Book #34

Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade the the Quest for the Apocalypse by Jay Rubenstein

This book was kind of…amazingly amazing. It’s a comprehensive history of the First Crusade written with a sense of humor (I mean, half the story is about the visions of [probable] crazy men, telling it straight up in 2012 doesn’t work, for me at least). It’s easy and enjoyable to read and introduced me to some great historical figures. 

I like history and history books of all sorts, but I love history books that play out like an epic story, which this does. Jay Rubenstein seems to look at the past much as I do and he even threw in one of my favorite truths: people have always thought, and will always think, that they are living in the end times. The Crusades seem silly. The idea that the Apocalypse was imminent or, better yet, in progress, seems absurd. But there are folks today who claim that humanity is at its lowest, that, um, the Mayans predicted the world would end this year. Yeah, that actually seems to be a pretty popular theory. No matter how much more advanced we think we are, there are always plenty of gullible, uh, less than rational humans populating our planet. I love when historians point that very simple fact out.

Final note: this book mentions Greek Fire, Trial by Combat, Trial by Ordeal, and some super creative ways to kill people. In short, there’s some awesome gore going on.

Book #33

As If an Enemy’s Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of the Revolution by Richard Archer

This book covers the period leading up to the Boston Massacre, beginning in the early 1760s. Most of the book discusses the Nonimportation Agreement that Boston merchants used to protest new taxes the British government tried to force on them, as well as popular protests against British-appointed officials and enforcers of tax laws.

These elements combined to make the British-appointed governor uneasy (he, along with many tax officials, escaped to the safety of Castle William to eat hot dogs…wait that last bit probably isn’t true). Soon Boston was overflowing with British soldiers that angered and harassed the population.

Archer argues that what started the Revolution was not the Boston Massacre, but the entry of troops into the town. That was the day Bostonians began to think of themselves as something other than British citizens. They were treated as less than British and began to identify as Americans under British occupation.

Book #32

100 Unforgettable Dresses by Hal Rubenstein

Hey, I like clothes, okay? There are quite a few designers I consider true artists, some of the great artists of today. I love reading the history of famous dresses (this book covers Grace, Jackie, and Audrey in detail). It’s also mind-blowing to actually realize that, oh yeah, someone invented the “kitchen dinner” shirt dress of the 50s or made it okay to wear black when not in mourning or Spanish. I quite enjoyed this book.

Book #31

Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm

This book is a readable, entertaining telling of the complex times following Alexander the Great’s death. The author even provides pronunciation assistance with some of the more difficult Greek names! This is a period full of big characters, it’s wonderful to have those characters broken down into the humans they actually were, and to find out that there were important figures that have since been looked over by history.

I thought it was a great book; Romm sticks to what he thinks is fact, dismissing more outlandish legends and presenting the events as they happened. It’s astonishing how complete the story is 2300+ years on.

Book #30

After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts by John R. Bradley

Okay so excusing a few paragraphs that I found insightful, I hated this book. It was pretty hastily thrown together; I found some mistakes and it was pretty poorly edited (I read the same phrase a dozen times in a book that took two hours to read).

I had serious problems with the content as well. Despite my agreement with Bradley that the best sort of governments are secular, his complete dismissal of religion bothers me. He throws around a lot of complaints about Islam’s subjugation of women, specifically in regard to the veiling of women. It annoyed me. Dismissing the Islamist movement because they often treat women as second class citizens is valid; putting forth your own thoughts about what’s best for women (when you’re a man) invalidates that criticism.

The book really lost me at the very end. Bradley hurls insult after insult at the U.S. and UK before heaping praise on…Ron Paul. I wish he would have done that in the first chapter, it would have saved me two hours.

Book #29

Livia: Empress of Rome by Matthew Denison

I wasn’t very impressed with this book. This book seems to have been written for anyone who believes the crazy portrayals of her that they’ve seen in movies and on television. Some bits about what life was like in the late Republic/early Empire were new to me but on the whole I found this book to be repetitive and dull.

Book #28

The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda by Ali H. Soufan

Ali Soufan was an FBI special agent in the late 1990s through the mid 2000s. This book is part memoir, part history of al-Qaeda, and part argument against Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. Soufan was born in Lebanon and joined the FBI on what he says was a bet made with his fraternity brothers. But he used his knowledge of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden (he had continued to read Arabic language news after he moved to the United States) from the very beginning of his FBI career. 

Soufan describes the inner workings of FBI investigations and interrogations. He clearly has a strong opinion that he wants to get across in this book (torture = bad) and it’s a bit difficult to know whether or not he’s always being honest or whether there is some embellishment. I’m 23 and have never interrogated a member of al-Qaeda, frankly I don’t know what the best way to do it is. Soufan makes a reasonable and convincing argument against any sort of torture, but I didn’t need much convincing on that front anyway. He depicts the CIA as an organization full of utter morons, with a few good eggs mixed in. A very few. That’s where I’m a bit lost with this book. I’ve never worked for the FBI or CIA. I have no idea what the truth is. But there is almost zero criticism of the FBI in here and nearly every page has a critique of the CIA. I feel like the truth must be in the middle somewhere.

