Steve's Updates en-US Sat, 15 Feb 2025 17:20:51 -0800 60 Steve's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review7324447479 Sat, 15 Feb 2025 17:20:51 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve added 'Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars']]> /review/show/7324447479 Engines of Change by Paul Ingrassia Steve gave 5 stars to Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars (Hardcover) by Paul Ingrassia
Quoting the author, this book is about “the automobiles that have influenced how we live and think as Americans.� Note, that doesn’t necessarily include the best cars or the most popular cars.

I challenge one to find a male boomer who wouldn’t like this book, both for its review of many cars we grew up with, as well as concise reviews of 20th century American history and sociology. The chapters on the WWII jeep and on pickup trucks are still relevant today.

These cars didn’t build themselves. Some of the men behind them were one of a kind. One thinks of Zora Arkus-Duntov (Corvette); John DeLorean (Pontiac) (yes, Pontiac, not his DeLorean Back-to-the-Future car); and Harold Sperlich (not well known, but responsible for both the Ford Mustang and the Chrysler minivans).

The author’s writing style is easy reading and to the point. For example: “Their [the French] only real goal was to sell Renault cars in America [about 1980], which was like trying to sell Hamburger Helper in Paris.�

The hardcover edition I read had many large and clear photos of both the cars and the men behind them, much enhancing the text.

Published in 2012, Tesla gets just a one-sentence mention, electric vehicles a few paragraphs. Let us pray for a second edition.

Which will probably never come. This book is all we’ll get.

I wish it had gone on forever. ]]> Review7178674301 Sun, 05 Jan 2025 16:38:36 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve added 'The assault on the sexes']]> /review/show/7178674301 The assault on the sexes by Jim Fordham Steve gave 4 stars to The assault on the sexes (Hardcover) by Jim Fordham
Only those about my age or older would recognize the name Christine Jorgensen. In 1952 she went to Denmark for sex-reassignment surgery, and "...when she returned to New York in February 1953[, a]large crowd of journalists met her as she came off her flight, and despite the Danish royal family being on the same flight, the audience largely ignored them in favor of Jorgensen." (From her Wikipedia page.)

Contrast that to today, when sex change surgery is commonplace and 1.6 million Americans 13-and-over identify as transgender. Who has not seen or know someone with gender confusion. (I have no doubt the emotional confusion is authentic, seeing extremely successful males, starting with Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner, overturn their lives and families.)

Between then and now, why such a radical change?

I submit "The Assault on the Sexes" was a portent of the tsunami to come. Today there is a war between the sexes. We struggle with boys competing against girls in sports (and in their locker rooms?), the Army has long had easier standards for females, and same-sex marriage, once inconceivable, is now the law of the land.

It's a shock to realize this book was published almost 50 years ago, not last week. The deterioration of family, the emasculating of men, the notion that "women can do it all," were apparently recognized and resisted in the mid-1970s.

Until the 2024 election, it appeared the battle was well and truly lost. DEI and CRT became handmaidens to the assault on the sexes. Happily, it appears the pendulum has reversed.

But it was close. This book spoke to an empty hall. Thanks to the author for trying to alert us. ]]> Review7088688792 Sun, 15 Dec 2024 19:53:18 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve added 'OOPS!: The Worst Blunders of All Time']]> /review/show/7088688792 OOPS! by David P. Barash Steve gave 2 stars to OOPS!: The Worst Blunders of All Time (Hardcover) by David P. Barash
From its juvenile title to the author's gratuitous use of profanity, to the undisguised left-wing bias, this book just can't be recommended.

The author's animus to President Trump is blatant and undisguised, as for example, on page 192 we see the heading, "The Travesty of Trump."

What's most troubling is the discussion of Covid 19, to which the author gives 17 pages, more than any other "oops" but which never mentions the 2020 Great Barrington Declaration. One of the GBD's authors, as I write this in mid-December 2024, will soon be head of the National Institutes of Health.

The Declaration "claimed harmful COVID-19 lockdowns could be avoided via ... focused protection, by which those most at risk of dying from an infection could ... be kept safe while society otherwise took no steps to prevent infection," allowing herd immunity to protect us and letting schools and businesses remain open. Quote above is from the GBD's Wikipedia page.

