Category Archives: Politics and Civic Interest

Power, Inc

Posted on June 18, 2014 by smellincoffee

Power, Inc: the Epic Rivalry between Government and Big Business© 2013 David Rothkopf448 pages      Historians of western civilization are used to viewing its late medieval and early modern period through the lens of a church versus state battle; the … Continue reading →

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Global Weirdness

Posted on June 10, 2014 by smellincoffee

Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas, and the Weather of the Future© 2013 Climate Central224 pages           Global Weirdness is a climate briefing for the civic body; short, well-organized, and to the … Continue reading →

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Anthem

Posted on June 7, 2014 by smellincoffee

Anthem© 1938 Ayn Rand128 pages In a dark future, the triumph of collectivism has created a global society deteriorating to near-medieval conditions.  Man is utterly broken by the state, dominated by institutions from birth onward. Raised in cohorts in government … Continue reading →

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Who Killed Homer?

Posted on May 29, 2014 by smellincoffee

Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom© 1998 Victor Davis Hanson290 pages For hundreds of years, the study of the classics was at the heart of a liberal education, thought essential to the … Continue reading →

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Getting it Right

Posted on May 26, 2014 by smellincoffee

Getting it Right © 2006 William F. Buckley Jr 2003         Getting it Right is a political history disguised as a love story,  both tales told amid the radically shifting political climate of America’s 1960s, as Americans … Continue reading →

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The Yellowhammer War

Posted on April 18, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Yellowhammer War: The Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama© 2013 ed. Kenneth NoeUniversity of Alabama press320 pages First home of the Confederacy’s government, and site of some of its final battles, Alabama’s involvement in the Civil War was intense … Continue reading →

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This week at the library: war, commerce, and cities

Posted on April 14, 2014 by smellincoffee

Last week was taken up with Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity and  The Yellowhamer War: Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama. Considering that my leisure reading was Fire on the Waters, a naval novel set amid the … Continue reading →

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The Long Loneliness

Posted on March 28, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Long Loneliness© 1952 Dorothy Day288 pages (Harper Collins, 2009(             Dorothy Day came of age amid the Great War, a child of struggling parents whose labors to make ends meet stayed with her even after they had achieved some … Continue reading →

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Look Homeward, America!

Posted on March 6, 2014 by smellincoffee

Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists© 2006 Bill Kauffman250 pages “The Little Way. That is what we seek. That — contrary to the ethic of personal parking spaces, of the dollar-sign god — is the … Continue reading →

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An Officer and a Spy

Posted on February 1, 2014 by smellincoffee

An Officer and a Spy© 2013 Robert Harris496 pages    In the late 19th century, the Dreyfuss Affair shook France when one Captain Alfred Dreyfuss, accused of selling French military secrets to the Germany General Staff.  Declared guilty, publicly disgraced, … Continue reading →

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