The Eastern Orthodox Church: A New History

The Eastern Orthodox Church: A New History by John Anthony McGuckin

Eastern Orthodox Christianity has always been more tightly tied to the politics and culture of the home countries than western Christianity. That is one of the big takeaways from this book. Orthodox Christianity functions differently than Catholic and Catholic and protestant Christianity. The unified leadership under the Pope and the vast separation under protestantism are just not part of the DNA of the Orthodox branch. The ceremonies are different. Communist governments have tried to suppress the church without success. They have had greater success in taking over control. After reading I feel I understand Orthodox Christianity a bit more, but realize how much I don't understand.

Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain

Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain by Marc Morris

What are castles? Why we seem to understand what castles are, defining one can be challenging. The book attempts to define castles and trace their history in England. British castles were heavily influenced by the French. William the Conqueror has a giant castle in Normandy. He later conquered England. Many minor nobles had their castles which were used for both defense and display of wealth and power. Castles eventually fell out of popularity as the rich created country estates instead. In addition to the history of the buildings, this book details some of the key castle owners and interesting events that occurred in British castles.

How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others

How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others by Derek Perkins

This is an interesting academic work that looks at how people believe in God. The belief in deity is different than belief in immediately visible physical things. Even going back to time periods like ancient Greece, the people likely did not think of Zeus as somebody that would encounter in their daily activities. They would still ascribe some events as caused by the gods, yet would still work on their regular activities. People will often "believe" in the divine, while "think" about the materia.

Today, some people have a greater propensity to see the hand of God in their everyday activities. The belief in God seems to develop with age, with stronger belief coming in adulthood. There are general similarities across different groups, with Western Christians and aboriginal religions in developing countries being generally similar. However, there are differences in the degrees of attachment of events coming from God. People will often go to church to help "remind themselves" of the importance of God in their lives. They must still do work, but can have the nudeges and help from above in the process.

Overall, this book takes a very objective look at how the personal belief comes about. It tries to take a universal view of religion while still respective the beliefs in the devine. 

The Man Who Knew Too Much

The Man Who Knew Too Much by G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Knew Too Much predates the Hitchcock movie, but has nothing to do with it. It is a collection of mystery short stories that are mostly connected. It almost feels like a regular novel with a number of episodes. The structure is fairly similar to the "Father Brown" stories by Chesterton, tough without Brown.

The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China

The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China by Philip Ball

Water has played a key role in the history of China. There have been great water projects in many eras of the China's history. Canals date from well over 2000 years ago. The modern Three Gorges Dam is one of biggest in the world.  Control of water for crops has contributed to strength of central government. China has had a navy and sailed through other nearby areas of Asia. However, they never had the bold exploration ambitions of Europeans. This was in part due to the great distances to travel and the lower importance of Chinese coastline.

This book has an interesting thesis. It does get a bit confusing as it is organized on topics, and will go through the history from one topic, then explore the same history from another point of view. There are certain areas (such as Maoist and modern China) that do get more coverage.

Hitler's First Victims: The Quest for Justice

Hitler gradually came into power in Germany. The atrocities of the holocaust were also not something that happened all at once. Jews were and other minorities were treated moderately well at first. When some were attacked, the SS perpetrators were condemned. They were seen as bad individual actors, or possible the opposing party masquerading as national socialists. Dachau was a prison camp that still followed the law. However, the bad apples gradually gained more power. Josef Hartinger tried to expose and stop the bad behavior. Alas, his efforts failed and are fairly forgotten from history.

The Medici: Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance

The Medici initially came to prominence through their banking. At the time, usury was still forbidden by the Catholic church. They were able to come up with rationale to justify it. They became involved loaning money to many key players in Europe and were smart enough to avoid loaning money to those that would not repay (such as Monarchs). They had huge amounts of money and supported many of the key figures of the renaissance. They later parlayed their influence into political control and provided four popes and monarchs.

Machiavelli was involved with their political endeavors (though they would often not give him credit.) Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci both had commissions from the Medicis. They were behind almost all of what we consider to be the renaissance in Florence.

The Venetians: A New History: From Marco Polo to Casanova

 Venice is now a tourist destination. However, it only is attractive because of the grand past history. It was a city of traders that grew to loosely control a significant empire. As maritime traders, they were more interested in trade routes than actual control. There was dedication to to arts and science as well as debauchery. (It was a giant port town after all.)

I found The Venetians to read like a much too long encyclopedia article. The book covered many key figures in the history of Venice, but the cohesive narrative glue tying it together was lacking. It was hard to fit all the details together in a mental map of the history of Venice.

The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers

An internet in Victorian times? There could not be such a thing. This book makes the persuasive argument that there was - in the form of the telegraph. In many ways the telegraph was very similar to the internet of today. It opened up instantaneous communications over long distances. It enabled new types of commerce and gave rise to immense fortunes. Eventually the initial means of communication were supplanted by the telephone and our current internet. However, it can be seen as one continuous adaptation of technology.

