 The Giants of Stonehenge and Ancient Britain
By Hugh Newman and Jim Vieira Published in October 2021 404 Pages Thibault’s Score: 4/5 Across Eurasia, but especially in the British isles, there are countless ancient legends about giants. This book is a compilation of various legends, customs, and traditions about giants from across the British islands. There have also been a number of giant bone finds over the last 500 years, although few of the alleged artifacts survive into the present. The book is divided by geographical section. Each geographical section is divided by very short subsections that each cover a specific myth. For example, one legend concerns a group of rocks which locals once believed were used as a table by giants. In the first two chapters, the authors cannot help but wonder to what extent these legends may hold some truth. What I like about this book is that the authors freely speculate, and are unafraid of putting out a wild - and likely wrong - hypothesis. That takes a lot of guts. What I like even more is that for the majority of the book - maybe 350+ pages - they then just collect the evidence and legends, and don’t worry about interpreting it. They then revisit the hypothesis at the end of the book. I got the physical book. It is very easy to read, because it can just be picked up, flipped to any random section, read for 5 minutes, and put down for a year. It is the perfect book to keep in a library, and never both reading cover to cover. I recommend it highly.
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 The Emperor's New Road: China and the Project of the Century
By Jonathan E. Hillman Published in September 2020 304 Pages Thibault’s Score: 2/5 This book covers the state of China’s Belt and Road initiative as of September 2020. Somehow, in 2024, it already feels dated. Global geopolitics have shifted so much in the last four years in favor of China that many of the questions that the author asks have much less ambiguous answers. The author traveled to a dozen projects along the Silk Road in locations such as Sri Lanka, Djibouti, and Kazakhstan. He reports on the progress of various projects. The most memorable aspect of the book are the many lessons he draws from the European history of colonialism in each location. In many ways, China’s projects reflect similar past projects that Europeans attempted a century earlier. For example, I found his description of Qing Dynasty China’s reluctance to accept the railroad fascinating. Qing officials were concerned about the power that railroads would give to foreigners. They cloaked their reluctance in superstition. The British accepted magical and superstitious reasons for opposition to the railroad literally. This reflect’s modern China’s struggles with convincing countries in Africa and elsewhere to accept their technology. There is something very annoying about the academic writing style. Academics lack the balls and courage to make any bold observations. They cloak all of their remarks in “this may happen” and questions. They worry that speculation will make them look unscientific. The author asks many blandly framed questions, and doesn’t venture to guess at the answer. This is because modern academia has been taken over by nitwits who think that a piece of paper is equivalent to learning and intelligence.. On one hand, the nitwits love to criticize each other when their speculation turns out wrong. On the other hand, they refuse to speculate out of fear of judgement. The result is that works published by the likes of Yale University Press alway ask questions such as “what effects could this have on Kenya? Only time may tell…” without ever venturing an educated and well framed guess at an answer. The other problem with academic writing, especially when it comes to economic and geopolitical issues, is the technocratic framing of everything. The human spirit is discounted, and crushed under the mass of policy. Considerations such as freedom are not valued as intrinsic goods, and are weighted by their pros and cons in terms of material factors such as equity and equity. This book suffers from the technocratic framing that many other books in the genre suffer from. I think that if Jonathan E. Hillman had taken some LSD before writing this, and had not been afraid to speculate (as long as he lets the readers know he’s speculating) he could have written a masterpiece. However, the academic publisher - Yale University Press - should have been the only clue that anyone needed in order to instantly be able to tell that this book would just be another technocratic treatise on the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. I learned a lot, but didn’t have very much fun on the way. I will not recommend this book.  Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans: Uncovering China's Covert Operations in America
By Peter Schweizer Published in February 2024 320 Pages Thibault’s Score: 3/5 As part of my day to day work, I get to talk to many high level officials and businesspeople. Many keep bringing up a major issue over and over: how China is using covert tactics to influence American society. Blood Money explains and details the tactics that China uses. Openly, the author Peter Schweizer is just an academic who works with the Government Accountability Institute. However, a bit of research into his background reveals that he has many ties to US intelligence agencies, and is associated with the Trump administration. Although the topic is intriguing, the imagery of the cover and the first few chapters put me off because it seemed very sensational. I didn’t like the tone or writing style. However, the content is very informative and well researched. I was able to confirm many of Schweizer’s allegations with some quick Googling. We are in a second Cold War; except that this time our main enemy is China (with Russia being, at best, a secondary adversary). Chinese agents use 5 major tactics to destabilize America: -Sell fentanyl on US soil at below market rates -Promote divisive social movements such as Black Lives Matter -Steal intellectual property -Promote social media apps (such as TikTok) that corrupt the morals of the American youth -Lobby politicians to implement economically damaging policies such as COVID lockdowns All of these activities are well known by US intelligence agencies. They pose major threats. However, they are not covered by the media. Schweizer fails to explain why in his book: the US government uses very similar tactics against China and Russia. Schweizer likely does not discuss these due to his intelligence ties. One reason why China is able to operate so freely within the United States is because Chinese money has purchased significant political influence in the US. Chinese lobbyists routinely fund political campaigns for both Republicans and Democrats. According to Schweizer, one of the politicians who has the most ties to China is California governor Gavin Newsom - who also passes legislation that promotes Chinese interests on US soil. I am not sure if I would recommend this book or not. I don’t like the sensational style of the first few chapters, and I don’t like the fact that Schweizer doesn’t call out America for using the same tactics on China. However, I know a few people who are curious about the topics (such as my mom) and will recommend the book to them. |
Thibault SerletMost of my articles are book reviews, but I also write about many other topics. Archives
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