other” and rage is magnified by group hysteria. That hysteria is exhibited by Hitler’s followers. German rage led to the genocidal murder of Jews. Makari suggests one who is empathetic no longer fears the stranger and welcomes others as fellow humans–living lives, both different and the same as themselves. There is no motivation for displacement rage among those who are empathetic.

(Before this book was published, America experienced group rage in the January 6, 2021 attack on the capitol.)

The last chapters of Makari’s history of xenophobia explain how psychiatric and philosophical theories of mostly men (like Kraepelin, Freud, Adorno, Marx, Locke, Sartre, Camus, Foucault, and Simone de Beauvoir) provide a basis for his beliefs about histories’ recurrence of xenophobia.

Humanity will never become egalitarian without a common purpose.

What is ironic about Makari’s theory of the history of xenophobia is that it offers hope for the future. The experience of Lebanon after WWII suggests global warming, like WWII, may give common purpose to many, if not all, peoples of the world. (An exception would be those nations that insist on adherence to myths of hegemonic power and religious zealotry.)

The negative consequence of authoritarianism will not be eliminated but it may be reduced.

According to Kamari’s theory, it begins with parenting. If he is right, change will begin with how future generations are raised. Might does not make right. Less authoritarianism will allow the world to more constructively address global warming’s world-wide risk.

Of course, this book was written before Russia invaded Ukraine. Kamari notes the rise of Trump, and his supporters implies group rage and xenophobia remain a clear and present danger in America.

In listening/reading Kamari’s book, one chooses to either be a pessimist or optimist about our world’s future.

The hope is that an interregnum (a gap in government and social order) is created to allow Makari’s theory of improving parental care of children is implemented. If Makari is right about how parents should raise their children, a more empathetic society may emerge to proffer a more egalitarian society. On the other hand, humanity may continue down the road of self-destruction, fueled by unregulated self-interest and diminishing human empathy.

HUMANITY’S TRIAL

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

By: Peter Frankopan

Narrated by: Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan, (Author, Professor of Global History at Oxford University, Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research.)

Peter Frankopan journeys from pre-history to the present to offer perspective on the earth’s global warming crisis. He reviews what is either speculated or known of disastrous world events. Frankopan recalls histories of major volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts, famines, pandemics, and epidemics that have changed the course of history.

In the beginning, one thinks Frankopan is setting up a rationalization to argue global warming is just another world changing crisis that will be managed by humanity.

However, Frankopan is explaining the history of world crises and how humanity dealt with its eternal recurrence. In broad outline, he suggests world crises are dealt with in two ways, i.e., one, with religion or mysticism, and/or two, with adaptation. In every historical crisis, leadership is the presumed key to survival.

Frankopan explains the common denominator for crises that change the world is death.

Just as America and the world recovers from Covid-19, millions have died. We who remain carry on.

Whether a catastrophic event is geological, climatological, or pathogenic, life is a victim. Before history is written, Frankopan offers explanations of what happened to life based on fossilized remains. Causes for death are either geological (like earthquakes), climatological (like volcanic dust that blocks the sun), pathogenic (like the plague or a virus), or manmade (like the nuclear bomb). When written history begins, Frankopan’s evidence of world crises is more precisely explained. (From an objective perspective of any historian’s story, any history of the past is trapped in His/Her’s interpretation of other’s reported facts.)

Frankopan argues life on earth has come and gone through centuries of crises.

The evolution of human beings shows they have managed to ameliorate past crises by meeting them head-on. Humans have overcome crises by adapting to change, whether manmade or environmental. If the past is prologue to life’s survival, global warming’s threat will be met and ameliorated by human response. Just as all crises in world history have ended lives, the same is true of global warming. That does not necessarily mean all human life ends. Frankopan’s history infers life will be changed by global warming but leaves unanswered whether human life will end.

Jumping ahead in Frankopan’s scholarly review of history, the age of Sputnik emphasized the growing importance of science in the ecology of the world.

The Russian Launch of Sputnik in 1957.

