Good Non-Fiction Books

[ericd]

"The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam

[maddog2030]

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John E. Douglas - Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

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This book really caught my eye... but the Amazon reviews say he doesn't do a very good job explaining his cases in sufficient detail, gets half way through a story and forgets to finish it, etc. Comments?

Also, does anyone know of any other books that they'd recommend that would be similiar to this?

[Mr. Now]

El Diablo,

I wonder if you might comment on the Grail myth. Is the Da Vinci code your first exposure to it?

[BarronVangorToth]

David Sedaris has a number of terrific books -- collections of various essays he's written about his friends and family throughout the years -- very entertaining reads.

[El Diablo]

Mr Now,

I generally read a lot on all manner of conspiracy theories and legends/myths, but rarely have much of an opinion on them, I just find them very interesting/entertaining.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies



Basically explains why some societies excelled and developed technology, while some stayed in a primative state. Extermely interesting, and will make you look at history in a different way.

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this has really interesting material, but I've read like 3 books while reading this one. and I don't read a lot.

I feel like it would be a great curriculum book...as a pleasure read it kind of sits next to my copy of The Iliad.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies



Basically explains why some societies excelled and developed technology, while some stayed in a primative state. Extermely interesting, and will make you look at history in a different way.

[/ QUOTE ]

He attempts to. He notes some interesting facts. But he overstates his case and ignores far more fundamental and important factors than things like geography and diseases.

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Borodog - you should begin a correspondence with the author. I'm sure he'd be interested in debating your POV on these subjects, and learning why he overstated his case.

[Pete H]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
John E. Douglas - Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

[/ QUOTE ]

This book really caught my eye... but the Amazon reviews say he doesn't do a very good job explaining his cases in sufficient detail, gets half way through a story and forgets to finish it, etc. Comments?

Also, does anyone know of any other books that they'd recommend that would be similiar to this?

[/ QUOTE ]

I liked the book (probably because I'm extremely interested in the subject), but it's been a while since I finished it so I don't remember much details.

It's a biography of a man with huge ego, but I can enjoy the story even if I don't like the person.

I also have this: Whoever Fights Monsters, but haven't read it yet.

Seems to have better Amazon reviews.

[AnthonyV]

I think Ghost Wars by Steve Coll is easily the most comprehensive history of US involvement (particularly the CIA) in Afghanistan/Pakistan and even the Middle East at large. It also does a remarkable job tracing the impact of the Iranian revolution on the development of Islamo-fascism and terrorism in general.

Exceptionally researched and filled with anecdotes from CIA case workers, former diplomats, and Afghanis on the ground, the book reads quickly and is simply a stunning indictment of US policy in many ways.

The New York Review of Books wrote, "The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events." Really good stuff.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies



Basically explains why some societies excelled and developed technology, while some stayed in a primative state. Extermely interesting, and will make you look at history in a different way.

[/ QUOTE ]

He attempts to. He notes some interesting facts. But he overstates his case and ignores far more fundamental and important factors than things like geography and diseases.

[/ QUOTE ]

Borodog - you should begin a correspondence with the author. I'm sure he'd be interested in debating your POV on these subjects, and learning why he overstated his case.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] I'm sure there is nothing that I could tell him that other critics have not. I didn't mean to imply that he doesn't note important trends, either, only that he ignores far more important factors that are purely cultural. He also suffers from a terribly flawed and long disproved methodology (i.e. he attempts to empirically identify "laws of history", which do not and cannot exist).

This is a good general critique of GG&S, and adequately reflects my own opinion (for the most part).

For a far, far, FAR, FAR superior reinterpretation of all of human history, you should listen to a series of lectures given by Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe, an economist and philosopher from UNLV. This is without a doubt the finest series of lectures I have ever heard, and I've heard a lot of lectures.

1. The Nature of Man and the Human Condition: Language, Property, and Production

2. The Spread of Humans Around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor

3. Money and Monetary Integration: The Growth of Cities and the Globalization of Trade

4. Time Preference, Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth

5. The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment

6. The Production of Law and Order: Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism

7. Parasitism and the Origin of the State

8. From Monarchy to Democracy

9. State, War, and Imperialism

10. Strategy: Secession, Privatization, and the Prospects of Liberty

Lecture number 5, The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment, is particularly relevent to understanding where Diamond is lacking, but I would really advise against listening to it before hearing the first 4.

PS. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate transcripts of these lectures. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]