Tag Archives: 2013

The Top 10 American History Posts of 2013

09 Thursday Jan 2014

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1. Thomas Jefferson’s Advice to His Teenage Grandson (from a letter sent to the 16-year-old Thomas Jefferson Randolph on November 24th, 1808)

“I was often thrown into the society of horseracers, cardplayers, Foxhunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified me; and many a time have I asked myself… which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer?”

2. Great Men Cultivate Love by Booker T. Washington (from his autobiography, Up from Slavery)

“I would permit no man, no matter what his color might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him…”

3. ‘The Light Has Gone Out of My Life’: Young Teddy Roosevelt in Love and Grief adapted by me (from Edmund Morris’s Theodore Rex)

“When, as ex-President, he came to write his Autobiography, he wrote movingly of the joys of family life, the ardor of youth, and the love of men and women; but he would not acknowledge that Alice ever existed…”

4. Whether I Stand High or Low in the Estimation of the World by John Adams (from a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 1st, 1774)

“I will not willingly see blockheads, whom I have a right to despise, elevated above me, and insolently triumphing over me. Nor shall knavery, through any negligence of mine, get the better of honesty…”

5. The Fourth of July According to Ronald Reagan (from a 1981 essay)

“In recent years, however, I’ve come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history… Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.”

6. When and How You Should Break the Law by Martin Luther King (from his televised interview on Meet the Press, March 28th, 1965)

“…  I don’t think any society can call an individual irresponsible who breaks a law and willingly accepts the penalty if conscience tells him that that law is unjust.”

7. Meet John Adams by David McCullough/ Meet Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham

“Adams could be high-spirited and affectionate, vain, cranky, impetuous, self-absorbed, and fiercely stubborn; passionate, quick to anger and all-forgiving; generous and entertaining. He was blessed with great courage and good humor, yet subject to spells of despair, and especially when separated from his family or during periods of prolonged inactivity.”

“He drove his horses hard and fast and considered the sun his ‘almighty physician.’ Jefferson was fit and virile, a terrific horseman and inveterate walker… He delighted in archaeology, paleontology, astronomy, botany, and meteorology…”

8. ‘Tragedy without Reason?’: Robert Kennedy Endures His Brother’s Death by Arthur Schlesinger (from Robert Kennedy and His Times Vol. One)

“… he was struggling with that fundamental perplexity: whether there was, after all, any sense to the universe… He scrawled on a yellow sheet:

The innocent suffer—how can that be possible and God be just?”

9. A Shallow Pretext for Extorting Compromise by Abraham Lincoln (from his 1861 letter to James T. Hale)

“We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten…”

10. Alexander Hamilton the Bachelor (from his 1779 letter to John Laurens)

“She must be young, handsome (I lay most stress upon a good shape), sensible (a little learning will do)… But as to fortune, the larger stock of that the better…”

Honorable mentions: Those Who Won Our Independence by Louis Brandeis; ‘The Strongest of the Stricken’: Robert Kennedy Reacts to His Brother’s Death by Arthur Schlesinger; The School of Affliction by Thomas Jefferson; John in Joe’s Shadow by Robert Dallek; The Great Anniversary Festival by John Adams

The Top 5 Posts from the Greeks and the Romans in 2013

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in History, Philosophy

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Greek Bust

The top 5, in order:

1. Partying with the Greeks by Thomas Cahill (from Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter)

I think any twenty-first century American could be forgiven for reading Cahill’s version of the Greeks and their symposia with a certain amount of identification. On a more personal level, the reflections of Archilochus accord with many of the transient, recurring thoughts and melancholic moods I’ve had while leaving parties in the early hours of the morning.

2. The Odyssey Home by Homer (from The Odyssey)

During a year in which I read heavily about war and its million unseen impacts, especially those which are felt at home, Homer’s Odyssey provided, among other things, insight into some eternal truths about military conflict. While the opening stave is by no means the strongest section of the text, it is probably the best summary of the Odyssey’s basic plot line and themes. It’s also a stark, dramatic introduction to Odysseus, one of the great heroes in fiction.

