I highly recommend Francis Fukuyama's two volume series The Origins of Political Order and Political Order and Political Decay. Not exactly light reading, but worthwhile I think.

freeman3 wrote:I highly recommend Francis Fukuyama's two volume series The Origins of Political Order and Political Order and Political Decay. Not exactly light reading, but worthwhile I think.

You, sir, have increased your cred as our resident intellectual.

I finally understood what lol means after reading the above!

RJ is the resident intellectual, I think --he graduated from an Ivy League school; I went to the local state school.

freeman3 wrote:RJ is the resident intellectual, I think --he graduated from an Ivy League school; I went to the local state school.

but I lost many brain cells in the process (and since) ... I'm happy to be average on these boards.

I'm in the middle of reading a good one, that I must regrettably put aside for the moment:

The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior Is Almost Always Good Politics
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith

Interesting way of looking at political leadership in a less two-dimensional manner.

And, of course, there's alwaysThe Prince but most people know about that one already (I would hope). Oh yeah, and:

Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook
Edward N. Luttwak

I first read Luttwak in a discussion about Roman military strategy in an upper-division seminar almost 25 years ago....

I really enjoyed Debt by David Graeber, gives a fresh opportunity to rethink everything.

"Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it."

Don't mean to resurrect a thread that seems to have died, but I did recommend The Prince. I had a copy of the one translated by Daniel Donno; but I think a better translation is the Oxford World Classics edition:

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535698/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1422712574&sr=8-14&keywords=the+prince+machiavelli

The translation is by Peter Bondanella, and it has a great (and long but well-explained) introduction. The language is a little easier to read, too, and the footnotes are more explanatory and extensive.

It was after re-reading much of The Prince that gave me the idea for that thread on what makes a good leader, by the way. (I had hoped that we could think for ourselves on that one, but what was I thinking? Here? lol)

At any rate if you get a copy, you can see it's cheap, though not as cheap as some copies, but a very superior translation and explanation.

Ray Jay wrote:

freeman3 wrote:RJ is the resident intellectual, I think --he graduated from an Ivy League school; I went to the local state school.

but I lost many brain cells in the process (and since) ... I'm happy to be average on these boards.

I still miss Minister X. He was the real resident intellectual, but we drove him away with all of our bullshit

Sassenach wrote:I still miss Minister X. He was the real resident intellectual, but we drove him away with all of our bullshit

Him, Slappy, Bluesman when he was about...

sigh.

I first read Luttwak in a discussion about Roman military strategy in an upper-division seminar almost 25 years ago....

Yes, he did write a book on that, something about the grand strategy of the Roman Empire (and another on that of the Byzantine).

The one on coups d'etat is fantastic, and in some parts hilarious. And he gets into pretty good detail about how to set up roadblocks in the capital, which units will need to be neutralized and which you need to support your cause; etc...

Sass. & Dan.: I agree with the both of you...very regrettable. But that seems to be the way with internet bulletin boards where political discussion abounds.

By the way, has anyone thought of Sun Tzu's The Art of War?

JimHackerMP wrote:By the way, has anyone thought of Sun Tzu's The Art of War?

I read it about 20-25 years ago.

freeman

I highly recommend Francis Fukuyama's two volume series The Origins of Political Order and Political Order and Political Decay. Not exactly light reading, but worthwhile I think

k

You'll enjoy this then...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yIMs2 ... e=youtu.be

Think 34 Francis Fukuyama with Eric X Li