 UFOs & Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites
by Robert Lambert Hastings Published in May 2017 598 Pages Thibault’s Score: 2/5 This book is a mixed bag, but I do not recommend it. This book is definitely extensively researched. (Note that I did not say that it was well researched.) It is a collection of eyewitness accounts from various soldiers and military personnel who have witnessed UFOs and UAP surrounding various nuclear sites. The author interviewed over 170 veterans and former officials. He then comes up with a grand theory about why so many UFOs are seen around nuclear sites. My issues with this book are manyfold. First, the book was written in the 2010s. However, it concerns events from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s entirely based on eyewitness accounts. I find that the methodology is sketchy by definition (even though the witnesses and accounts are credible). Second, the book is too polemic. The author spends a lot of time refuting refutations, and arguing with various opponents. He devotes a lot of ink randomly interjecting his theories, thoughts about a cover-up, etc… It’s tragic, because Hastings had a lot of meticulous fact based research that gets spoiled by his opinionating that is thoroughly mixed into the book. Third, the book is too long. I only read about half, then put it down. The actual accounts of events are good; but the analysis and rebuttal of counter arguments makes for dry reading. It's also not hyper informative dry reading; it's hyper opinionated dry reading. For example, halfway through the book he randomly says something along the lines of “Critics criticize me for taking paid speaking tours. They say I only write about UFOs for the money. But it's hard to earn a living doing this.” An author shouldn’t talk about themselves while arguing about external events. Also, nobody seriously believes that UFO conspiracy theorists make a lot of money; all serious critics understand that the money authors make from writing and speaking is very minimal. It's an argument that should be addressed on Twitter; not randomly in the middle of a book. The author also spends much time on a supposed sighting he had as a teenage janitor in a military base. This also undermines his credibility. I would have mentioned it at the beginning the way he did which was interesting and explained his curiosity - but wouldn’t have returned to it time and time again. Once again, this would have made for a great blog post or Tweet that goes alongside the book but shouldn’t have been included. The best books just lay out the evidence and let the readers come to their own conclusions. This book painfully spells out every obvious conclusion that doesn’t need to be explicitly spelled out. Mixing facts with speculation is not a recipe for success. This book was a great concept, and the author clearly did some very serious research. But his presentation style undermines the credibility of his own arguments. I think that this book is of almost no interest to average readers. It isn’t a skitzo conspiracy book; but it's not something that will convince anyone of anything. I might recommend it to another UFO researcher as a source for interview material for their own book or article; but wouldn’t to anyone else.
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 Evolution of the UAE Armed Forces
By Athol Yates Published in December 2020 380 Pages Thibault’s Score: 3/5 This book is a very informative - if somewhat dry - history of the UAE’s military. I bought it in the UAE a few years ago. It then lived in my library, where it gathered dust, unread, alongside countless other tomes. This year (2026 for future readers), Trump began military operations in Iran. Iran retaliated, hitting the UAE. This naturally created significant concern for me. When cleaning my library I found and remembered this book, and decided to read it to get some insights on the current conflict. This book is written for a military audience. The author, Athol Yates, is an Australian born professor of civil security studies in Abu Dhabi. I am not sure exactly why he wrote the book, but it seems like he either was commissioned by the UAE government, and / or wrote it as training material for his students. The target audience is very specific - people from the UAE in the security industry. I didn’t gain very much insight into the current Iran war. But some passages were relevant. For example, I learned that the US has refused to give the UAE superior quality weapons in order to artificially inflate Israel’s relative capabilities compared to Arab neighbors. This might explain why the UAE is so dependent on the United States. I also learned that Iran already has attacked the UAE several times - before the Iranian revolution when it seized some islands; during the revolution when it seized more islands; during the Iran Iraq war when it struck an Abu Dhabi oil facility; and numerous other incidents where it has harassed UAE vessels. I gained tremendous insight into Emirati politics. The most interesting chapters of the book were the chapters where it describes the British controlled forces (the Trucial Oman Scouts) and the feudal levy style ruler controlled forces. I was shocked to learn that each Emirate had its own separate independently controlled army; and that several times these were used to manage internal inter-Emirate conflicts. The fact that this style of Emirate controlled armed forces today is unthinkable shows how much progress the UAE has made in only a few decades. Despite what many in the West say, I love the UAE. To me, its semi feudal political system is a major strength not a weakness. I probably cannot recommend this book to anyone because I don’t know anyone who might be interested in reading it. But if you are interested in the UAE and doing a deeper dive, it might be worth buying and skimming. If you specifically are doing defense or defense adjacent work in the UAE, its a must read.  King John