3. The Discourses of Epictetus by Arrian (from The Handbook of Epictetus)

A stirring argument for two distinctly Aristotelian insights: practice moderation in all things and make the most of your days. These exhortations are especially noteworthy when one considers the guy speaking them was born a slave.

4. Do Not Act as If You Were Going to Live Ten Thousand Years by Marcus Aurelius (from The Meditations)

This is nothing you haven’t read before, though it’s still essential, because in addition to bering one of the first to say it, Marcus Aurelius was also one of the best. It’s especially worth noting his nod to Heraclitus in the image of time as a river that is forever flowing.

5. Friends with Socrates by Xenophon (from Memorabilia)

It’s amusing to read an epistemic breakdown of something as delicate and natural as friendship. Still, Socrates’s voice here is at its most eccentric and convincing, as he explains how exactly relationships with others can come to result in non-zero sum paradigms.

The Top 10 Speeches of 2013

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

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The top 10, in order:

1. Ted for Robert — Ted Kennedy’s eulogy for his brother, given two days after Bobby’s death

“He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side…

Those of us who loved him, and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us, and what he wished for others, will some day come to pass for all the world…”

2. The Mountaintop — Martin Luther King’s final speech, delivered the night before his assassination

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain… I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land…”

3. Victory or Death — George Washington’s rallying speech to the Continental Army on Christmas night, 1776, the night they crossed the Delaware to attack the Hessian forces

“Tonight, our mission, our duty as a free people, is to stem the tide of these atrocities, to retake what is rightfully ours and rid this great land of the plague of the mercenaries… And when the hour is upon us fight for all that you are worth and all that you cherish and love. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct that you show…”

4. Again I Pause to Remember — Christopher Hitchens’s Daniel Pearl Lecture on Anti-Semitism

“… I once wrote that anyone who wanted to defame the Jewish people would, if they were doing so, be defaming my wife, my mother, my mother- and father-in-law, and my daughters, and so I didn’t think I really had to say anything for myself.

But I did add that in whatever tone of voice the question was put to me — whether it was friendly or hostile — Was I Jewish? I would always answer Yes. Denial in my family would end with me.

But, of course, there was the most acute possible test of that question faced by the young Daniel Pearl, in the most appalling circumstances, and again I pause to remember how proudly, and how bravely, and how nobly he refused any sort of refuge in denial…”

5. The Rustle of a Wing — Robert Ingersoll’s eulogy at the passing of his young brother

“He added to the sum of human joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep tonight beneath a wilderness of flowers…”

6. A World Split Apart — Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 speech at Harvard University

“If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature… It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one’s life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it…”

7. The Opening of the Nuremberg Trials — Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson’s introductory remarks at the Nuremberg tribunal

“That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason…”

8. The Awful Grace of God — Robert Kennedy’s impromptu speech upon the shooting of Martin Luther King

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness; but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country…”

9. The Defense of Freedom and Peace  — Winston Churchill’s address to the British people on the eve of World War II

“… People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now…”

10. How to Write — Sebastian Junger’s lecture on how to write with style and clarity

“… You are not more interesting than the world is. Your writing is not more beautiful than the world is. You don’t want the facts of the world to serve as a platform for your skill as a writer. It’s the other way around. The relationship goes the other way. Your skill as a writer serves the world.”

Honorable mentions: College, Life by yours truly; Let Us Plant Our Trees this Afternoon by John F. Kennedy; Consider the Great Problem of Women’s Bodies by Sam Harris; What Art Tells by Saul Bellow; The Highlight of the Election by Mitt Romney and Barack Obama

The Top 10 Literary Posts of 2013

03 Friday Jan 2014

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The top 10, in order:

1. A Promise that Mankind Might… by Saul Bellow (from “The Old System”)

Although from a minor short story, this is my favorite piece of fiction writing. It’s a profound evocation of the contradictory nature of human emotion, especially as it relates to mortality. I suggest reading it aloud to yourself, taking note of Bellow’s deliberate punctuation.

