Why War? (Richard Overy)

Conflict between humans has been a natural part of history for millenia, going back to our Neanderthal cousins in Ice Age times. Why humans would fight each other, whether it be with rocks and sharp tools or missiles and mustard gas, is a question that has stumped sociologists and historians. It seems that war and conflict will be a part of future stories of humankind as long as we exist.

Richard Overy, a historian known for World War II research, tackles the central question of the aptly titled book Why War?. Overy answers the question through eight different topics - a range of physiological, environmental, and sociological categories that show why people fought people, tribes fought tribes, and states fought states throughout recorded history. While the book is not a comprehensive account of warfare in the classic sense, it does discuss different examples to showcase each of the eight topic areas, including examples from Asia, Africa, and the Americas before European settlement.

Why War? is a book that will not provide answers to how to prevent future war from occurring. However, it does provide a smart, thoughtful analysis of the elements of human nature that drive some of us, as well as those who lead us to violence as a means of survival.

MY RATING: 5

Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician (James M. Bradley)

Among 19th Century Presidents, Martin Van Buren’s name is not often cited among the most noteworthy for what he accomplished while in office or during his career. We know about Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and U.S. Grant, but Van Buren’s role in American political history is pretty significant. James M. Bradley’s Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician highlights a man who helped in the rise of the Democratic Party and the formations of America’s two-party system that still hold today.

Van Buren was elected President in 1836 after serving as Andrew Jackson’s Vice President for a term and prior roles in Congress and New York’s state government. The son of a tavern owner, Van Buren worked his way up into being a leader of the so-called “Albany Regency,” a collection of New York state- elected and appointed officials who are often cited by historians as one of the first political machines in state politics. Many of these members moved into Van Buren’s administration. 

Bradley’s book chronicles a man who helped Andrew Jackson establish the Democratic party and followed many of Jackson’s policies while in office, including the removal of Native Americans from the Eastern US and the gradual demise of the 2nd National Bank of the United States. Van Buren lost in 1840 to William Henry Harrison, a retired hero from the War of 1812, and “retired” to his manor in New York State, only to try to run again for the White House in 1844 and 1848. 

Bradley details many parallels from the 1830’s and 1840’s to the present, such as allegations of voter fraud and a  toxic political environment. Van Buren in some respects helped contribute to those issues through his belief in partisanship. However, his views on various political issues of the day could evolve. His 1848 run was as part of the “Free Soil” party, a collection of abolitionists from the Democrats, Whigs, and other minor parties opposed to the expansion of slavery into newly acquired western and southern territories. In some respects, Van Buren epitomized many politicians of our nation’s history - imperfect but influential. Van Buren’s legacy is as one of the forces to help codify a two-party system in the United States and as one of the first to organize and steer state political machines through his leadership in the Albany Regency.

MY RATING: 4.5

Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World's Tallest Skyscrapers (Jason M. Barr)

Skyscrapers serve multiple purposes, with space for offices, retail, and living often rolled into the same tall building. In Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, author Jason M. Barr explains the usefulness of skyscrapers in our modern history and advocates for their continued evolution as human progress marches on.

The skyscraper is in its second century of existence, from its humble beginnings in Chicago in the 1880s. As technology and construction design improved, taller and taller buildings gradually took over the skylines of major cities. While there have been pushes against tall building construction over the years, whether by city legislation or gentlemen's agreements, the skyscraper gradually won out in many urban areas. For example, Philadelphia had a gentleman’s agreement that no building could be taller than the top of William Penn’s hat at the top of its City Hall. Since that agreement was broken in the 1980s, 12 buildings have since exceeded the 548 foot height of Penn’s hat. Some of the tallest buildings on Earth now exceed 2,000 feet, and Barr even predicts that the first kilometer tall (over 3,100 feet) building will grace our presence at some point soon.

Some cities have pushed back against tall and supertall building construction, which Barr delves into with a discussion about the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) and “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) movements, property prices, and housing affordability. While some of this discussion is helpful in painting the picture of property prices, Barr drifts a bit too far into income inequality issues and away from the core issues of office and housing supply vs. demand that typically drives property values in many major cities. 

While the economic validity of skyscrapers is certainly a worthy topic of discussion, it felt like those issues needed more depth if they were going to get proper consideration. The story of the skyscraper, on its own, is certainly a very worthy topic without trying to weave in additional socioeconomic discourse.

MY RATING: 4

LOST: Back to the Island (Emily St. James and Noel Murray)

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since LOST premiered on ABC. For six seasons, LOST was the water-cooler TV show, and super-fans still dissect its mysteries and unresolved questions to this day. 

