All Posts
Collected reviews from decades of reading — organized by subject and written for clarity, context, and long-term reference.
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Every so often I pick a general topic I want to better educate myself about. This year, I’ve focused on explaining the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, a timeless debate that never seems to lose its relevance, literally argued, refuted, and refined continuously from the time of the Declaration of Independence to the…
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I had wanted to read a biography of Thomas Edison for a long time and put a bit of effort into finding the right one. There are several more recently published books on the market, but I found that Matthew Josephson’s 1959 classic was the consensus pick as the “definitive” single volume life of the…
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It is impossible to pinpoint the high watermark of the Roman Empire, but one could make a strong argument for the reign of Hadrian (117-138 AD). His long, sober and steady leadership was a conscious emulation of Augustus, the first and arguably greatest Caesar – modest, congenial and wise. Just as Hadrian was a worthy,…
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The history of Rome is, in many ways, the history of the frontier – how it expanded and was governed and secured. Edward Luttwak, a professor of strategic studies, brings a unique perspective to a topic that has long remained, for better or worse, the realm of classical scholars. The overarching theme is that the…
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The Mexican beer, Dos Equis, has reportedly experienced over 20% growth since launching their hilarious marketing campaign featuring a mature, bearded man who “is often questioned by police just because they find him interesting” and who’s “blood smells like cologne.” The inspiration for this contemporary advertising marvel is clearly Ernest Hemingway (who incidentally later in…
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For those looking for a tight, readable introduction on political life in Republican Rome there is no better place to start than Lily Ross Taylor’s 1949 classic, “Party Politics in the Age of Caesar.” She reviews a wide range of institutions and practices — from religion and the law courts to voting assemblies and political…
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There are several ways to read Andrew Krepinevich’s “The Army and Vietnam,” which was published in 1986 when many wounds from the Vietnam War were still raw. First, it can be read as a summary and general assessment of the decade long Army experience with counterinsurgency (COIN) in Southeast Asia. Second, it can be viewed…
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My in-laws were medical missionaries in north east Cameroon back in the late 1990s. They were urged to read this travelogue as a preparation for life in sub Saharan Africa. I read it for fun, mainly because after flipping through a few pages I realized that it was a lot like the blog I kept…
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Toward the end of the Cold War, three very different books were published within five years of each other that sought to explain the likely contours of the inchoate new world order emerging from the implosion of the communist bloc: David Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” 1989); Francis Fukuyama’s “The End…
What's Tim Reading Now? 