Ironically, Russia’s giant step ahead of America in the space race awakened the world to the importance of science. Frankopan notes the hubris of humanity taking center stage with Khrushchev’s comments about humankind’s need and ability to control nature. To Frankopan, control of nature is a turning point in the hubris of humankind. He notes the U.S.S.R. experiments with weather control as a way to improve agricultural productivity. Frankopan suggests the real objective is to realize the potential of weather control as a weapon of war and goes on to explain how America capitalizes on that idea in the Vietnam war.

The irony and hubris of humanity in believing it can control the weather is evident in the despoiling of earth by human ignorance and action.

The profligate use of carbon-based energy for industrial growth far outstrips any science driven effort by humanity to control the weather. World ecology has proven too complex for constructive control by human beings. It is as though the world is being turned back to religion and myth to explain the phenomenon of world existence.

The last two chapters address overwhelming evidence for causes and consequences of late 20th and early 21st century world’ environmental damage.

From deforestation in the Amazon, to automobile increase in China, to waterway dams and aquifer depletion, a listener/reader’s fear and depression are kindled.

Harvard educated politicians like Ted Cruz and poorly educated Presidents like Donald Trump insist global warming is a hoax. As political power representatives of the wealthiest country in the world, one cannot but be appalled by climate change deniers.

The world’s future is based on an unknown solution to global warming.

Some suggest A.I. is key to solving global warming. Frankopan’s history suggests it is human beings that gave humanity the ability to overcome past crises. A.I. is one of humanities tools. It seems fair to suggest today’s crises will be another difficult chapter in the history of humanity. Judging by Frankopan’s history of human adaptation, global warming may not be humanities last chapter. However, Frankopan warns listerner/readers against the hubristic belief that nature can be controlled by humankind.

Stephen Hawking suggested humanity will not survive another 1,000 years on Earth and that human survival depends on colonization elsewhere in the Solar System. Frankopan seems to infer, humanity does not have that much time.

Frankopan wryly observes global warming is a crisis, but that human life is more likely to end from some other cataclysmic natural event like that which killed the dinosaurs (a meteor strike), a massive underwater volcanic eruption, or nuclear war before global warming kills us all.

One hopes histories past lessons inform a future that includes a place for the youth of this, the next, and future generations. World change brought on by crises have been overcome in the past through human adaptation. It seems reasonable to presume, despite the ignorance of some national leaders, that humanity will survive today’s global warming crisis.

GOVERNMENT IDEALISM

Audio-book Review 
By Chet Yarbrough 

Blog: awalkingdelight) 
Website: chetyarbrough.blog 

Cuba (An American History) 

By: Ada Ferrer 

Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Ada Ferrer- prologue. 

Ada Ferrer (Author, historian, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her American History of Cuba.)

Ada Ferrer’s “Cuba” offers an insightful history of Cuba. She reveals how this island nation became a Spanish and American obsession and explains its complicated relationship with the world and America. In Cuba, Columbus finds three Indigenous inhabitants, the Tainos, the Ciboneys, and the Guanajatabeyes. Though Columbus may have tasted the sweetness of sugarcane, he was looking for gold and failed to appreciate sugar’s commercial value.  

The Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, lands in Cuba on his historic and misguided exploration of the Western world in 1492.

Ferrer notes Spanish conquistador, Diego Cuellar, arrives in 1511 to establish a Spanish settlement in Baracoa, Cuba.

Spain becomes the de facto ruler of this island, less than four hundred miles off Florida’s coast. With Cuba’s declaration of independence in 1868, Spain’s control is challenged by years of Cuban rebellion until American intervention in 1898. Spain had colonized and controlled Cuba for over three hundred years. In 1898, America declares war on Spain and ejects Spain’s suzerainty in the Spanish-American War. However, Cuba fails to become truly independent until 1902 when the U.S. ends its military occupation. Ferrer notes in the years between 1898 and 1902, American leaders like John Quincy Adams covet American assimilation of Cuba. However, Cubans had other ideas.  

Ferrer infers Cubans felt the same about America’s control of Cuba as they did of Spain’s. With liberation of Cuba in 1898, America chose to appoint the same Spanish bureaucrats to manage the country as when Spain controlled Cuba.

America influences election of a President of Cuba’s new Republic by supporting Thomas Palma. Palma lasts for 4 years. In general, Ferrer implies Cubans were glad to see America withdraw in 1909. However, American withdrawal is tempered by the Platt Amendment that would allow American military intervention if American leadership believed Cuban independence was at risk. 