But as far as depicting the history of al-Qaeda and their largest acts of terrorism between 1998-2001, this book is riveting. There seem to be a million names to keep track of, but by the end of the book I had quite a few names and aliases committed to memory. It’s refreshing, to me, to hear the story of these terrorists told as if they’re, well, human beings. I truly believe that unless you have a severe mental illness, you’re a rational being. I feel like al-Qaeda is often thought of in the United States as this magical creature, we never know where or when it will strike. Nope. People do things for reasons and with reason. Soufan clarifies much of that in this book. For that reason, and for some random bursts of hilarity, this was a good read.

Book #27

Bombshell: Women and Terrorism by Mia Bloom

Bombshell is a fantastic study of women belonging to different terrorist organizations and what drives these women to take part in terrorism. The answers are, of course, as varied as the women are. Mia Bloom devotes a chapter each to women in Ireland, Palestine, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and in al-Qaeda. 

Bloom does not try to condence her findings into a simple explanation as to what drives women to commit acts of terror. Rather, she provides multiple examples of female activities even within organizations. Using the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland as an example, she contrasts the life of Mairéad Farrell and a woman Bloom simply refers to as “Siobhan”. Farrell was arrested in the 1970s, took part in the prison protests (including the hunger strikes) of the late 1970s and early 1980s, before being released and eventually killed in Gibraltar while planning a PIRA bombing. Siobhan was arrested in the early 1990s, treated as a political prisoner, and did not rejoin the PIRA after her release. Bloom cites many different reasons for joining these groups, but the two Irish nationalists provide the most complete case studies.

Bloom’s major point throughout this book is that the one constant in terrorism and counterterrorism is that an overreaction by the government never solves the problem. Siobhan was allowed to receive an education while in prison and was treated like the political prisoner that she felt she was. Mairéad Farrell was treated horrendously while in prison and was only further radicalized in her years there.

Again and again, the ruling government’s harsh treatment of people who already consider themselves oppressed seems to only further radicalize the population. When the Israeli government lobs heavy artillery into Palestinian-controlled areas in retaliation for rocket attacks, killing civilians, the only effect is that more Palestinians are angry at the Israeli government. Bloom focuses on rape, sexual abuse, and widowhood as main motivators. In Chechnya particularly, rape and widowhood mean that Chechen women often feel that they have no hope for any future, a sad fact in that region. Combined with a desire for revenge against the Russian soldiers responsible for their own sexual abuse and the murders of their male relatives, they have been coerced into numerous terrorist attacks.

But not all women are coerced, as Bloom strongly states. The women of the PIRA in Northern Ireland felt that they were on equal footing with the men in the organization. Likewise, women in Palestine have recruited and organized their own attacks using men. Female members of al-Qaeda have also used the internet to recruit new members, although there is substantial debate within the organization on what the role of women, if any, should be. 

I found this book to be fascinating. I’m going to make sure to pick up Mia Bloom’s other book as soon as possible.

Book #26

The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan by Michael Hastings

This book was…well it felt like a really long Rolling Stone article, which makes sense seeing as that’s essentially what it is. Part of this book was published as an article entitled “The Runaway General” in 2010, aka the article that got General Stan McChrystal fired.

The book is endlessly entertaining, angry, cynical, and hopeless. Hastings hates the war in Afghanistan, hates just about everyone running it. He criticizes everyone, always cutting incredibly close to the truth. It’s uncomfortable. My main issue with his criticisms is that he doesn’t allow for mistakes. Understandable, Hastings is talking about people responsible for sending human beings into war and bringing war to often-innocent civilians, they should be held to high standards. Maybe I’m naive but I don’t think everyone is always as cold and calculating as Hastings makes them out to be. I think decent people with good intentions can sometimes get things horribly wrong.

But Hastings, in criticizing largely popular figures (like David Petraeus), fills a void in contemporary media coverage. Opposing views are often talked and written about, but not in a meaningful way. Instead of discussing reasoned and reasonable critiques of President Obama, we have people demanding to see his birth certificate (still) and calling him a socialist. It’s silly. And it also results in liberals keeping quiet on issues they may have with the President’s policies, you know, things that matter. Hastings calls people out on relevant personal issues but lets people’s actions speak for themselves.

Ultimately this book paints a hopeless picture of Afghanistan. I’ve seen it described in the always misused terms of being “anti-military/anti-troops”. No. Hastings is opposed to politicians who thoughtlessly send Americans into war and the military leaders who don’t do their jobs to the utmost of their ability. The soldiers he visits? They’re some of the only guys in this book who get any sympathy. Hastings thinks they’re significantly more with it than McChrystal’s people do. And ultimately that whole visit is what gets McChrystal fired.

This book might make you angry, it might make you feel a bit hopeless. It’s worth the read. At the very least it will make you think twice about everything.

Book #25

Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope by Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi was the first Muslim woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for her work advocating for women and children’s rights in Iran. Her memoir is an inside look at life in Iran before, during, and after the 1979 revolution.

It’s the story that most Americans seemingly haven’t heard or don’t want to hear. Many Iranians are educated people with no love for their government. Ebadi, who currently lives in exile, describes her homeland in wonderful detail, humanizing the average Iranian. With the media and politicians talking about attacking Iran, I wish more people would bother to learn about the people who would be caught in the middle.