Russian Short Stories

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 | Book Review | No Comments

Author, Harry Christian Schweikert, provides a collection of short stories that belong to well-known Russian authors such as Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevski, Gogol, Pushkin and etc. The book starts with a short history of story telling and the place of short stories in the Russian Literature. This short introduction sets the stage and puts everything into perspective before reading the stories.

The stories are generally about life and human conditions of low or middle class Russians despite the fact that most of the writers were a member of the upper class. ‘Three Arshins of Land’ is my favorite story in the book due to its simplicity in language and the moral purpose.

This book is free and can be downloaded from Google Books.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Book Review | No Comments

In his previous book ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ Jared Diamond analyzes the reasons behind the variability in the rate of growth among different human societies. Similar to aforementioned book, the author uses the comparative method to dissect the causes behind the collapse of human societies. Author states the dilemma in the first chapter by utilizing the problems that current day Montanans are facing. He describes the changing mix of the residents and how Montana’s natural sources are depleting so quickly. Several other cases are presented throughout the book to illustrate how societies thrived or collapsed based on their strategies to manage their natural resources.

Diamond focuses on the big picture and attempts to explain how individual decisions can impact the destiny of the whole society in broad brush strokes. At the end of the book, a chapter is dedicated to suggestions that might improve the current state of our society. Although the book is a little long and repetitive at certain points, I recommend this book.

Guns, Germ and Steel by Jared Diamond

Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Book Review | No Comments

One of the most debated topics in the human history is why and how some human societies formed advanced civilization earlier than other socities and dominated them. Jared Diamond tries to answer this question by utilizing arguments built on geography, natural sources and climate differences in his book ‘Guns, Germ and Steel: The Fates of Human Socities’ .His main argument depends on the fact that the number of crops and animals that can be domesticated in Fertile Crescent is greater than any other place on the earth. Hence, the food production and ability to feed non-farming population lead to early development of government and military. On the other hand, technological and social advancements reached to the other regions of Euroasia quickly due to the fact that the variability of climate on thelong east west axis of Euroasia was small. Final piece of the argument constructed by Diamonds is that Europe had the just the right amount of separation between societies which in return triggered the high innovation rate.

Although the arguments presented by the author are very compelling, it is hard to ignore all other factors that contribute to the formation and rise of a society. I definitely recommend this book in order to learn more about history of civilization and the contribution of geographical elements.

The Creators – Daniel J Boorstin

Saturday, August 8th, 2009 | Book Review | No Comments

Shortly after completing the first book of the series ‘The Discoverers’, I decided to read the second book of the series, namely ‘The Creators’. Author, Daniel J Boorstin, surveyed the history of architecture, dance, music, painting, writing, and etc. The main purpose of the book is to cover the key milestones in the history of art rather than providing a detailed categorization. Readers looking for a comprehensive art history will be disappointed due to omission of important people. On the other hand, there are few points where the information provided in the book was misleading in my opinion. All aside, this book is a good starting point to understand how and why the history of art has shaped in the way it is.

The Discoverers – Daniel J. Boorstin

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 | Book Review | No Comments

‘The Discoverers’ , authored by Daniel J. Boorstin and originally published at 1983, is an easy-to-read history book about human discoveries and their impact on the social and scientific areas. The 684 page book starts with the amusing history of clock and includes topics related geography, nature, medicine, and social sciences. The book doesn’t only define the process of discovery but also utilizes anecdotes to describe the public life and events that lead to the discoveries. It was interesting to read about the interaction between religion and science and how religion became a barrier against development and discoveries. This book is highly recommended to better understand the world around us.