Weekend reading and touring

More than 10 years managing programs at USIP have left me well behind in the bookreading category.  This week’s efforts will be focused on finishing Joseph Stiglitz’ and Linda Bilmes’ The Three Trillion Dollar War, now two years old but still edifying, and Michael Mandelbaum’s more recent and even more edifying The Frugal Superpower, which examines the constraints fiscal stringency will put on American foreign policy. Both are well-written, easy reads, on which I’ll comment more fully once I’ve finished them.

I’m also planning a visit today to President Lincoln’s Cottage, where he spent many nights during the Civil War.  Adjacent to a Union cemetery, the cottage is today largely unfurnished.  But the National Park Service tour somehow manages to evoke the environment in which Lincoln deliberated on slavery and war.  There is nothing like your own civil war for beginning to understand other people’s civil wars.

I’ll be on the road tomorrow but hope to be up and running again bright and early Monday.  Have a fine weekend!

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

Okay, but still a long way to go

Is this a revival of the 1920s and 1930s America that tried to limit immigration,…

1 day ago

Hope is where the wild things are

Hope lies wherever the restraining and suffocating writ of the Trump Administration does not extend.…

4 days ago

America made a giant mistake

It will take more time for Americans to fathom the mistake they have made. But…

7 days ago

Serbia is going backwards

I received this plea today. The issues are not new but now the situation is…

2 weeks ago

Might doesn’t make right, but it’s winning

Trump can't get anything out of Putin because the American President has already given too…

2 weeks ago

Neither nothingburger nor whopper

Putin has weathered sanctions so far. And Trump shows no signs of taking advantage of…

3 weeks ago