2. Why Do We Care about Singers? by Salman Rushdie (from The Ground Beneath Her Feet)

“Our lives are not what we deserve; they are, let us agree, in many painful ways deficient. Song turns them into something else.” Man. I wish I’d written that.

3. The Simplest Pattern by W. Somerset Maugham (from Of Human Bondage)

Maugham’s writing is classic, stylish, and full of applicable wisdom worth absorbing.

4. Rule Number One: The Most Important Thing about You Is Your Date of Birth by Martin Amis (from The Pregnant Widow)

A shattering opening stave, especially as it introduces a book about nostalgia. Amis’s reading of this passage was rattling around my head as I wrote ‘College, Life’.

5. Does 2+2=4? by Albert Camus (from The Plague)

It sheds harsh light on the evil of the fascistic mindset: the belief that you know everything, and are therefore allowed anything.

6. A Newspaper Is a Business Out to Make Money by Raymond Chandler (from The Long Goodbye)

During a year (an election year, no less) in which I felt some of my vestigial idealism metamorphose into common sense politics, this no-nonsense take on the media struck a powerful chord. (It’s also a legitimate refutation and partial affirmation of the Chomskyian thesis in Manufacturing Consent.)

7. The Two Main Traits of Terrorists by Joseph Conrad (from The Secret Agent)

In a prophetic paragraph from a century ago, Conrad encapsulated the worldview of the modern terrorist.

8. The Kind of Town that Made You Feel Like Humphrey Bogart by Hunter S. Thompson (from The Rum Diary)

Thompson isn’t my favorite author. That said, this excerpt is one of the — excuse my language — most badass pieces of fiction writing ever produced. (It also captures something of the listless, restless tenor of youthful ambition.)

9. True Stories by Paul Auster (from his Collected Prose)

It’s not technically fiction, but Auster is a novelist, and this particular one-paragraph tale is a paradigm of what simple, true storytelling — not style, not flash — can do.

10. The Cost of Immortality by Alan Lightman (from Einstein’s Dreams)

“Suppose people live forever…” From that premise, Lightman paints a vivid picture of what a fictional civilization would metastasize into.

Honorable mentions: The Hangover by Kingsley Amis (from Lucky Jim); We Are Not Provided with Wisdom by Marcel Proust (from In Search of Lost Time); Go Right Ahead and Scold Him by Kurt Vonnegut (from Cat’s Cradle); That Head-on-Heart Stuff/ Memory’s a Funny Thing by Martin Amis (from Money); In the Afterlife, You Relieve All Your Experiences by David Eagleman (from Sum)

The Top 10 Philosophy Posts of 2013

02 Thursday Jan 2014

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For the deep thinkers, my list of the best philosophical posts of the year.

The top 10, in order:

1. Because the Universe Is Happening to You by Julian Barnes

This excerpt is pulled from Barnes’s Nothing to Be Frightened Of, which was probably the most potent book I picked up this year. Barnes’s writing is as cogent as I’ve ever read — the product a voice that quivers with intensity but never stutters or misses a word. This particular section complements well the reflection below from Pollack, and was also part of the inspiration for my speech ‘College, Life’.

2. Define ‘Life’ by Dr. Robert Pollack

Spoken at the Philoctetes panel on Origin, Evolution, and the Future of Life on Earth, Pollack’s opening answer to the prompt “Define ‘Life'” is powerful because it integrates three concepts which are rarely synthesized into the same worldview: a religious impulse, an acceptance of the persuasive findings of modern cosmology, and a recognition that existence is tragic by definition. (I highly encourage you to not just read the text, but listen to Pollack’s coolness as he gives his answer.)