Another lengthy section, pages 222 to 238, is on the Ukraine war, and where we find the author acting as if he were privy to the thoughts and emotions of the Russian dictator. How this is possible is not disclosed. In the year 2023, when this book was published, 16 pages were not appropriate for an ongoing war, its outcome as I write this in December 2024 still unknown.

The book is an easy read, too easy in fact, as the subject of mistakes deserves more serious attention. As one who has made more than his share, I ask: why DO we so often commit such egregious errors of judgment? And how can we help our children not follow in our footsteps?

So many of history's tragedies, resulting in the deaths of millions, deserve more respect than calling them "oops." ]]> Comment283286829 Mon, 18 Nov 2024 20:02:46 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve commented on Greg's review of Why War?]]> /review/show/6960049888 Greg's review of Why War?
by Richard Overy

I like your review of the book even if we don't agree on the author's goal in writing it. Ha, but we do agree on "density of the writing." Whew! ]]> Rating791410938 Mon, 18 Nov 2024 20:01:22 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve Kohn liked a review]]> /
Steve Kohn liked Greg Talbot's review of Why War?:
Why War? by Richard Overy
"Since time immemorial, war has been a feature of the human race. As Richard Overy describes in “Why War?�, cranial trauma and bone fractures from war are present from the pre-domination era of homo sapiens (Pleistocene era). Bloody in tooth and claw across history, but the great hope, from messiahs to world leaders, is to build the coalition of peace necessary to end all wars.

Taking us through eight different scientific lenses (biology, psychology, anthropology, ecology, power, belief, resources, security) Overy takes battles across the historical timeline to build cases for roots of war. Multi-disciplinary perspectives, like evolutionary psychology built out some very strong web of ideas like a “warrior hypothesis� or perspective on “coalitional violence�, and fit into the biology/cultural models most persuasive today. Overy also looks at historical records such as the crusades, Napoleon's rise, or Germany’s imperil world wars to show the impact of power and belief on the psyche of a nation. Some of these ideas, such as Carl Schmitt’s idea of the “volk� or in-group aligned group, also build out coalitions and identity, in ways that are more nuanced than the assumed nation-state identity.

Although a short book, I had difficulties enjoying the read. It may make sense to chop up the chapter into scientific perspectives, but there were many times the narratives of battle and consequences was shorn with quick edits. Another recent book, “The End of Everything� by Katie Mack delivered richer narratives of battles and underlying motivations, that I found far more compelling. I also thought the questions asked by the public today about war never arose here. Questions about proportionality, drone warfare, deterrence, international coalitions (UN; NATO) , misinformation campaigns and social media never came up. It’s fine that the book was more focused on the past then current events. However, it would make sense to explore the framework on how war and modernity contend with war today.

There were certainly some interesting ideas here, but for all the density of the writing, it was very hard to arrival from the reading feeling more informed or confident about the fundamentals."
]]> Review7016791988 Mon, 18 Nov 2024 19:56:06 -0800 <![CDATA[Steve added 'Why War?']]> /review/show/7016791988 Why War? by Richard Overy Steve gave 5 stars to Why War? (Kindle Edition) by Richard Overy
An eminent historian breaks down the main reasons humans go to war.

He may be a great historian but he's a difficult writer, with most pages holding only one paragraph and most sentences three or more lines long.

That said, it's worth the slog. Having read the book, we view our world with a sharper focus.

For example, we are familiar with warfare in the past few hundred years, mostly in Europe and the Americas, but this book reminds us of warfare in the New World. It was never good to be among the conquered, often resulting in slavery and thousands of human sacrifices by Aztec, Maya and Inca "civilizations."

In the discussion of slavery, we are reminded that it, and scalping, were common in North America before the white man arrived.

The author lists eight main reasons we go to war, and devotes a chapter to each. They are:

1. Biology. It's in our genes.

2. Psychology. "Because humans act consciously rather than from raw instinct, the biological imperative to fight when needed was reinforced by an evolved psychology that divided the human world in 'them' and 'us,' justifying intra-specific killing while creating a psychological predisposition to accept collective violence as a normative social responsibility, particularly for men." -- Page 227.

