| | | | | |
|---|
| Justinian's Flea | William Rosen | 2007 | Viking | Yes | XXXX |
| The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 1884 | Penguin | Duh - one of those gotta read it books. High quality snark. | XXXX |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 1930 (1892) | Doubleday | Two words. Boo. Yah. | XXXX |
| The Middle East | Bernard Lewis | 1995 | Scribner | Yes - pitched at a good level; informative but not dense | XXXX |
| What Hath God Wrought? | Daniel Walker Howe | 2007 | Oxford University Press | Abso-freakin-lutely. Great, readable history of the U.S. 1815-1848. | XXXX |
| Civilization and Its Discontents | Sigmund Freud | 1961 (1930) | Norton | Kind of a classic - but has a 20/20 hindsight feel | XXX |
| History of the English-Speaking Peoples: The Age of Revolutions | Winston Churchill | 1956 | B&N | Yes - still easy to read | XXX |
| History of the English-Speaking Peoples: The Great Democracies | Winston Churchill | 1956 | B&N | Yes - see others | XXX |
| History of the English-Speaking Peoples: The New World | Winston Churchill | 1956 | B&N | Yes - really easy to read | XXX |
| Outliers: The Story of Success | Malcolm Gladwell | 2008 | Little, Brown and Co. | Yes | XXX |
| The Closing of the Western Mind | Charles Freeman | 2003 | Alfred A. Knopf | Yes | XXX |
| The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money | John M. Keynes | 1997 (1936) | Prometheus Books | Absolutely for macro-wonks | XXX |
| The Gifts of Athena | Joel Mokyr | 2002 | Princeton University Press | Yes, but not as good as 'Lever of Riches' | XXX |
| The Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century | Paul Mantoux | 1961 | Harper | Yes - for the IR nerds in the room | XXX |
| The Protestant Ethic | Max Weber (ed. by Stephen Kalberg) | 2009 (1920) | Oxford University Press | If you love dense German philosophy, this is for you. It's worth the effort. | XXX |
| The Quantum Ten | Sheila Jones | 2008 | Oxford University Press | Yes - assuming you really dig the history of physics | XXX |
| The Reformation: A History | Diarmaid MacCulloch | 2004 | Penguin Books | Yes, but it is slow going | XXX |
| The Undercover Economist | Tim Harford | 2006 | Oxford University Press | Yes | XXX |
| The Zimmermann Telegram | Barbara Tuchman | 1958 | Ballantine | Totally - a true spy/code-breaking story from WWI | XXX |
| Aristotle's Children | Richard Rubenstein | 2003 | Harcourt | Yes | XX |
| Before the Deluge | Michael Sonnenscher | 2007 | Princeton University Press | Only if you're really into theories of inequality and democracy | XX |
| Dangerous Nation: America's Place.... | Robert Kagan | 2006 | Alfred A. Knopf | First half is, second half drags | XX |
| I am a Strange Loop | Douglas Hofstadter | 2007 | Basic Books | Eh - it's not in the class of GEB. Not held together. | XX |
| Panzer Commander | Hans von Luck | 1989 | Dell | Kind of - good material, stilted writing | XX |
| Santorini | Alistair MacLean | 1986 | Fawcett | Sure - a one-night read, clever thriller | XX |
| Suite Francaise | Irene Nemirovsky | 2006 | Vintage International | Eh - it's okay | XX |
| The Big Con | Jonathan Chait | 2007 | Houghton Mifflin | Only the first four chapters | XX |
| The Bourbaki Gambit | Carl Djerassi | 1994 | Penguin | Yes - clever idea, and a novel about academia that doesn't suck | XX |
| Tudor England | John Guy | 1988 | Oxford University Press | Almost - unless you're dissertation is on Tudor governance practices | XX |
| Asylum | Patrick McGrath | 1997 | Vintage | Uh, no. Someone read too much Freud. | X |
