Library
This library is a record of books that I’ve read, with a written response to each. There are no ratings here. I limit recommendations, and I do not write with the aim of reviewing. A book might make me think about something else, I may engage extensively with one passage, or I might evaluate the argument of the text as a whole. The texture of my responses will shift depending on the text.
One caveat: the write-ups from before 2024 read more like book reviews, because that’s what they were. Most started life on Goodreads, a few in graduate seminars, back before this site existed.
Some of my responses are short (perhaps a few paragraphs) while others may be entire essays. The amount written is a reflection not of the quality of the book, but of my own thinking.
My books are listed in reverse-chronological order by when I completed them. Each entry is listed in full bibliographic form, with a short annotation below. Some of these I own, others I do not.
2017
Simpler but far more ideologically neutral than Sowell; highly recommended for newcomers.
Fascism born when western Marxists turned social democratic; dense, but he makes some excellent arguments.
Pomeranz, Kenneth, ed. The Pacific in the Age of Early Industrialization. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.
Despite the title, almost entirely East Asia; the Pacific islands don’t fit into the collection at all.
Negri, Antonio and Michael Hardt. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
An absolutely brutal, abstract, unverifiable read; this one goes into the “dustbin of history.”
Not mere narrative but a study of two forms of knowledge; read so, it essentially becomes a work of art.
Better read as a study of colonial violence; a must-read for anyone interested in colonial history.
Hands down the best modern French history textbook, masterfully weaving French history into global trends; a must-read.
Donovan, Jack. Becoming a Barbarian. Milwaukie, OR: Dissonant Hum, 2016.
An absolute pile of nonsense, better suited to an obsessive blog than print.
Much is common knowledge now, but it still forces you to think how dimensions function.
Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
Absolutely breathtaking; so many narrative lines fit together incredibly well.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
An excellent introduction to modern Ottoman history, though it appears to downplay the Armenian genocide.
Excellent overall, but claiming the empire was “European” founders when we haven’t established what “Europe” is.
The negatives far outweigh the positives: racism throughout and no engagement with the literature; read something else.
The crux convinces: railroads, schools, and conscription made the French nation; but the book is outdated.
Liberalism, nationalism, and imperialism intertwined; necessary for seeing Algeria as liberals saw it.
A textbook for every French historian’s shelf, though the colonial inclusion occasionally seems forced.
Restores Napoleon III to the Haussmann story, but a light read, not serious scholarship.
The insurgents of 1871 rose as urban citizens, not a class; convincing and provocative.
Centers the notables displaced in 1848 where most work emphasizes the Left or Napoleon III’s usurpation.
An “anatomy” rather than a narrative: well-researched and a useful introduction, though dense at times.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. London: Taylor & Francis, 2015.
Exhausting but necessary: so much information it’s hard to make sense of it all; solid nonetheless.
Claims for “women” reinscribe the sexual difference feminism set out to eliminate; it belongs on the must-read list.
A vivid, heavily sourced narrative of revolutionary republicanism that never explains the deeper meaning.
Conrad, Sebastian. What Is Global History?. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
An introduction to methodology rather than history; fairly easy, but hard to proceed from.
Price, Munro. The Perilous Crown: France Between Revolutions 1814-1848. London: Pan Books, 2007.
Adélaïde’s influence is the real contribution, though Price downplays Louis-Philippe’s flaws into one-sided great-man history.
Dry and outdated, with sources stale even in 1988; worth passing by.
A slog well worth it: French citizenship can’t be understood from the hexagon alone.
An extraordinary textbook, at its best testing the French state against Vichy and Algeria, racism, and the global economy.
Cole, Juan R.I. Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
Best on Franco-Egyptian cultural history, bogged down in military explanations; the lesson still holds.