After watching Chris Hedges’ interview with Sheldon Wolin, I desired to read Wolin’s books. Democracy Incorporated provided a creative perspective with which to interpret recent American political and social events. Upon completion, I had an urge to continue extracting the political ideas of Wolin and I concluded that the best way to do this would be to jump into the deep end and open his book, Politics and Vision. Not only do I now have incredible respect for his ideas but I also feel that he has broadened my personal awareness of my place in society and history. There are criticisms I have toward the content (exclusively focused on “European/American”), but they are rather minimal in scope compared to the benefits any reader would gain by reading it thoroughly. I would say that Politics and Vision, as time progresses, will turn out to be one of the most important books I have ever read.
Category: western
Julius Caesar, by Philip Freeman, details the life of one of the most influential people in history. Not only does the biography contain a detailed account of Caesar, but also provides a remarkable look at the culture and politics of ancient Rome. Freeman’s book is a must read for any reader interested in Caesar and ancient Rome.
I really enjoyed reading Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel. The book provides a well written narrative on the eventual development by John Harrison of a chronometer which could accurately measure time during ocean voyages.
Blaise Pascal’s short book, Pensées. The entire work comes from Pascal’s thoughts etched as a sort of rough draft for a future book. His thoughts are interesting and mainly deal with Christian theology. The idea of Pascal’s Wager comes from this book.
Great “movie” about human life and religion. I say “movie” because Baraka has “no plot, no dialogue, no actors.” It contains numerous religious ceremonies and peoples which I never knew existed. The visuals are stunning and I would suggest watching the Blu-Ray version. Really surprising that it only earned $1.3 million in the box office.
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