3. Anthropology. Go back as far as you want, and wherever you want, we've been at war.

4. Ecology. "Changing climate, either long-term transitions or short-term climatic shocks, has contributed to ecological crisis in obvious ways over the millions of years of hominin existence: a long decline in temperature combined with greater aridity could undermine the availability of staple foodstuffs, reduce areas of woodland and tropical forest, expand grassland, and change the distribution of local fauna; alterations in monsoon cycles could produce devastating floods and destroy the riverine environment; melting ice from glaciers and the two poles could cause a significant rise in sea levels, inundating coastal lowlands or covering over land bridges inhabited by farmers and hunter-gatherers." (Yes, one sentence.) -- Page 99.

5. Resources. Self-evident.

6. Belief. Not just religious, of which we know countless examples, but also includes the West against Marxism (Korea and Vietnam).

7. Power. Ancient Rome maybe the best example. Also, and briefly examined by the author, Alexander, Napoleon and Hitler.

8. Security. "The Correlates of War project shows that 80 percent of interstate wars fought since 1815 were between neighbors with a common boundary; the figure for 1648-1814 is 91 percent."

What I liked best were the many examples from around the world and from pre-history to the present war in Ukraine.

The book contains not a single map or illustration. It's helpful to have some knowledge of history and geography before starting this trek.

"Theorists explain what historians know: War is normal." -- Kenneth Waltz, 1989 ]]> Review6913746924 Wed, 09 Oct 2024 10:30:20 -0700 <![CDATA[Steve added 'The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free']]> /review/show/6913746924 The War on Warriors by Pete Hegseth Steve gave 4 stars to The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free (Kindle Edition) by Pete Hegseth
Much of the first half of the book seems to be full of rants targeted at "woke generals," calling out Secretary of Defense Austin and Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Milley as examples.

What I wanted was a fact-based discussion of our military's problems, eg, why recruitment has been down for years, different standards for males and females in the Army, how females passed the Rangers course, females in combat arms, effects of Critical Race Theory on morale and readiness, etc.

But the author redeems himself in the last chapters of the book as he describes West Point's (and almost certainly the Naval and Air Academy's) embrace of DEI and CRT. It's one thing if college students are brainwashed, it's altogether another if it's our future military (and sometimes, civilian) leaders.

The book is easy reading, too easy I often thought. Maybe that's what's needed to make best-seller lists. If so, fine. The message is vital and needs as wide an audience as possible. No hyperbole, but the fate of the nation could hang in the balance.

It's certain this book will be discussed at American Legion, VFW, JWV, etc, gatherings all over the country, the common lament, "what happened?" ]]> Review6804448430 Sun, 01 Sep 2024 13:00:53 -0700 <![CDATA[Steve added 'Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases']]> /review/show/6804448430 Patient Zero by Lydia Kang Steve gave 5 stars to Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases (Hardcover) by Lydia Kang
Terrific book, written for us laymen, full of illustrations, even the occasional humor.

It's amazing how such a microscopically small organism like a virus or bacteria can cause so much suffering and death in much larger creatures. As Covid-19 reminded us. Have we forgotten (I had) that tuberculosis is still among us, causing 1.2 million deaths a year in mostly the world's poorer nations.

Medicine has given us many protections -- though not, sadly, until after the famous plagues -- but we're not out of the woods yet. Indeed, we never will be. Nature is ever resourceful. So are we humans. Smallpox, for example, has been eradicated, its last victim in 1977, but it still exists in at least two labs (in Russia and USA) and who wouldn't think also in China.

I have only two quibbles about the book. Though published in November 2021, it discusses Covid-19 but spends too much time on its origin, meat market or lab leak, and not enough time on which country's reaction was best, total clampdown (China, USA, others) or minimal clampdown (Sweden). The second quibble is that though many pages are devoted to vaccines, never mentioned is Andrew Wakefield, the famous and thoroughly discredited anti-vaccine activist. A lost opportunity to educate us, no?

Otherwise, a 5-star book, one of those that can't possibly be appreciated in its audio version. ]]> Comment280080461 Fri, 30 Aug 2024 13:19:33 -0700 <![CDATA[Steve commented on Brenna's review of Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases]]> /review/show/5449801184 Brenna's review of Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
by Lydia Kang

" (i listened via audiobook) "
That's the problem right there. The book is full of illustrations, one on every page maybe, bringing the subject to life.
I don't like audiobooks as a principle. This book is the best example why they don't work. ]]> UserFollowing310382230 Fri, 30 Aug 2024 13:13:49 -0700 <![CDATA[Steve Kohn is now following Nataliya]]> /user/show/3672777-nataliya Steve Kohn is now following Nataliya ]]>