Ok, ok, that may not be as unique or exciting, but the changes 2019 brought played out in a noticeable way here and the framework of one book and one time is much easier to break down for now.
A perfect storm of having more flexibility, better organization, and less required reading in Japan revitalized my love for reading, to which I am thankful. What I discovered is that, when I pick the books, they can be incredibly transformative. Scrolling through social media or keeping up with the news can provide a lot of information, but having a thoughtful, well-organized idea that has room to develop is unparalleled.
I am still excited to use this platform to share my experiences some ideas of my own, but I want to get the ideas these books gave me down while it is still timely. Plus, a ton of people have been asking me for citations from these books or recommendations in general, so two birds (sorry PETA).
5: Modern China, A Very Short Introduction - Rana Mitter
Increasingly, I find China in the news with shockingly little context for its national history or culture. From the 'economic miracle' to the questions of social credit and surveillance, it always seemed like stories and events were presented as if they came out of nowhere. As someone with only a cursory familiarity of China, I felt it necessary to take the first step in correcting this.
What followed was a bit of a research binge. I highlighted, took notes, and researched something on almost every page. This book is incredibly dense yet remains an easy and quick read. As with every book in the Oxford VSI series (of which I have read about two dozen by now--amazing), reading this will get you to the level of understanding the basics of what is going on with China and how it got there, but with serious limitations. If you'd like to know enough to have a conversation about an issue pertaining to China, that would probably deserve its own time and effort outside this book.
All-in-all I recommend this to anyone who has found themselves curious about China and who wants a place to start. I've loaned the book out multiple times to friends from China and those just interested (it is still away at the time of writing) and it always starts some great conversations.4: Winners Take All - Anand Giridharadas
Of course, there are many problems with this. First, a small group of people are controlling huge amounts of resources in various public-good-oriented spheres--and their biases can have devastating effects. Second, to paraphrase Anand when he sat in the John F. Kennedy Forum at Harvard, we now have a situation where the wolves are guarding the sheep pen; the people in charge of change in our society are the very people who have the most to lose from the type of change that will actually make a difference. Most important is the strong and persuasive pushback against the idea that private enterprise is the best instrument of positive social change. Instead, Anand champions government and democracy.
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| Anand speaking to a full house, though unfortunately at the same time as Mark Cuban (some of the people who went should have been here) |
If any of this piqued your interest, I highly recommend picking it up at your local library. I find many of his arguments compelling, but the particular way in which he phrases them is exceptionally entertaining and clever. My one critique is the irony of his chapters on thought leaders and work at places like McKinsey. If you read it and read about his recent work, I think you'll understand what I mean.
3: How to Hide an Empire - Daniel Immerwahr
Easily the best-written book I read in 2016 is this. The book covers the lesser known or intentionally hidden history of America's expansion and control over land outside the continental U.S. Although we often decry oppression and empire (and in fact mythologize our creation in defiance of these terrors), there is evidence that the United States is the largest empire the world has ever known.
The book breaks down many ways in which this is true. First is the most obvious conceptualization of empire: territory and oppression. Chilling examples of this are the horrific expansions into the Philippines and Hawai'i. Not only did this expansion require intense violence (including, arguably, the perfection of the concentration camp), but also intense dehumanization. This campaign was so widespread that when Pearl Harbor happened, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was not sure the American people would care enough about their rights-less 'compatriots' in the Philippines, Guam, Alaska and Hawai'i to go to war. He chose to focus on the territory with the highest white population, Hawai'i, to make the best case for retaliation. This fact may explain why many, including myself, did not know the attacks on December 7/8th occurred outside Hawai'i at all. This is one of many awful revelations about American territory in the book.