Cuba neglected to form a government that could or would govern the inherent self-interest of human beings.

Failure to understand human self-interest exacerbates the economic challenge of the Great Depression. The first act of one of Cuba’s kleptocrats in the early 1930s is to pilfer the treasury, escape to America, and build what became known as “Little Havana” in Florida; leaving Cuba without funds to govern their newly formed government. 

Meyer Lansky (1902-1983) Organized Crime Figure specialized in Gambling
Lucky Luciano (1897-1962) Mafia Crime Boss

Cuba’s kleptocratic government copes through the years of the depression to become fertile ground for the American mob, led by Lucky Luciano and Myer Lansky. Lansky meets with Batista and hands over suitcases of money to cement a relationship between the mob and the Cuban government. Lansky establishes a Cuban gambling industry and makes Cuba a transportation hub for illegal drug distribution. 

Ferrer notes at times in history, the conflict between Black and white citizens becomes as violent in Cuba as in America.  

In subsequent years, Cuba writes a new constitution that theoretically guarantees social equality but fails to enforce its idealistic intentions. Considering Ferrer’s studied and detailed history of Cuba’s government struggles, a reader/listener recognizes the wisdom of America’s founding fathers in creating a government of checks and balances. One realizes Cuba runs through several Presidents that fail to achieve the ideals of their Constitution. The ideal of equality among men and women of all races and creeds, though preached in both Cuba and America, is not achieved in either country.

Ferrer recounts the story of Lucky Luciano carrying suitcases filled with money to corrupt Batista’s government to transform Havana into a mecca for gambling and prostitution. 

Fulgencio Batista (1901-1973) U.S. backed dictator of Cuba.

After a series of difficulties in the economy, Fulgencio Batista becomes President in 1940 and again in 1955 after a seven-year interregnum with two other Cuban Presidents.

Ferrer notes Cuba in later days of Batista and during the depression is a kleptocratic state. The failure to establish a government that serves its people rather than its corrupt leaders, and Batista’s cruel administration set the table for citizen’s discontent and rebellion. That discontent led to Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1976. 

Fidel Castro (1926-2016) Photograph in 1959. Castro served as President and then Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba but always considered himself a Socialist.

Ferrer clearly explains Castro was a committed revolutionary socialist, not a communist. Castro makes the same mistake China and Russia are making in understanding the economics of Karl Marx. This is not to say Marx is right about the evolution of government but that the ideal of a socialist’s or communist’s success is dependent upon economic growth. Without wealth, there is no equity to equally distribute.  

Ferrer shows Castro to be an idealist, a person committed to the equality of humanity but unable to create the economic viability needed for socialism to work.

Fidel Castro is both revered and reviled by Cubans, let alone many Americans. The inherent self-interest of humanity makes socialism and communism an ideal, not a reality. Neither China, Russia, nor Cuba, seem to understand, as Marx infers–to become either a socialist or communist state, a state must begin with capitalism.  

Self-interest will always interfere with the idealism of socialism and communism. The missing requirement of all forms of government is the perfection of checks and balances that can fairly mitigate inherent human self-interest. 

“Cuba” is an excellent historical account that illustrates the strength and weakness of autocratic leaders and government idealism.  Ferrer’s work deserved the Pulitzer Prize.

OUR WORLD

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World’s Superpowers

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester (English American author, National Book Award Winner for Non-Fiction).

“Pacific” is an entertaining and tragic reminder of earth’s despoliation and man’s inhumanity to man. Simon Winchester begins his story by explaining the Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth, bounded in the south by Antarctica, in the west by Asia and Europe (sparsely dotted by Oceania), and in the east by the Americas.

Winchester begins with Bikini Island’s 23 nuclear bomb tests between 1946-1958.

The tests were codified by four titles: Operations Crossroads, Castle, Redwing, and Hardtack. The objective was to find an explosive device that would end WWII. Two fundamental flaws in the plan are the iniquitous displacement of indigenous people on Bikini Island and the consequence of nuclear fission on humanity. One rationalizes both by believing actions taken saved the future. The saving came at the expense of a small island’s contamination, its inhabitant’s displacement, and the mitigated losses of Allied soldiers in a protracted Japan invasion. And, of course, the estimated 80,000 people killed in Japan within one year of the two atomic bombs, and the 90,000 to 166,000 that it grew to in years to come.

