[[{“value”:”In the order I read them, more or less, noting that some very late 2023 titles start off the list. Usually there is my review behind the link, though occasionally just an Amazon connection. Here goes: Richard Whatmore, The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis. Anthony Kaldellis, The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium.
The post Best non-fiction of 2024 appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.”}]]
In the order I read them, more or less, noting that some very late 2023 titles start off the list. Usually there is my review behind the link, though occasionally just an Amazon connection. Here goes:
Richard Whatmore, The End of Enlightenment: Empire, Commerce, Crisis.
Anthony Kaldellis, The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium.
Philip Ball, How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology.
David van Reybrouck, Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World.
Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario.
Michael Cook, A History of the Muslim World: From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity.
Kathleen Duval, Native Nation: A Millennium in North America.
Blake Butler, Molly. Or is that one fiction?
Olivier Roy, The Crisis of Culture: Identity Politics and the Empire of Norms.
Nick Lloyd, The Eastern Front: A History of the First World War.
Carlos Scarpa, The Complete Buildings.
Bryan Caplan, Self-Help is Like a Vaccine.
Harriet Baker, Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann. What is it like to be an unusual woman writer, with unusual proclivities, and have to build up or rebuild your work life in the countryside? There is now a whole book on this topic. Does it really mean you have to write down a complete inventory of all household possessions? (apparently) Beautifully written, very British, will frustrate those who seek generalization but recommended nonetheless.
Cormac Ó Gráda, Hidden Victims: Civilian Casualties of the Two World Wars.
Anil Ananthaswamy, Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI.
Luke Stegemann, Madrid: A New Biography.
Alisa Lozhkina, The Art of Ukraine.
Padraig O’Malley, Perils and Prospects of a United Ireland.
Craig Brown, A Voyage Around the Queen.
Patchen Barss, The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius.
Truly an outstanding list for this year. Although reading and “the book” are in decline, books are not. If I had to pick out two to top the list, perhaps they would be:
Annie Jacobsen, Nuclear War: A Scenario, and
Michael Cook, A History of the Muslim World: From its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity.
Also having a claim is Anil Ananthaswamy, Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI, though for many readers the math will be too much.
I’ll give you all an update on what comes out between now and the end of the calendar year.
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