The Savage Mind: A Reckoning with America’s Violent Legacy
The Savage Mind is not a metaphor. It is a diagnosis. In his most personal and ambitious book to date, … Read more
History
The Cauldron Review: Middle East History 1900-2026 Explained
The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore is a sweeping narrative history covering 1900 … Read more
History of the Arabs Summary, Hitti’s Dazzling Classic Has Blind Spots
History of the Arabs by Philip K. Hitti is the 1937 Princeton classic that taught the English-speaking world who the … Read more
Freedom by Angela Merkel Review, Candid on the GDR, Stubborn on Putin
Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021 by Angela Merkel is the most revealing book a German chancellor has ever written about growing up … Read more
Enlightenment Now Review, Pinker’s Data Wins and His History Stumbles
Enlightenment Now is Steven Pinker’s 2018 argument that the world has become dramatically better since the 18th century, and that … Read more
The Histories by Herodotus Review, the Father of Lies Who Got It Right
The Histories by Herodotus is the oldest surviving work of history in the Western world, and it is also the … Read more
The Untouchables by B. R. Ambedkar: Summary & Analysis
The Untouchables by B. R. Ambedkar asks one of the most difficult questions in the history of Indian society: who … Read more
Democracy in Chains: Master Plan for Oligarchy or Flawed Fiction?
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean is a polarizing … Read more
Why I Killed the Mahatma: Godse’s Defence
Koenraad Elst’s Why I Killed the Mahatma: Uncovering Godse’s Defence forces you to confront a truth that mainstream Indian history … Read more
Some Slow Pacing but Historic Triumphs in Glory 1989 Movie Review
Do you know why the American Civil War still dictates our social debates today? The Glory 1989 film tells the … Read more
A History of God: A Difficult, Essential Read for Our Fractured Times
A History of God by Karen Armstrong is not a book that comforts you. It does not hand you a … Read more
The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon: Why You’re Smarter Alone
I read Gustave Le Bon’s The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind expecting to be a dusty Victorian relic. … Read more
Propaganda Book by Edward Bernays Review: 5 Ways He Predicted Social Media in 1928
Propaganda book by Edward Bernays is one of the most influential and unsettling books ever written about public opinion, mass … Read more
Hagarism Review, the Brilliant Wrong Book That Upended Islamic Studies
Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World is the 1977 Cambridge University Press book in which Patricia Crone and Michael … Read more
No God but God Review, a Brilliant Islam History That Argues Too Hard
No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam is Reza Aslan‘s retelling of fourteen centuries of Islamic … Read more
Profits Prophets Coaches and Kings: Why Jared Diamond’s Latest Book Will Frustrate You and Fascinate You at the Same Time
Did you ever wonder whether the person sitting in the Oval Office actually changes your life, or whether you’d be … Read more
The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler: Why Your World Is Falling Apart (And Why That’s Good News)
Do you feel like the ground is shifting beneath your feet, like every institution you once trusted is crumbling, and … Read more
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State: Why Jill Lepore’s Warning About Government by Machine Matters Right Now
Do you ever feel like you’re not a citizen anymore, just a data point being processed by algorithms you don’t … Read more
Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: Why Does the West Still See Jinnah as a Villain?
You’ve seen the film Gandhi. You know the story, the saintly Mahatma, the noble struggle for freedom, and the cold, … Read more
Muslims against the Muslim League: Did You Know That Many Muslims Fought Against the Creation of Pakistan?
If you grew up in Pakistan, you were probably taught that the Pakistan Movement was a unified struggle, that all … Read more
The Sole Spokesman: Why Ayesha Jalal’s Revisionist History Still Haunts Pakistan’s Origin Story
Did Pakistan’s founder really want a separate nation, or was he bargaining for something else entirely? Ayesha Jalal’s The Sole … Read more