Great books for Christmas
As is my wont each year, this column lists books I have read during the past year which you might want to buy - either for yourself or as a Christmas gift.
First is a book I returned to 37 years after I first read it. Carl Shorske, the late history professor at Princeton, offers in FinDe-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture an entrancing series of essays about Vienna at the turn of the 20th century when the city was the intellectual and cultural centre of western civilization. Politically the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was on its last legs but Vienna was boiling with political thinkers and activists. Shorske captures all this in beautiful prose and with studied deliberation.
The best history book I have read in years is John Evans’ The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914. It is comprehensive in its coverage including politics, economics, health, nutrition, culture, housing, the evolution of modern prisons and the struggle of women to achieve equality and emancipation. Truly a masterpiece.
Sheelah Kolhaekar’s Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street provides a detailed recounting of how Steve Cohen became one of the richest and most influential figures on Wall Street and what happened when the US Department of Justice tried to bring him down. This is an insider’s look at the ethical and legal grey zone in which some hedge funds function.
For short divertissement, I found Barry Moser’s We were Brothers: A Memoir a pleasant read. Moser, a respected wood engraver and art professor in New England, recounts how, during his early years, he was steeped in the racism of the South and then later came to realize how wrong it was.
This is a frank examination of a relationship with a sibling and how it shaped the author as an adult.
Ever consider how books come to be? Merilyn Simonds learned by helping to produce a book and relates the experience in Gutenberg’s Fingerprint: Paper, Pixels and the Lasting Impression of Books. Simonds learns how to make the paper pages, how to set type and how to print each page, how to bind the book and construct the covers. In short, she learns everything about a book from A to Z. As she goes through this journey of discovery she reflects on the past, present and future of print. A thoughtful and entertaining book.
I read a review of Lucy Burningham’s My Beer Year: Adventures with Hop Farmers, Craft Brewers, Chefs, Beer Sommeliers and Fanatical Drinkers as a Beer Master in Training. It sounded interesting. The author decided she wanted to become a beer sommelier and took a rigorous set of exams while studying the industry in every aspect both in the US and in Europe. As the review said, her journey into the world of beer “...is by turns educational, social, and personal — just as enjoying as a good beer should be.”
Unbuttoned: a History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life by Christopher Dummit provides an interesting insight into both how Canadians saw themselves and their views on the personal lives of their leaders in the mid- 20th century. In his will, King ordered the destruction of his copious diaries, intending thereby to keep secret his preoccupation with spirits, his departed dog and early dalliances with prostitutes. After much intrigue, his executors eventually allowed their publication. King was indeed a strange person but he also was an outstanding politician and leader.
Chris Wickham’s Medieval Europe is a dense but worthwhile read that covers the millennium between the end of the Western Roman Empire and the Reformation.
He covers the reforms of Charlemagne, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rise of the medieval state and the unbelievable devastation of the Black Death. Interspersed throughout the work are vignettes that illustrate how social and economic developments and political events impacted individual lives.
David Bond is an author and retired bank economist. To contact the writer: email: curmudgeon@harumpf.com.