Elliot Jager

A woke history of India

Revisado: 08-20-24

The lectures are interesting and comprehensive but heavily weighted ideologically. If you are up for a woke-leaning course like those you’re likely to get at encampment universities this series is for you.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Don’t forget Harry Hopkins

Revisado: 04-16-24

Fascinating story if you want to know what was going on in the WH during WW2.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Important new material well contexulized

Revisado: 09-19-23

This book offers fresh insights into the life of Rev MLK. It gives us a sense of him as a radical revolutionary a true Christian believer and an apostle of nonviolence but not passivity. His close friendship with Stanley Levinson is put in its proper context. This is no iconography which makes it all the more worthwhile. Read superbly.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Excellent overview of conspiracy theories

Revisado: 05-14-23

Beyond debunking conspiracy theories the author points out the many times government officials really lied thus undermining the credibility of the establishment and paving the ground for conspiracies to become believable.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Reprogramming the American Mind

Revisado: 08-17-22

This book is about much more than the Revolution of 1776 but for that alone it is an essential read. It is the perfect antidote to Broadway musicals about Hamilton and Hollywood films about kingly madness. Andrew Roberts is a blessing to the memory of George III.
Great listening experience.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Kaplan fans this one is another winner

Revisado: 10-31-21

Pulling together politics, anthropology, demography, and topography this is a tour of the world America touched from the Vietnam war to Mexico via Africa and Asia and the ME ending well into the 2000s. The focus is the intersection of geo-political interest and humanitarian aid. The hero is Bob Gersony. A man who follows the evidence not any preconceived ideology.
My only quibble and it comes as no surprise is that Kaplan allows his disenchantment with israel to taint the brief section on the WB and Gaza. So, for instance, you get the a reference to Tel Aviv as a settler city. But no matter — Kaplan is almost always worth reading and this book is a gem for so is another assimilated alienated Jew, Bob Gersony . A man deserving of our admiration.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A literate president

Revisado: 04-06-21

Honest — as much as any public figure can be — about personal dilemmas and public policy. Obama comes off as both empathetic and smug which makes him very human and likable. Meanwhile, his GOP opponents seem close-minded and bigoted.
As an Israeli, I gained insight into his bias against the Zionist enterprise. He holds us to a double standard egged on by his Jewish American staffers. He’d like Israelis to have the values of Jewish American progressives. Yet we are not US Jews who happen to live in the Middle East and speak Hebrew.
His synopsis of the Palestinian Arab - Israel conflict suggests either that this very smart man doesn’t have a complete grasp of Zionist history or pretends not to. He churlishly refers to Tel Aviv as Israel's capital.
I’m sorry that Netanyahu got on his nerves. I feel his pain. Our PM was wrong to goad the president and to try to corner him. It made Obama dig in. But that does not mean Netanyahu was wrong about Palestinian or Iranian intentions. And Obama made a strategic mistake in demanding a settlement freeze at the outset of his administration. This blocked the Palestinian Authority from negotiating with us. They could not be seen as more pro-Arab than the US president. Instead of admitting this mistake, Obama glosses over it.
However, the Israel element (though grating on me) plays a comparatively small in a large work that ends with the elimination of Bin-Laden.
This is a book well worth the investment of time. There is much in this gifted politician and intellectual to criticize but also much to admire.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña