Although decline is the theme of this massive work, the Roman military machine shows itself still quite capable of defeating its enemies when competently led, and there is no shortage of outstanding emperors in this period. Special praise is reserved for Constantine, the great Christianizer and victorious general, and surprisingly, his antithesis, Julian the pagan restorationist who was equally successful on the battlefield. The decline seems to be in the morals of the populace rather than in the strength of the empire, and from this book alone it is not easy to see why the empire should have eventually fallen. The book ends with an ominous and uneasy truce with the Goths under the emperor Theodosius, with the implication that the presence of the Goths within the empire will be its ruin, but even this does not seem to have been inevitable. Why did the Roman Empire fall? Perhaps, as Victor Hugo said of the reign of Napoleon, God grew bored with it.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/30/the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire-volume-i-by-edward-gibbon/
Jul 27 2014
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
It’s hard to say why I liked this book; nothing much happened in it, yet it was a delight to read. For a writer of horror, King has a real knack for getting inside the mind of a child; perhaps it was the childish imagination of a young girl lost in the woods that I found so appealing. Unlike most King novels, this one was mercifully short. And it contains some tantalizing glimpses into the theology and world-view of the country’s premier horror fiction writer. In spite of his vocation, King has a remarkably optimistic view of the universe; he believes something is out there, and that something is good and not evil. And hey, a little darkness and horror is all right, as long as everything comes out all right in the end. Well done, Steve.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/27/the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-by-stephen-king/
Jul 19 2014
Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
Fascinating, insightful book. Ferguson argues that not only is Western Civilization the greatest civilization in the history of the world, but that it has no need to apologize for itself, a view that may seem obvious to some but that has come under attack in recent years. He argues that the West developed five “killer apps” that gave it an advantage over other civilizations: competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic. But toward the end he acknowledges that other cultures are beginning to download these apps and apply them successfully, while the West appears to be on a trajectory of decline. However, he does not believe that the decline and eventual fall of Western Civilization is inevitable, although he does not suggest how the process may be reversed. He seems to have faith in the West’s power of innovation to deal with almost any problem. Excellent book, as a work of historical, political, cultural, and economic analysis.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/19/civilization-the-west-and-the-rest-by-niall-ferguson/
Jul 12 2014
Politics by Aristotle
Aristotle’s politics strike me as rather conservative. He believes some democracy is good, but not too much. The lower classes should be kept firmly in their place, and the upper classes should not have their property rights disturbed. He emphatically does not believe that all men are equal. He believes that education should be a public enterprise and not a private one. Like Plato, he has mixed feelings about music and music education; he believes some forms of music are edifying and others are corrupting. Like many intellectuals he admires Sparta’s repressive system of government from the convenient perspective of a distant observer who does not have to live under it. Like all of Aristotle’s works, this book is pretty dull, but it is one of his more readable treatises. Aristotle’s political philosophy is strikingly conventional; sensible, perhaps, but not terribly exciting, much like his ethics.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/07/12/politics-by-aristotle/
Jun 22 2014
The Korean War by Max Hastings
This is the best book on the subject I have read so far. The author is British and therefore has no patriotic ax to grind about either the motives or the performance of the United States in this war. He acknowledges that Syngman Rhee was a brutal and corrupt dictator who committed numberless atrocities against his own people, but he makes a compelling argument that the regime under Kim Il Sung was far worse, and given the status of North Korea today the argument is hard to refute. The Americans were guilty of ignorance and lack of tactical vision, but Hastings affirms that their motives for fighting the war were sound. Here is his concluding statement: “If the Korean War was a frustrating, profoundly unsatisfactory experience, more than thirty-five years later it still seems a struggle that the West was utterly right to fight.”
