John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History
Interesting and off-beat enough to work for me. Sees the "everything else" nicely.
Burton Malkiel and Patricia Taylor, From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors Can Profit from China's Booming Economy
Very bullish. Inside-out take on demographics that wowed me some. Lots of detail on financial markets there.
Kendrick A. Clements, Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman
It is amazing that there's no big bio out there on Wilson, just the B range stuff. This is the best of the lot. I tried a couple of others and gave up.
Nicholas Wapshott, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage
Really good and very enjoyable to read. Great bios of both in the process. You can't help liking Reagan, but I was surprised how sympathetic Thatcher can be made, with the right writer.
The beat goes on ...
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Comments (2)
If you're looking for biographies, check out Benjamin Yang's "Deng: A Political Biography." All of it is well written, but what surprised me are Deng as a student and Deng finally in command. Xiaoping, Zhu Enlai, and other future top communists were in a nightmarish work-study program in France that was the perfect training ground for anti-capitalist thought.
Also good discussion on the primary importance of agricultural reforms during Deng's time, and his later regret he didn't expand the SEZ's far enough.
Posted by dan tdaxp
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January 21, 2008 6:47 AM
Below is an extract from a Foreign Affairs article Gaddis wrote at the beginning of BUSH II second term. The whole article is still worth reading. It is still available online:
"Summary: In his first four years, George W. Bush presided over the most sweeping redesign of U.S. strategy since the days of F.D.R. Over the next four, his basic direction should remain the same: restoring security in a more dangerous world. Some midcourse corrections, however, are overdue. Washington should remember the art of speaking softly and the need for international legitimacy.
John Lewis Gaddis is Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale.
The most important question George W. Bush will face in his second term is whether he can follow Bismarck's example. If he can shift from shock and awe to the reassurance--and the attention to detail--that is necessary to sustain any new system, then the prospects for his post-September 11 grand strategy could compare favorably to Bismarck's accomplishments, as well as to those of U.S. presidents from Roosevelt through Clinton. For their post-Pearl Harbor grand strategy, over more than half a century, persuaded the world that it was better off with the United States as its dominant power than with anyone else. Bush must now do the same."
Posted by Louis Heberlein | January 21, 2008 4:02 PM