By Marc Morris Published in October 2016 400 Pages Thibault’s Score: 3/5 King John is a solid biography of England’s worst king. The writing style was clear, the pacing was good, and I never got lost. This book was neither overly vague and simple; nor academic and pedantic. I always appreciate well written history books. I recently read Dan Brown’s Magna Carta. If you wanted to learn more about the Magna Carta, I would point you to that book first. This book is about the same topic, and is quite similar. However, there is a major difference. Dan Brown’s book focuses more on the Magna Carta itself and its legal importance. On the other hand, this book focuses on King John’s family, life, reign, and non-Magna Carta consequences. If you want to learn more about the man, then this book is better. Usually when trying to find information on King John, you only get information about the Magna Carta. This book covered the Magna Carta adequately, but managed to avoid focusing on it. In retrospect, the Magna Carta is clearly the most important consequence of King John’s reign. However, that would only become apparent centuries later. During King John’s own life contemporaries would have instead pointed to his loss of Normandy, inept financial management skills, or numerous military failures. Like all biographers, Morris has some sympathy for his subject. But this book is not revisionist or apologia for John’s incompetent rule. It is a clear eyed history and analysis of King John’s life and reign.  Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty
By Dan Jones Published in November 2016 288 Pages Thibault’s Score: 5/5 Everybody heard about the Magna Carta in school; but few people really know what it means. Despite nearly a decade of intense study of medieval history, I also fell into this category. Aliénor of Aquitaine’s worst son - King John - ended up on the throne after his older brother Richard died without any heirs. King John had a strange personality - he was paradoxically controlling and micromanaging while also being neglectful and distracted. The King of France immediately opposed King John’s coronation. As a result, the Kingdom of King John - Normandy and England - immediately found itself at war with France. Thanks to John’s incompetent leadership, England immediately lost Normandy. This marked the beginning of Normany being permanently severed from England (although there would be brief periods of reconquest from 1346 - 1360 and again from 1417 - 1450). John’s obsession for the rest of his reign was the recovery of England’s French territories; which would trigger nearly 300 years of broken warfare between France and England. To pay for the theoretical reconquest of Normandy, King John levied high and unpredictable taxes. Worse, the gentry was already economically suffering due to the loss of Normandy. In 1214, King John finally launched a disastrous invasion of France. His forces were almost immediately defeated. Frustrated, the English barons launched a full scale rebellion against King John. The barons were also supported by the understandably peeved French, who even deployed a military force that campaigned in the interior of England for roughly 10 months led by the King of France himself. King John’s military incompetence once again resulted in his repeated defeats at the hands of the Barons and French. He paid the King of France to leave England; then signed a peace treaty with the Barons to end that rebellion. Once the French left England and the Barons settled back down, King John almost immediately repudiated the peace treaty. That peace treaty was the Magna Carta. The Barons immediately rose up again in revolt after King John repudiated the Magna Carta. The Kingdom of England was plunged into a period of anarchy and civil war. King John died in disgrace, leaving his 7 year old son Henry III to inherit the collapsing power of the throne. Luckily, Henry III had an incredible asset: the loyal knight William Marshal. Marshal was incredibly loyal, honest, and competent. Marshal immediately confirmed the Magna Carta, but with some edits. This calmed the Barons who pledged loyalty to Henry III. Crisis was averted. The Magna Carta went from a civil war peace treaty to the foundational document outlining the roles and responsibilities of the state. It would be repeatedly edited, changed, and slowly grant ever more freedoms and constitutional protections to the people. Most significantly, there was a repeat of the Baron’s war. A century later, the powerful knight Simon de Montfort made the case that the crown had neglected to preserve the rights outlined in the Magna Carta. He rose up, and once again, forced the King to reinstate and expand the protections offered by the Magna Carta. Since the Second Baron’s War, the Magna Carta has been the single most important document in British legal history. The Magna Carta slowly came to enshrine many key protections that we today associate with Western civilization. This includes the right of the people to be consulted about their taxation; the right of trial by jury; the protection of property rights; and the ability for the people to be represented in a parliament. It also includes many rights that are mostly obsolete today but were important at the time such as the supremacy of the church over the crown; limitations on the ability of kings to create protected hunting forests; and the protection of the rights of lesser nobility. This book was remarkably well written. Dan Jones history books are always great. They are easy to follow for readers who know only a little bit about history; but are always insightful for more advanced readers. If you want to study English history, legal history, or the Magna Carta, then I recommend this book very strongly.  Just So Stories
By Rudyard Kipling Published in 1902 108 Pages Thibault’s Score: 4/5 This is the first (hopefully of many) books that I’ve reviewed which I’ve read with my daughter. Just So Stories is a compilation of “animal origin stories” written by Rudyard Kipling in 1902 for his daughter Josephine. Kipling wrote Just So Stories and the more famous “The Jungle Book” based on compilations of bedtime stories he remembered telling his daughter. Josephine tragically died in 1899 at the age of 6 of pneumonia. This book went way beyond the head of my 3 year old daughter. The dated language; subtle references to geography; and strange creation of the world scenarios were too much. But she “sort of understood” some of the action about animals and it was a lot of fun. I want to revisit it when she is 6, I think that is when it will be the most age appropriate. Each story seeks to explain how some animal came to be. The camel has a hump on his back because he was grumpy and would refuse to work just saying “humph.” The Rhino has scratchy skin because he stole the cake from a Parsee who put the crumbs under his skin. The armadillo was created when a turtle and a hedgehog teamed up and shared abilities to outsmart predators. The elephant got his trunk after a crocodile pulled on his nose too long. My daughter especially liked the elephant story; but my favorite was the armadillo story or the crab story. I don’t want to spoil any more. You should read this with your kids. Or just alone as an adult - it makes for funny reading even for larger readers. |
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