There is a fine line between rationalization and truth in Winchester’s story.

The rationalization is capsulized by Oppenheimer’s quote after detonation of the first atomic bomb. That seems the truth, without any rationalization. The reality of science trumps rationalization. The numbers of dead and injured is science. Bomb blasts are the science of numbers vs. the less-definable rationalization of survivors. Belief in the value of killing people is rationalization. What is not believed to be true from science or faith is only proven after its consequences are experienced.

From the Bhagavad Gita, Oppenheimer notes “I have become Time, the destroyer of worlds”.

Much of the history of the 20th century is artfully recounted by Winchester’s “Pacific”. From the growth of computers to the serendipitous creation of surfboards, Winchester reminds listeners of our changing world. Much of what science has found has hugely benefited humanity but we never know it’s true impact in advance. The atomic bombs invention is a blessing and curse. It may lead to the discovery of a new source of pollution-free power or the end of civilization.

Though Winchester’s book is written before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it reveals the likelihood of coming collisions between nation-states.

Winchester reminds us of the USS Pueblo incident in 1968 and its boarding and threats by North Korean soldiers. Though it was a spying mission it was conducted in neutral waters off of Korea. The inept Captain of the vessel allows the illegal boarding by North Korean forces. North Korea commandeered the vessel and unjustly incarcerated 83 seaman. Winchester notes no one is killed but the North Koreans held the seaman in poorly maintained facilities for 338 days.

Pueblo Vessel remains in the hands of the North Koreans. (Picture Taken in 2012.)

Even though education levels and science will rise among nations, each has cultural and political beliefs that are different. Those differences give rise to inevitable conflict. Winchester infers the need for recognition of human equality. He argues individuated cultural and political beliefs will continue to collide in a post-nuclear world where human life’s survival is threatened.

Winchester adds the well-worn story of environmental degradation caused by humanity.

The world’s continued use of fossil fuels is slowly changing the ecology of the Pacific Ocean. The coral that is dying provides nutrients for fish and wildlife that sustain one of humanity’s primary food sources.

Global warming is destroying the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

“Pacific” is another story that warns of humanities folly. Winchester’s story reinforces growing understanding that we all live on one planet. Life will not end from human despoliation, but human beings will disappear if we continue to ignore nature’s balance. What will remain is life that survives in a different world.

HINDSIGHT (G.W.’S LEGACY)

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Landfall (A Novel)

By: Thomas Mallon

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Thomas Mallon (Author, novelist, essayist, and critic.)

Thomas Mallon’s book is a fictionalized account of George W. Bush’s administration. Mallon cleverly includes a fictional love story that adds some drama to his story. What one should be wary of is Mallon’s political bias and how it might color the story.

In listening to a book of fiction that uses the names of the known, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Fictionalizing history-making characters is particularly difficult when it is written about events of the near past. What helps is the knowledge that all history books are partly fictionalized by choice of an author’s facts. Revisionist history is why past Presidents have both risen and fallen in the eyes of historians and the public.

George W. Bush makes some bad decisions as a young man, but more importantly and significantly, as a two-term President.

The son of former President H. W. Bush comes across as a decent and flawed human being. America’s consequence from Iraq and Afghanistan invasions and George W.s response to Katrina show American government hubris and failure. Mallon’s story shows American’s fallibility as a democratic government. Both Republican and Democratic parties in America have made good and bad domestic and international decisions; some of which have been reversed, others not.

Mallon writes of the difficulty of working through America’s deadly mistakes in Iraq.

Mallon chooses to write a fictional account of the bad decisions made by President George W. Bush. Some of us have short memories but Mallon reminds listeners of the last four years of George W.’s Presidency. Some in Bush’s administration reluctantly suggest America must withdraw from the mess America created by removing Iraq’s autocratic and brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein. Some of George W.’s leaders were misled (or lied to themselves) about Iraq’s threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). No one in George W.’s administration manages to persuade policy makers that American nation-building in foreign cultures is a fool’s errand.  

