From: reiher@onyx.jpl.nasa.gov (Peter Reiher)
Subject: Re: read any good books lately?
Reply-To: reiher@onyx.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Peter Reiher)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Distribution: rec
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 17:12:41 GMT

I recently finished Paul Johnson's "The Birth of the Modern", which is
a long history of the world from around 1800 to around 1830.  Johnson
presents the thesis that this period, more than any other, established
the basic ideas and themes that built the modern world.  While Johnson
focusses particular attention on Britain (primarily) and the rest of
Europe and the U.S. (secondarily), he does also cover events in the
rest of the world, from the revolutions in South America to the attempted
expansion of the Burmese empire.  The book is arranged by general themes,
rather than by chronology, so one chapter might deal with scientific
developments, while another covers literature, while another covers
diplomacy.  Johnson tends to skip around a great deal, both in time and
space, which can sometimes make for incongruous juxtipositions - on one
page he might be talking about Andrew Jackson's campaign style, while
on a nearby page he will be talking about the tendency of Britains of
the period to walk phenominally long distances.  The book works very
well as entertainment, pretty well as a straight history, but only 
moderately well as an argument in support of his thesis.  Johnson presents
plenty of evidence, but does not marshall it into a concise argument
as to why this period, rather than any other, particularly pinpointed
the birth of the modern world.  In a few places, Johnson's strong
prejudice against leftists of all sorts perhaps shines through a bit
strongly, but apparently his prejudices are not nearly as strong as in
his last book, "Intellectuals".

I also recently read "The Old Curiosity Shop", one of Dickens' earliest
novels.  It isn't one of his best, with a vestigal plot and dreary
central characters, except for the villain, Quilp.  On the other hand, 
some of the secondary characters (in particular, Richard Swivveler, one
of those Dickens characters who goes a bit beyond the initial stereotype) 
are very amusing, and he achieves some good effects with the characters
who only appear briefly.  Also, many of the descriptive passages are quite 
well written.  There is much less humor (successful humor, at least) than 
in a lot of Dickens' works.

I'm currently reading "We the People: Foundations".  This is a book about
the process of Constitutional change in the United States.  It's not a
particularly well written book, and is not really for a general audience.  
You really have to know the details of many of the most important Supreme 
Court cases in order to fully appreciate the points being made.  (If 
you don't know what "the footnote" is, in connection with the Supreme
Court, you probably don't know enough to fully understand the book.  I
didn't, and don't.)  Also, the author tends to repeat himself quite a lot.  
On the other hand, it is clearly meant to be an "important" book.  The 
author is trying to redefine how lawyers and politicians look at the 
Constitution and how it is changed, with the intent of influencing how 
the Supreme Court and lower courts decide cases, how the Constitution 
should be interpreted, and what the proper roles of the people and the 
branches of government of the U.S. should be.  Whether it will be 
successfully influential, I can't say, but there is enough material 
of interest in it that I am willing to overlook its flaws, especially 
since it is not an extremely long book.  (Two further books that expand 
his argument are planned by the author.)

			Peter Reiher
			reiher@onyx.jpl.nasa.gov
			. . . cit-vax!elroy!jato!jade!reiher