Telegraphs started a few centuries ago. Visual telegraphy involved communicating signals that could be seen over long distances. This was faster than messenger systems. However, it was susceptible to weather conditions. Electronic telegraphs helped provide a better solution. Samuel Morse helped perfect some means of transmitting signals, and more importantly invented a code for doing so. Telegraph companies began to lay more wire to enable communication. 

Skilled operators would hammer out communications in morse code for other operators to receive. (They could even recognize distinct styles of different operators.) The messages were written down on paper and delivered to the recipients. A message may pass through multiple locations on the way to the final destination. This would involve separate transmission and resends. Vacuum tube networks were set up in some areas that received a great deal of message traffic. Different means of encryption and shorthand codes were set up. Attempts were regularly made to regulate these codes, but with limited success. This all sounds very similar to the internet of today.

The job of the skilled operator was gradually automated. Keyboards allowed any person to type out a telegraph message. Phones helped displace the need for telegraphs altogether. Western Union stopped sent the last telegram in 2006. It may be possible to send telegrams in some parts of the world. (Though modern telegrams are often just printed out emails.) The internet really isn't as new as it seems to be.

War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots

War! What is it Good For. Absolutely something. Ian Morris postulate that war is good for a whole lot. Productive war helps to reduce violence in society. Instead of individual violence, war helps focus efforts and makes the world less dangerous. As armies get greater power, there is a reluctance to use the power, thus a greater peace. The odds of dying a violent death have been steadily decreasing over time, even if you include the odds of dying in war. Having a global superpower helps to reduce the odds of smaller scale skirmishes. The US is a super power now. The author believes technology will be the new global cop. But will the US reign of power last until then?

There is also an interesting comparisons of are ape relatives. Some are very violent. Others are not. Is there a violence gene? Is the feminization of society leading towards more peace. A lot of interesting questions. Is there an answer?

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens takes the "far view" of analyzing the human species as if it where any other species. How did humans come to dominate? What about the other similar species (like Neanderthals) that previously existed. While it was politically correct to say that humans all came from the same genetic stock, it also appears that there was mixing with "related species" in different regions, giving some ethnicities small amounts of unique genes. However, modern humans managed to wipe these groups out as well as pretty much any new megafauna they encountered. The few that did survive were most often domesticated.

Humans were built to be hunter gatherers. However, they stumbled upon agriculture. At first cultivation seemed to help make lives easier. However, it soon led to all sorts of problems. New ailments appeared. Greater surpluses led to larger populations, which required greater cultivation. More people were living together, thus requiring people to get along. Religion and other common beliefs were a tool to help groups live together. (though it appears that some religious practices may have started before agricultural.) 

Religion is typically a common set of beliefs that helps tie a society together. Many institutions that we don't consider religions (such as Soviet communism) also server this purpose. People need a shared underlying belief set in order to regulate their society. Today "western liberalism" and "money" are two overriding principals that help tie the world together. (As much as many anti-western groups would hate to admit it, they are framing their "rebellion" in the western beliefs.) Most people in history have lived in large Empires. These often tolerate local customs, yet have some sort of overarching common belief. 

The actual context of the common belief is not nearly as important as the simple fact that it is shared. Some societies held that people were born different and different groups had different rights. Today, we tend to believe that all are equal. Both are just "beliefs". Neither is biologically right or wrong, they are just beliefs. It is also impossible to "regulate" things as "unnatural". Things can "happen" or they can't. People can't run at the speed of light. It is just not biologically possible. Something such as homosexual behavior can be done. Societies may condone it or support it based on their common belief set.

The rise of society is a great advantage for the human society, but not necessarily for individual humans. Similarly, the domestication of animals has allowed animals such as cows to spread their genetic material, yet individual cows live a fairly miserable existing. Wheat was able to have its genetic material spread across the world through agriculture. Even things such as "arms races" have an ability to propagate themselves without benefitting the individual countries. 

The book moved on to discuss economy. The idea of "credit" is predicated on the expectation that life will be better in the future. Economy helps for "advancement" of society. However, happiness has remained relatively constant. Even with many material innovations, the only real way we have improved happiness is through drugs like prozac. The idea that we cannot alter our happiness by material things is present in buddhism teach about the futility of seeking happiness. However, this has been twisted to be a quest for "inner happiness" in today's world. The state and the economy have taken over the family as a source for support for society. While family members would previously care for their aged, now the government provides pensions. We also have various identity groups (such as country, language, sexual orientation, fans of a music group) We feel a bond to those in "our group", even if we have never met them.

Today humans have moved beyond "evolution" to "intelligent design". Plant and animal breeders have helped nudge species to more quickly evolve to have more desired traits. Now scientists have even greater abilities to genetically engineer living beings to have certain characteristics  that they may have never had naturally. 

This may be one of the greatest dangers. We may talk about fears of resource depletion. However, mankind has had the ability to adapt to use different resources. It is the unknown that may be more of a challenge. Science fiction predicted vast space travel networks, but missed the internet. The future where scientists can manipulate people could pose some of the biggest challenges. What if our ability to manipulate humans exceeds our ability to control what we have done? Will mankind cause irreparable damage or even wipe man off the face of the earth?