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/06/22/the-korean-war-by-max-hastings/
Jun 12 2014
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
This book was so long and so frustrating that for a long time I have wanted to review it just so I could pan it. But I don’t feel that way now. This story has some unusual properties, like a mysterious magical potion made out of seemingly unimpressive ingredients. Kvothe is a character like no other I have encountered in fantasy literature. Like me, he is a perpetual student, but he is far more brilliant and witty and charming than I could ever hope to be. His desire to learn is part pure curiosity, part desire for power. He is precocious, but also self-deprecating, and quite used to things not going his way. Some of the phases of his adventures seem to go on too long, yet his rough-and-tumble journeys are strangely edifying to read about. In some strange way I feel that this book has imparted wisdom and courage to me, even though it’s basically a far out fairy tale. Entertaining, yet also fortifying, as the best stories are.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/06/12/the-wise-mans-fear-by-patrick-rothfuss/
Jun 11 2014
Modern Italy by John Foot
The author takes a thematic rather than a chronological approach to Italian history; I was skeptical at first, but he makes it work. The chief problem he attacks is why Italy never developed as a nation-state the way other European nations did. Italians have supposedly always lacked any sense of nationalism, but the author points out that Fascism is basically ultra-nationalism, and Italy was the first nation to have a Fascist movement and a Fascist regime. The family, the church, and the community rather than the nation however have always claimed the primary loyalty of Italians, and to this day they remain distrustful of the government and even the law enforcement services. There is a considerable outlining of sordid Italian politics in this book that helps one to understand this, but ultimately the book’s central question remains unanswered. This was not an exciting book, but it expanded my knowledge considerably.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/06/11/modern-italy-by-john-foot/
May 12 2014
For Reasons of State by Noam Chomsky
The first four chapters of this book deal with the perceived immorality and injustice of the Vietnam War. By now I am so used to Chomsky’s blame-America-first arguments that I tend to be dismissive of them, but his indictments in this book do make me stop and think. The rest of this book consists of rather abstract discussions of the nature of freedom and the relation of individual freedom to the state. Chapter Seven, which is a refutation of Skinner’s theory of behaviorism, is the most interesting chapter in the book, although it seems somewhat out of place. Chomsky is eloquent and logical but also a bit long-winded and tedious; he is clearly a product of the academic world, and his political ideas are well-intentioned but frankly pure fantasy. Orwell wrote about leftist intellectuals who are free to criticize the establishment and dream up utopias in the secure knowledge that they will never have any real power and therefore will never have any responsibility for governing. Yeah.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/05/12/for-reasons-of-state-by-noam-chomsky/
May 10 2014
On the Good Life by Cicero
Cicero, they say, was a principled and virtuous man who used his oratorical gifts for the good of the state. In these essays, however, I see not so much virtue as the vanity, self-love, and indulgence of an aristocratic gentleman who is highly pleased with his own accomplishments and evidently believes that his achievements and public standing make him an authority on everything. Some of his philosophical ideas are interesting, but they would be more impressive if one felt that Cicero actually practiced them rather than merely regarding them as interesting dinner table conversation. He insists, for instance, that morality is necessary for happiness, and that a good man cannot fail to be happy. His interlocutor asks if a virtuous philosopher being tortured on the rack can be happy. Cicero answers affirmatively, but he is not convincing. His essay on friendship is more praiseworthy, but in all Cicero’s discussion of the good and virtuous life one smells his hypocrisy. Veritas et vanitas.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/05/10/on-the-good-life-by-cicero/
May 07 2014
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
I am by now used to Aristotle’s inimitable dullness, but this is actually one of his more readable and engaging works. What constitutes the good life? Aristotle believes that a happy life is necessarily a virtuous life, something I myself have grave doubts about. Unlike most Americans, he believes virtue is best exercised in the field of politics. He believes virtue is something that should be taught at a young age, by the state if possible, otherwise by the parents. He believes anything in excess is a vice, including humility. Moderation is his formula for virtue in every aspect of life. However, as a true philosopher, he believes the greatest happiness lies in contemplation rather than action. Aristotle’s ethics are obviously not the ethics of a Christian saint; they are rather the code of an aristocratic gentleman who has the leisure to pursue the finer things in life. Yet in many way Aristotelean morality is both more practical and more practicable than Christian morality.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/05/07/the-nicomachean-ethics-by-aristotle/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
Emily Lauer
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire