Ok, this is crappy and I know it but I am finishing the cannonball. Last year I finished book 52 on the 31st but I was a dozen reviews behind. This year, I got to 64 books and I’m still behind on my reviews but I can get there and I read all of these books for the same reason and that is professional development at work which makes them inherently less interesting to those who do not share my profession. Anyway, here I go. […]
Outdated theories about a culture of poverty in Appalachia, honed in the 1960s, had become popular once more thanks to Hillbilly Elegy.
What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia – 4/5 Stars This short text on Appalachian issues is actually three essays about some specific topics currently floating about contemporary conversations. The tone of the three essays shifts from academic to polemic depending on the purpose and subject. So while the quote I use in the title might suggest, it’s not simply a reaction to JD Vance, but includes a takedown of JD Vance among other topics. The driving force behind this book has to do with […]
I don’t know if this book was comforting or
This book provides an analysis for historical mistakes. Barbara Tuchman masterfully analyzes several famous moments in world history (cough cough Western history) to analyze what she refers to as folly or my personal favorite “woodenheadedness”. The idea here is that the causes for the folly might be myriad or diverse, but they fall under a few clear guidelines….as much perpetuated by a group than by an individual, there must have been reasonable and known alternatives….and there must have been fair warning that these were indeed […]