In LOST: Back to the Island, Emily St. James and Noel Murray recap many episodes of the show, providing thorough criticism of the good and bad. They also provide interesting analysis of why LOST became so popular, as well as controversies that still surround its legacy.

If you've never watched LOST, do yourself a favor and don't read this book before you binge the show. You'll be thoroughly confused. But for long-time fanatics (like me), LOST: Back to the Island takes us on a wonderful trip down memory lane. 

MY RATING: 4

Sonny Boy (Al Pacino)

There are not many actors as renowned for acting as an art form than Al Pacino. The only other two that come to mind are Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman, and Pacino has been often compared to both. Sonny Boy is Pacino's long-awaited memoir, and oh, the stories he has to tell!

From his boyhood in the Bronx to his golden years in his 80s, Pacino shares the good, the bad, and the ugly. He's known, of course, for some of the best known films in history: The Godfather trilogy, Dog Day Afternoon, and Scarface to name a few. He's very honest about how he decides to take a role (sometimes it's just for the money as he admittedly does not handle money well), and the behind-the-scenes stories of each film are delicious. But despite being nominated multiple times, he never won an Oscar for his work until 1992's Scent of a Woman. But he has won two Tony Awards and two Emmys.

In his memoir, Pacino comes across as humble and honest. One would think that he would feel constant competition with people like De Niro, but he says that couldn't be further from the truth. 

I do wish Sonny Boy had better editing. The book rambles at times, especially at the end when he returns to telling more stories about his youth. It's also written in a very conversational tone, which doesn't always work well in book form. I'm sure it does in the audio version though, which is read by Pacino himself.

MY RATING: 3.5

The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People (Paul Seabright)

Organized religions are businesses to a degree. Like your local Starbucks or McDonalds, your local church has to raise funds to pay a minister and staff, plus manage a facility (or rent a space), and get a message out to attract followers. Unlike most businesses, churches are theoretically not supposed to be a profit-seeking venture (although some ministers have really forgotten this point). 

Whether you belong to a major organized denomination within Christianity or any other major world religion, there’s a degree of business savvy that is needed to maintain the organization of that religion. Paul Seabright’s book The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People discusses organized religion in the 21st Century using business as a parallel.

Much has been made of the decline of organized religion in Western Europe and North America. In the United States, mainstream denominations are declining in attendance as Americans are either forgoing church altogether or shifting away from one denomination to a non-denominational movement of some sort. While this decline is happening for many reasons, one concept that Seabright misses is the movement in some evangelical circles of what I’ll call franchise churches (think “Journey” or “Epic” as two examples). These are churches that are non-denominational, generally similar from one city to another, and in some cases with a pastor beamed in throughout the chain of churches to deliver the Sunday sermon. These churches have grown at the expense of denominations that have either suffered through scandal or political issues that have driven wedges between churches and between its membership.

Seabright correctly mentions that organized religion isn’t dying everywhere - Latin America, Asia, Africa are seeing some of its strongest growth globally at the expense of traditional belief systems. This is partly due to missionary efforts but also growing economic strength. With more money comes more options to spend. And giving ten percent of your pay or even “two mites” to your local congregation means there are plenty of opportunities for religion to make gains in these communities as a place to follow a belief system and be in a community. 

The Divine Economy is an interesting book that accurately captures big picture trends with organized religion; however, it missed the mark somewhat in not mentioning where in the West gains are being made at the expense of mainstream denominational decline.

MY RATING: 3.5

Money & Promises: Seven Deals That Changed the World (Paolo Zannoni)

Debt, whether we like it or not, is a part of life and has been a part of finance for centuries. Banks have provided a convenient mechanism for debts to be exchanged, generally secured by other individuals or by governments to ensure that banks remained solvent. Paolo Zannoni’s Money & Promises: Seven Deals That Changed the World highlights seven examples when governments and finance came together.

Starting back in Italy, with merchants of Pisa, Venice, and Naples, before weaving the way to the early years of the Soviet Union, this book describes different innovations in finance that helped solve a critical problem facing a community, a nation, or its merchants and traders. Financial institutions throughout modern history often did not function like the brick and mortar bank you see today; however, their function (to help move capital or commerce) was as critical then as it is now. 

Money & Promises is a great history of banking and finance. Zannoni’s instructiveness in explaining how debts are the real driver of exchange (and less so cold hard cash) through these seven different stories is effective, intelligent, and insightful.

MY RATING: 5