On top of territory, the US also maintains an empire through language, culture, and military presence overseas--and these are all linked. Ever wonder why so many foreign people seem to be learning English? Ever thought why Jazz is so popular in Japan and Rock was so big in the UK? Ever surprised to hear US soldiers were attacked in Africa? If so, definitely check this book out.2: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney
Speaking of hidden history, Walter Rodney has done some very heavy lifting documenting and countering the massive systemic obscurities in the Western narrative of World History, especially pertaining to Africa. The book starts by correcting some very troublesome misconceptions about what Africa was like before European contact. In short: much the same, often better, but just without the fancy boats. Most African kingdoms were not interested in European goods, instead preferring to trade internally. This forced European traders to bring goods from Asia and, later, the New World which started the snowball information advantage.
From then on, Europeans (and later the people in their colonies) began to exploit Africa's resources and sabotage its development. In fact, the title seeks not to explain the lack of development in Africa but rather to show 'underdevelopment' as a verb--something Europe did to Africa intentionally.
The most troublesome effect of reading this book is how frustrating this perspective is for conversations about aid and development. Seeing development as something that happens over time is not only ignorant of different histories, values, and cosmovisions, but also obscures the past and present violence maintaining the system. Changing a few numbers around on a national budget plan is not going to correct for centuries of plunder and a rigged global system. If any of this was new to you (as much of it was for me), consider this book essential.
Honorable mentions:
「質問です。」- 名越 康文, Rape During Civil War - Dara Cohen「質問です。」, meaning something like "the questions" in English, is simultaneously a self-help and a self-discovery book. While I personally did not find many of the questions to be relevant (not exactly in the target audience I presume), I did find the organization of the book particularly well-suited for use getting to know people or staging a moment of self-reflection. Thus, I have had a great deal of fun with the book, but cannot bring myself to recommend it outside a very small group of people.
Dara Cohen's book is exactly what it sounds. The writing is clear, the organization is impeccable, and the subject matter is truly brutal. Particularly shocking was the fact that much of the research in this book and a lot of research on similar topics is that it borrows on research of US fraternities. That's not a typo. Literally the closest analogue to the sexual atrocities committed in armed conflict is what's happening on US college campuses. It's among the most disturbing and hard-to-read-in-public books I've experienced, but incredibly fascinating and informative.
1: The Divide by Jason Hickel
If you're looking for a book that will change the way you see the world, look no further. This is a shocking indictment that captures the best (or, I guess, worst) parts of the books by Walter Rodney, Daniel Immerwahr, and Anand Giridharadas. It then goes further, dismantling how the system we think promotes world peace and prosperity may in fact be a carefully misleading cherry-picking of statistics designed to obscure suffering and promote an unsustainable lifestyle.
For example, it is impossible to avoid hearing about how innovations or the work of non-profits have reduced things like world hunger or poverty. It is even harder to not believe what they say--the consensus is broad and non-ideological. However, many of the definitions of these terms are not evidence-based but rather based on what measures fit the narrative; world hunger is only decreasing if you only count people living on less than 1,000 calories a day (potentially less than a third of what is needed for a lifestyle of manual labor) for an entire year. Poverty is only decreasing if you use a number somewhere around $1-2 a day, but experts say the amount of money you make does not have a measurable impact on quality of life until you make around $7 a day or more. The number of people making less than $7 a day has been increasing for as long as it has been measured. Even the best case scenario of the UN's sustainable development goals sees this number continuing to increase as a success (the UN uses a lower number and uses percentages instead of counts).
Once you get past the manipulation problem, there is also the problem of how to fix the problems we already have. Our global governance institutions--the UN, World Bank, WTO, etc.--are all intentionally biased in favor of the United States and other wealthy nations. How can we expect them to fix the problems of big nations having too much power when they were designed to maintain this system?
There is much more breadth and depth (as well as solutions) in the book. Definitely go read it.
Summary
Each of these books really helped to change one aspect of how I saw the world. I believe their coming at a time of intense change in my own life made me much more receptive to the challenge and created an even greater sense of urgency in my present trajectory. I am grateful for a lot that has happened this year, but most of all I am thankful for the opportunity to learn and apply my values to a complex world. Writing this helped me realize that change is good. In fact, it might be the only thing that can save us.
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