The History of Napoleon Buonaparte by John Gibson Lockhart

'Better luck next time!' - British sailors to Napoleon as he was transferred to the ship taking him to exile in St Helena.

Niall Ferguson: China and Mao Channel 4 19.3.12

The second programme in Niall Ferguson's series on China opened with a chilling question. If we ask the Chinese to help with bail out western economies, does that mean that they will become our masters?  It is an interesting and sobering question.  But he then proceeded to spend the next hour answering a completely different question, which is how come Chairman Mao is still so popular in China.

Comrade Reagan - Why Ronald Reagan is my Socialist Hero

Growing up in the seventies I was a socialist.  I was a pretty moderate socialist, but a socialist nonetheless.  But as I thought things through and became more aware of how the world was, I began to realise that socialists had two huge problems.  The first was the USSR.  The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was very obviously socialist, they even had it in the name.  It was also very obviously not somewhere to be admired.  For a start there was the violent repression of dissent.  But bad as that was, there was also the problem that it was just a bit crap.

What Is Really Going On in the Primaries?

With the latest results just in from the process to select the Republican candidate just in, yet another upset has materialised with the front runner, Mitt Romney, failing to win any states.  This fits in beautifully with the narrative being applied to the story by the media.  Republican voters are, we are told, deeply unhappy with poor choice being offered to them and are expressing this by their fickle switching from one doomed unpopular candiate to another.

Niall Ferguson: China, Triumph and Turmoil Channel 4 12.3.12

Niall Ferguson's one hour history and sketch of China started with him admitting that he didn't really understand it - in fact he feels like he is an alien when he visits.  Not a promising introduction, but he soon starts giving the lie to it by pointing out some of those obvious facts that stare you in the face but that you never really notice.

Black Swan by Nassim Taleb

It is a good sign when a book doesn't fit into an obvious category.  It is probably a nightmare for a librarian or a bookseller, but it is good news for the reader.  There is less risk that you are going to read the same old stuff you have read before - we all enjoy the unexpected.  Black Swan is one of those books defies classification.  Is it philosophy, business, mathematics or history? What it is about unexpected events which unsettle prior conceptions.  So that is promising, an unpredictable book that deals with the unexpected.  Lets read on.

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Since it came out in 1997 Guns, Germs and Steel is a book that has been much discussed and praised.  It has been at the top of my to read list for some time.  It has taken me rather a while to actually get round to reading it. I was waiting for it to come out in either audio or on Kindle in the UK.   In the end I gave up and simply bought the paperback, whereupon, as I should have expected, it instantly appeared in both the formats I had a preference for.  But I am not unhappy. Having read it, I think this is one of those books that you really want in physical form.  It has just a few too many maps and tables to make it comfortable to absorb electronically and it is thought provoking enough that you really want to be able to take the time to mull them over.