Autocratic governments know little about what it means to be free, or at least free within the rule of law.

Mallon creates a story that implies there is a great deal of descension in the second term of George W.’s administration. This is particularly evident in the intellectual conflict between the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. There is a growing recognition by leaders in the administration, that America could not re-build Iraq’s government. Rumsfeld may have suggested immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq with political spin that infers America’s job is done.  The President and Secretary of State Rice realize the Presidency and American resolve is tarnished by withdrawal, whether it is militarily or diplomatically accomplished. Mallon’s novel concludes G.W.’s legacy is the Iraq debacle and the mishandling of the Katrina disaster in Louisiana.

Katrina disaster in Louisiana

As time passes and history is rewritten, Mallon’s conclusions are likely to be repeated. Neither George W. Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, nor Secretary Rice will be remembered as great leaders. It is not judgement about their patriotism or their desire to make America safer or better, but a consequence of political mistakes.

George W’s administration fails to understand nation-building is folly, and natural disasters are not about the dead but about quick and organized aid to survivors. Mallon’s book is a reminder of how difficult it is for any organization’s leader to become great in the eyes of history.

WAR

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

48 Laws of Power

By: Robert Greene

Narrated by: Richard Poe

Robert Greene (Author, B.A. in classical studies.)

Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power” is an interesting journey through the history of leadership, and war. It is an interesting contrast to what some authors have written about Machiavelli’s “Prince”.

Russian Soldier’s death in Ukraine.
American war in Iraq
Vietnam & Afghanistan American Evacuations

Greene’s history is timely in respect to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and America’s Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan failures. Though these events were for ideologically different reasons, Greene’s 48 laws are relevant.

Greene offers so many anecdotes, this review focuses on Wu Zetian, Mao Zedong, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (aka Talleyrand), and Henry Kissinger. These are four among many accomplished leaders Greene reviews from the 7th to the 21st century. Each exercise some variation of Greene’s “48 Laws of Power”. The story of Wu Zetian is the most amazing of the four.

Wu Zetian (624 CE to 705 CE, died at age 81, Empress from 649-683, Emperor 690-704 CE)

One presumes this a mature rendering of Wu, not the young concubine who attracted Emperor Taizong.

Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in 2000 years of China’s imperial rule. She is alleged to have indirectly and directly ruled the Tang Dynasty from 649 to 704CE. She became the concubine of emperor Taizong but was exiled to a nunnery by the wife of Taizong’s son. Wu returned to marry Taizong’s son. According to Greene, Wu strangled her daughter and accused Gaozong’s wife. Upon conviction, Gaozong’s wife is executed. This paved Wu’s way to become first wife of Gaozong. Gaozong became the putative emperor from 649-683 CE.

Greene explains Wu was the power behind Gaozong’s rule. When Gaozong died in 683, Wu formally proclaimed herself emperor in 690 CE and died in 705 CE at the age of 81. Whether precisely true or not, Greene gives this as evidence of steely determination and willingness “to do whatever it takes” to gain power. Ruthless leadership is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

When Mao gathered a force to overthrow China’s government, he and his recruits were defeated in battle and scattered to the country by Chiang Kai-shek. (Mao in 1943 when Chiang Kai-shek was exiled to Taiwan.)

Chiang Kai-shek failed to eliminate Mao when he had the chance. (Official portrait of China’s leader in 1943.)

Mao gathers more followers and returns to force Chiang Kai-shek into exile in Taiwan. An opposing army’s leader must be eliminated to ensure security of an existing government. Greene explains this is another of the “48 Laws of Power” required to maintain leadership.

Tallyrand served France from 1789 to 1834 under Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I. Tallyrand’s skill in keeping his plans to himself allows him to remain a power behind the thrown throughout his adult life.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838).

Greene notes Tallyrand’s reputation was to never talk about himself while talking to others. This is at the heart of his rise to power. Tallyrand’s purpose for talking to others is to gather information to know how to use information to accomplish his personal objectives. Greene suggests Tallyrand lured Napoleon out of his banishment in Elba because he knew Napoleon would be defeated and no longer a threat to France’s leadership. Greene notes keeping one’s own council secret is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

In modern times, Greene implies Henry Kissinger is a master of the “48 Laws of Power”. Greene notes Kissinger acted as a power behind the throne of Presidents of the United States.

