Politics on Jonathan McKay

William Howard Taft (The American Presidents #27)

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rule-Follower, Wrong Job It may be that nobody wanted to be president less than Taft. “I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify

Warren G. Harding (The American Presidents, #29)

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Press president, buried by press This biography makes you root for Harding as a person more than most presidents. The author’s core project—rehabilitating

Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The History Scholar Who Lost History There are few presidents whose stories read like tragedies: Lincoln, Nixon, LBJ. Woodrow Wilson is one of them. What

Truman

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This isn't Robert Caro, but it's still pretty good. Truman is probably the most relatable president I've read about. And as we enter into the twilight of

The Best and the Brightest

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

TBW

The Republic

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What is Love Justice? (baby don’t ask me... no more) For the impact that Plato has on modern western thought, I had higher hopes. Frankly if philosophy is

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

History's Finest Bureaucrat 冷静观察，站稳脚跟，沉着应付，韬光养晦，善于守拙，绝不当头，有所作为 Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide

The Goblin Emperor (The Chronicles of Osreth, #1)

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Competent is Good Enough In special effects, faces are the hardest to passably recreate. This is because the human brain, through eons of evolution is

A Promised Land

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

13th book of 2021: Director’s Cut Most of us suspect that we are pawns in a larger game. For me, the only advantage of working in the State Department was

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

Theodore Rex

Tue, 18 Aug 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 Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt, #1)

Sat, 08 Aug 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

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!)

A History of Western Philosophy

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

TBW

Fear: Trump in the White House

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Good summary, I feel like I haven’t missed anything after skipping out on the news for the last two years. Now I’ll continue to tune out and wait for the

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The thesis of this book is that cities should be designed around pedestrians and more livable spaces rather than cars and commutes, and that this sort of

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

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