- Follow Reading Freely on WordPress.com
Reading Now
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Blogroll
Archives
Meta
Category Archives: Politics and Civic Interest
A Walk Around the Block
A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About)© 2020 Spike Carlsen336 pages One of my favorite books to think back on is Scott Huler’s On the … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged bicycles, energy, infrastructure, Politics-CivicInterest, waste
4 Comments
Mary Roach in bed, Frank Underwood’s crib notes, and a love story for libraries
It’s been a week of …very different books here. First up, Mary Roach’s Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. All of Roach’s previous other works, all mostly-humorous attempts to review the science of taboo or often overlooked subject, … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, science
Tagged participation, Politics-CivicInterest, science, sexuality
7 Comments
A Bright Future
A Bright Future: How Some Nations have Solved Climate Change and How the Rest can Follow© 2019 Joshua Goldstein & Staffan Qvist245 pages It is past time for the global community to take climate change seriously. In order to make … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged climate change, energy, Politics-CivicInterest
5 Comments
Of Putin, Hamilton, wars, and corona
I entered quarantine on Tuesday, immediately after having my COVID test done. Since then my physical condition has improved (coughing is minimal, energy levels are much better) although until I test negative I’m still locked away from the public. I’ve … Continue reading
Go Directly to Jail
Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything © 2004 ed. Gene Healy 194 pages What good are laws so numerous they cannot be known, or so opaque they cannot be understood? James Madison knew enough to ask that … Continue reading
The Great Ron Paul
The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Interviews, 2004-2019 © 2019 ed. Scott Horton 315 pages Selected quotes Who is Ron Paul? That question was on posters across my university campus in 2008, and I couldn’t help but be curious. … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged libertarianism, Politics-CivicInterest, Ron Paul, Scott Horton
3 Comments
The Left, The Right, and The State
The Left, The Right, and the State © 2009 Lew Rockwell 556 pages “Society is held together not by a state but by the cooperative daily actions of its members.” Who’s up for six hundred pages of essays on politics … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged anarchism, essays, libertarianism, Politics-CivicInterest
6 Comments
Losing an Enemy
Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy 472 pages © 2017 Trita Parsi Losing an Enemy is now a profoundly depressing book, being an extensive history of an agreement that could have started erasing fifty years of … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged Middle East, Persia-Iran, Politics-CivicInterest
8 Comments
A Warning
A Warning © 2019 A Senior Trump Administration Official 272 pages In 2018, a disturbing op-ed ran in The New York Times declaring the existence of a secret band of White House staffers who were ‘working diligently’ to frustrate part … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged Hail to the Chief, Politics-CivicInterest
6 Comments
Rubbish!
Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage © 1992 William Rathje and Cullen Murphy 250 pages Given that historians often use the contents of middens to glean information about societies which have long faded away, it’s only fair to see what our … Continue reading