Greene is not arguing Nixon was not the leader of America during his time as President but that much of what is accomplished in his administration is traced to the power of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger, like Tallyrand, kept his own thoughts and ambitions to himself. When necessary, he publicly praised his superiors to assure his place of power and influence. His intellectual curiosity involved him so many government’ policies beyond his role as Secretary of State that he became an indispensable source of information and counsel.

Greene notes Kissinger insured his ascendence in American government by courting both candidates for the Presidency when the war in Vietnam is raging. Kissinger would work for either a Democratic or Republican President as long as he could achieve his personal and undisclosed objectives. As noted in the biography of Kissinger by Niall Ferguson, Kissinger is closer to Nelson Rockefeller than to Nixon as he pursues his personal ambition.

As one listens to “48 Laws of Power” and Greene’s anecdotes, one realizes the Russian/Ukrainian war is unlikely to end soon. The leaders of both countries exercise their respective “…Laws of Power” at the expense of their citizen’s lives. The same seems applicable to America’s mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

THE LOUVRE

Audio-book Review
 By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Louvre (The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum)

By: James Gardner

Narrated by: Graham Halstead

James Gardner (Author, art and literary critic.)

James Gardner is an art and literary critic based in New York and Buenos Aires. His writing has appeared in publications including the “New York Times”, the “Wall Street Journal”, and the “New Republic”.  

View from the top of Louvre Museum in a beautiful sunrise over Paris

Having visited the Louvre a few years ago, it seems worth listening to James Gardner’s book about one of the world’s greatest museums. It is a surprise to find the Louvre dates to the 12th century. It began as a walled fort to protect Paris but was expanded when King Philippe Auguste decided to build a castle at the wall next to the Seine River.

The Louvre was originally planned as a fortress to protect Paris.

The origin of the name Louvre is a mystery. Gardner notes some thought it came from an association with a wolf hunting den; others thought it came from a Saxon word for watchtower (lauer) but no one knows for sure. The Louvre was neglected for several years after Louis XIV moved to Versailles. Some work was done, but King Louis’s architect spent most of his time on the new Versailles residence.  

Gardner explains the remains of King Auguste’s castle foundation can still be seen today.

The Louvre became the home of King Francois I in 1528.

In 1550, the sculptor Jean Goujon created the caryatids (sculpted female figures as column supports) inside Francois I’s Louvre Palace.

The Louvre remained a royal residence until 1682 when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

Gardner notes, it is after the French Revolution that the Louvre becomes classified as a museum.

The National Assembly of the nascent government republic opened the eight-acre site as a museum in 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. Most of these paintings were from royal residences or church-property’ confiscations. Famous paintings like the Mona Lisa were not exhibited until 1797, just as Napoleon rises to power.

It is not until Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1799 coup d’état that a serious renovation of the Louvre is undertaken.

Bonaparte makes the Louvre his royal residence in Paris. Vivant Denon became the first director of the Louvre. He was a diplomat under the bourbon kings, Louis XV and Louis XVI, and then appointed director of the Louvre by Napoleon after his Egyptian campaign (1798-1801). Denon had been with Napoleon in Egypt. Denon was displaced during the Bourbon Restoration because of his association with Napoleon. Not much was done on the Louvre during the Bourbon Restoration.

Vivant Denon (1747-1825. artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist.)

Napoleon III (1852-1870 reign, first president of France, became last emperor of France–deposed in exile. Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte.)

Napoleon III undertakes a grand renovation of the Louvre with the building of its two major wings. The “Pavilion Denon” is dedicated at the Louvre by Napoleon III in the 1850s. Napoleon III employs Louis Visconti to design the Louvre renovation but he dies in 1853. The Visconti plan is executed by Hector Lefuel. It connects the old Louvre Palace around the Cour Carree with the Tuileries Palace to the west. The two major wings and their galleries and pavilions are completed during Napoleon III’s reign.