3. What Is Happening When We See Somebody Die? by David Eagleman

My favorite explanation to the vexing (and perhaps unanswerable) question of what happens to consciousness and identity upon the death of the body.

4. If We’re Gong to Waste Our Time Like That by Sam Harris

An ideal statement to supplement your new year’s resolutions.

5. Mere Human Love by Julian Barnes

Here Barnes contemplates the human desire for love and how it is inextricably bound up in our need to judge and be judged. Such an insight has immense religious and interpersonal implications.

6. Why I Lived by Bertrand Russell

From the prologue to Russell’s biography, I especially like the spatial imagery which can be found in the following excerpt (and is implemented effectively by David Horowitz in The End of Time and Barnes in Levels of Life):

“Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth… the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.”

Side note: I’m extremely surprised Russell would opt to live his life once more. I’m undecided on the question, but know that the only affirmative answer that makes sense would require a caveat — “Only if I did not know I was doing so.”

7. Spending Our Brief Time in the Sun by Richard Dawkins

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.” It’s quite an opening line, and Dawkins justifies it in three powerful, simple paragraphs.

8. Living a Life of Value (But What ‘Value’?) by Ronald Dworkin

This selection from one of the greatest philosophers of the past century has something for everyone, whether you’re a libertarian, a deist, a predeterminist, or just someone who’s interested in the question of what makes your life worthwhile.

9. A Universe from Nothing by Jim Holt

Although I posted several selections from Holt’s fantastic book Why Does the World Exist over the past year, this particular part — with its ridiculously clever opening paragraph and clear analysis — is the one I most enjoyed.

10. Darkness Visible by William Styron

Styron’s intricate prose and steady command of language produce a pang of envy and admiration in this reader; his lacerating descriptions of depression, on the other hand, can stir only emotions of sympathy and understanding. This was one of the most important books I read this year, and for that reason, among others, this excerpt deserves a place on this list. (His evocation of Dante is especially moving.)

Honorable mentions: We Do Not Each Seek God in the Same Way by Jules Renard; It All Adds Up to Happiness… Doesn’t It? by Julian Barnes; Friends by Socrates; If Life Is Finite, Why Does It Matter? by Sam Harris

The Top 10 Poems of 2013

02 Thursday Jan 2014

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The top 10, in order:

1. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

2. Holy Island by Andrew Motion

3. Instead of an Epilogue by Kingsley Amis

4. Aubade by Philip Larkin

5. When I Consider How My Light Is Spent by John Milton

6. If I Were Paul by Mark Jarman

7. Like the Touch of Rain by Edward Thomas

8. Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy

9. Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare

10. Ever So Many Hundred Years Hence by Mark Strand

Honorable mentions: High Country Weather by James K. Baxter; Mirror by Mark Strand; In Paris with You by James Fenton; Repression by C. K. Williams; History by Mark Jarman; Coming by Philip Larkin; Biography by Ian Hamilton

It’s basically futile and maybe even ridiculous to try to come up with something like a Top Ten list for poems. The works above all resonate with me, sure, but their vibrations and echoes vary with each reading, just as some pack a single, leveling punch while others are consistently stirring each time I return. And anyways, unlike novels and nonfiction, poetry is so particular to the reader. As Auden wrote in “The Novelist”, a poet is “encased in talent like a uniform”: his job is so demanding because it is so hyper-specialized. A novelist, on the other hand, is called on to be an everyman — as Auden phrases it, “Among the Just/ Be just, among the Filthy filthy too”.

All of this, I guess, is just a long way of apologizing in advance to those of you who may disagree with this list. Don’t get too worked up at me. I’ll probably disagree with myself tomorrow.

Like everyone else, I’ve been tied up with so many other things these past few weeks, and so writing has been stuck on the back burner. Still, I hope to compile similar lists for this year in fiction, history, philosophy, etc. in the next few days.

Read the other 68 poems I’ve posted on TBP.

Read my one-sentence reviews of every book I picked up this year:

Books of 2013

A Year’s Worth of Reading