History on Jonathan McKay

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I thought that this book would be a good piece of airplane reading- interesting anecdotes describing one of the most important phenomona of the world

A War Like No Other

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Footnotes to Thucydides A War Like No Other works best as a second pass through the Peloponnesian War. If you haven't read Thucydides, start there. If you

Pretender

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

<b>Re-org-er</b> Want to see how power al-Sharaa drove in victory to Damascus, or how a CEO reclaims a stalled culture transformation? Skip the

The Best and the Brightest

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

TBW

The Korean War

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

2nd Sino-American War The US Army has not accepted the simple fact that its performance in the Korean War was lousy. This year I’ve endeavored to

The Guns of August

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tidy Narrative Few books can make any claim to have stopped nuclear war. But as JFK famously read Tuchman’s Guns of August, his understanding of the real

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #2)

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Johnson is the villain, Stevenson is the hero, and it's not a happy ending.

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1)

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is Game of Thrones for biographies, glad there are 3 more left.

She Who Became the Sun (The Radiant Emperor, #1)

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

surprisingly good, game of thrones + mulan + traitor baru thrown into one. Good setting.

Long Walk to Freedom

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Took a bit to get started, but a worthwhile long walk of a book in the end.

Rousseau and Revolution (The Story of Civilization, #10)

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

History's Dictionary History is an excellent teacher, with few pupils. After finishing this book I can understand why. 10 volumes into the Story of

Much Ado About Nothing

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

aka: the dangers of attending a masquerade ball and credulity of accusations of adultery.

The Search For Modern China

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

3.5 stars. Review TBR

Becoming

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

politics by a non politician who becomes a politician fed up with politics. good read

The Twelve Caesars

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

49th book of 2020: Millenia of bad emperors Quoted as a primary source often enough to warrant a read. For a work nearly 2000 years old, it remains

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

71st book of 2020. Tidy History of an Important Story, Perhaps Too Tidy The story of Genghis Khan is of course amazing. If I could start over with

Arabs: A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes and Empires

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

67th,61st books of 2020: Civilization is Just Another Tale... Arabs: a 3000 year journey. “Ink is thicker than blood” What does it mean to be an Arab

Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

54th book of 2020. tl;dr: Read the cover, read the appendix, skip the rest. ‘Destined for War’ introduces the Thucydides trap, named after Thucydides’

Colonel Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt #3)

Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

44th, 47th, 51st books of 2020: Roosevelt Trilogy: The most interesting American Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t supposed to be president. Coming from a wealthy

The Age of Empire, 1875–1914

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

42nd book of 2020: A History of the Belle Epoche: Strap in for an abstract ride. This book was eating vegetables in between the main course (age of

Friday Night Lights

Sat, 20 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

33rd book of 2020. When Competition is Everything. Reading through Friday Night Lights, I couldn't help but marvel at twin formative experiences growing

Grant

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

27th book of 2020: This man Fights. Grant was not destined to rise through the ranks. Had the civil war not created a dire need for somebody, (anybody!)

VC: An American History

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A nice, if dry history of VC in the US. While the recent history of VC firms like Greylock, Sequoia was interesting, I'm still partial to the description

China: A History

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

73rd book of 2019. If you liked 'Fire and Blood' by George RR Martin, this might be the book for you. A bit heavy on the 10,000 ft. view narrative of

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

72nd book of 2019. Breezy read, the author put a lot of effort into making it fun, and those efforts paid off. Essentially a romp through 19th century

A History of Western Philosophy

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TBW

Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The premise was great, and the focus on everyday Medieval life was fascinating, but I disliked every single character from the future timeline (i.e. just

Orientalism

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This is the 'surgeon generals warning' of international studies, and I'm astounded I managed to get a degree in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Fri, 04 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Does a great job trashing standard dogmas, but felt like it introduces new dogmas in their place. I kept hoping for some objective way to measure single

The Man in the High Castle

Sat, 26 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

2.5 stars. The Amazon series is better. I didn't like any of the characters, the mysticism seemed pointless, and didn't like pkd's style of writing. Still

The Medium is the Massage

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Me after hearing the recommendation and starting the book. Me after reading the book. Maybe I read it wrong, should have evaluated the book on a more meta

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Mon, 28 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Not recommended. It is a mediocre theory that seriously overfit data from the mid-90's and has led to some really problematic ideas and policies since

三体 (三体, #1)

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This book seemed to be some combination of a 余华 novel about the cultural revolution, a fictionalized version of a Brian Greene book, and a Stephenson

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Great book, but the kindle version is a mess, and the organization seemed haphazard. Of course that comes with the territory for a book of such scope.

A History of Iraq

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Suggested reading for Iraq familiarization for working at the U.S. Embassy. Interesting, but I quickly realized it had nothing to do with my job in

A Brief History of Time

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This book definitely has a target audience - somebody who hasn't read anything about theoretical physics, doesn't want to think about it too hard, but at