Notices by Sean Bala (seanbala@mas.to), page 9

6) "The Irony of American History" by Reinhold Niebuhr - a short book that makes the argument the irony of American history is that Americans struggle with having an ironic distance with itself. What happens when a superpower actually believes it own rhetoric. Written in the 1950s and still prescient

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA #Theology #Philosophy #ReinholdNiebuhr

5) "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent" by Isabel Wilkerson - an absolute gut-punch of a book. It makes the uncomfortable claim that race functions like caste in the United States. She has a way of taking complex and uncomfortable subjects and describing them in well-drawn metaphors.

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA #IsabelWilkerson

4) "A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of the United States" by Ronald Takaki - I like this one a bit better than Howard Zinn's work or even things like the 1619 project. It has bit less of an ideological axe to grind. What I like is how Takaki excavates unique stories that expand our notion of what the US could be.

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA

3) "Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein - this is a heavy book that asks one basic question - how could the US go from the largest democratic landslide in 1964 to the largest republican one in 1972. He argues we essentially live in the house that Nixon built with all of its violence and chaos.

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA #RickPerlstein

2) "The Unwinding" by George Packer - Packer is my favorite US journalist working today. He argues that societies go through periodic periods of unwinding and that US has experienced one since the 1970s. The books follows six people in-depth but also uses the stories of famous individuals who have influenced the unfolding of this period.

He recently published a magisterial article in the Atlantic worth checking out: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/07/phoenix-climate-drought-republican-politics/678494/

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA #GeorgePacker

When I lived abroad, I had a short list of books to help people understand the US more. It is a big, complicated country and it can be hard to find well-written works. Here are my top books to understand the US -

1) "American Nations" by @ColinWoodard - Woodard makes the argument that the US is not one nation but actually eleven different national grouping all vying for control. Gives you insights into odd quirks of American identity.

#Books #Bookstodon #History #USA

Really fantastic article from Rick Perlstein. He describes here how Chicago, however imperfectly, came together and took care of migrants sent here from TX.

I love #Chicago. Over the years, I've become more angry at its reputation among many who have never been here and use it as a pillory board for all their anxieties. It's a good city with a big heart and much tougher than anything that can be thrown at us.

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-08-14-neighborliness-option-chicago-migrants-dnc/

#Illinois #Midwest #Solidarity #Migrants #Newstodon

@swanksalot GREAT Article - I love Rick Perlstein. "Nixonland" is one of handful of books I recommend to people to understand the US.

As I’ve often said. Mathematics is the language that the universe is written in, the laws of physics are its source code and we’re the reverse engineers living inside the compiled program. So I will for future Defcons, instead of fighting the thoughts that I’m not good enough, I willl embrace what I am good at! I hope to find other #physicists at Defcon…who knows maybe there will be talks? Contests..villages (beyond just the Quantum Villiage!)

@keithius

Oo da lally, Oo da lally, Golly what a day 🤗

@anneapplebaum

Or maybe AG Sulzburger will finally get his Putin interview he feels is owed to him.

@JohnBloor

That must have been one epic bank holiday....

@evan

I put qualified no. In the US DC and the territories have non voting members of Congress, which is awful. But even having meaningful representation in the national legislature is no guarantee of democracy. In India, Delhi is a quasi-stare. It has representatives in rhe Parliament and its own legislature but the Central government can effectively overrule them through the Lt. Governor (appointed by the federal gov't).

I wanted to share new (and unusual) project I'm embarking upon. I'm using a program from the NHS to get ready to run a 5K! My hope is to run a formal one sometime in October.

The main goal is better #health but if I complete the program, I'm going to reward myself with something I've been putting off for a while.

I'll make updates here about my progress for some accountability. Already 2 weeks down! Wish me luck! I'll post updates below this post as I go.

1/n

#Fitness #5K

@owlislost @bookstodon Just started reading "City of Exile' by Ursula K. LeGuin. I have omnibus collection of the first three Hanish Cycle novels and this one is Number 2. Loved Earthsea so I'm enjoying getting into these novels.

@aki

There is a new graphic novel adaptation of "Parable of the Sower" which might work. I have only glanced thought it but I liked what I saw.

@petergleick

Tester?

Remembering #Nagasaki I was fortunate to visit very briefly last year. The peace park was beautiful and so were the exhibits - but mostly I thought how much some of this should be in the US (and other places)

#NagasakiDay

@agnes

I really like it! I have tried a couple of other services in the Fediverse and I have stuck with it. I follow photo heavy Mastodon accounts there so I don't miss cool artists and photographers in the firehose that is the timeline.

What I dislike is that I HATE making posts on my phone and the website doesn't take HEICs yet. I know I could convert them but I am too lazy.

It is amazingly polished for the fact that it is developed (I think) by one person.

@agnes P.S. - I also never used Instagram and LinkedIn gives me rashes, so I might not know what I am talking about here. I do notice when someone seems to just post hashtags and that seems odd. Even when I post on Pixelfed, I try to add SOME context into what I post. I think they have a 30 hashtag limit there.