Francois Mitterrand (President of France 1981-1995)

WWII may have been the death nell of the Louve if it had not been for the cleverness of the French and the tacit cooperation of a German officer. The final chapters address today’s view of the Louvre and the renovations made by French President, Francois Mitterrand. Mitterrand carries the torch of French freedom and appreciation of art in the most elaborate Louvre addition since Napoleon III’s grand renovation. Mitterrand hires I.M. Pei to design the Louvre addition.

I.M. Pei (1917-2019, world renown American architect.)

It is known as the Grand Louvre Modernization project which is most noticeable because of the glass pyramid that becomes the primary Louvre entry. The pyramid seems incongruous to this tourist but is reminiscent of the Napoleonic history of France. Napoleon is more than a conqueror of countries. His political ambition entails more than power, though power is certainly a large part of his hegemonic ambition.

Gardner notes Napoleon’s inspired interest in other nation’s traditions, history, and art. His ambition in Egypt entails a consuming passion for understanding its historic rise to power and hegemonic power’s correlation with prominence in the world.

I.M. Pei’s decision is to create a symbol of the power and permanence of Egypt with a pyramid. The Louvre’s entrance is representative of Egyptian and French ambition in the world. As history shows, Egypt and France were hegemons of the world at different times.

Gardner’s book, “The Louvre”, should be on every tourist’s list before visiting the center of Paris. Gardner shows how much there is to see and how little one will understand without spending more than a day, let alone a few hours, at the Louvre.

V.A.T.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom Through the Ages

By: Michael Keen, Joel Slemrod

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Michael Keen (Co-Author, Michael Keen. former deputy director of the Fiscal Affairs Department at the International Monetary Fund.)
Joel Slemrod (Co-Author, Professor of Business Economics and Publice Policy at Univ. of Mich.)

“Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue” is a painful and laborious book to listen to, in part, because of its length but mostly because of its subject. Few citizens appreciate having their hard-earned wealth and income reduced by government taxation. However, the co-authors are well qualified and informative in explaining how important taxes are to every form of government to insure citizen’s peace, welfare, and protection. More importantly, they show how countries of the world have both aided and diminished prosperity of nation-state’ economies with good and bad tax policies.

Kevin McCarthy (Speaker of the House.)

As noted by McCarthy, the deficit exceeds the annual gross national product of the United States.

Keen’s and Slemrod’s book is timely. The wide gap between America’s two major political parties is partly because of America’s deficit, which has not been higher since WWII. The solution lies in the political will to increase taxes and reduce government expenditure. The difficulty is finding an equitable balance between tax revenues and the health, education, and welfare of America’s citizens.

However, America’s homelessness is evidence of a gap between rich and poor that belies America’s great wealth.

Keen’s and Slemrod’s book illustrate the folly of many nations that have inexpertly balanced tax policy with the health, education, and welfare of their citizens. From before the French revolution to modern times, the authors recount errors made by governments that bumble their way from forcing tax collection to passing confiscatory laws that support bureaucracies that beggar rather than serve the public. Along the way, the authors show how tax collection is conducted, how some improvements were made, and how citizens were both benefited and harmed by tax policies.

After wading through the author’s history of nation-state’ tax hijinks, Keen and Slemrod conclude America’s tax system should be overhauled. Their solution is a value added tax. This is an interesting conclusion that is reinforced by T. R. Reid’s book, “A Fine Mess” which suggests the same thing. However, Reid is a reporter for the “Washington Post”, not an economist with experience like Keen’s and Slemrod’s.

A value-added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax on goods and services that is levied at each stage of the supply chain where value is added, from initial production to the point of sale. The amount of VAT the user pays is based on the cost of the product minus any costs of materials in the product that have already been taxed at a previous stage1.

Keen and Slemrod do not clearly explain why they think a VAT is the solution to a better tax system than America’s current policy. Reid explains a VAT is a broad-based low-rate tax that will reduce the need for a tax collection bureaucracy because it eliminates corporate loopholes, broadens, and reduces tax rates, and equalizes citizens’ tax burden. Reid believes more revenue would be produced to reduce America’s debt. It would also reduce the expense of America’s tax collection bureaucracy. In theory both government expense and the deficit would be aided by a VAT tax policy.