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What Are You Reading? Part Deux. (pg. 19)
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I read three-quarters of this in one sitting last night. I was very pissed off when I had to go to work today, because it's ing excellent. I can't wait to get home and finish it. There's a movie too, which I'm going to rent on the weekend. |
Did this finish well? I like Tom Twyker's films, but the movie was just :wtf: |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by wotyzoid
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God I love Fitzgerald... might be time to revisit some of his stuff this summer. 'Tender is the Night' is one of the most outstanding works of fiction I've ever read. |
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| wotyzoid |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
God I love Fitzgerald... might be time to revisit some of his stuff this summer. 'Tender is the Night' is one of the most outstanding works of fiction I've ever read. |
Trillz. Got it for 7 bucks, it was such a no-brainer after having read Gatsby for school a few months ago. |
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| DJ Damerchi |
The State of Africa -Martin Meredith
States and Power in Africa-Jeffrey Herbst(recom. by lebez)
just delving into africa. |
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| Unique2701 |
Checking out the Russian literature..
Chekhov - a journey to Sakhalin |
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| SYSTEM-J |
"Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours".
Brushing up on my HTML. |
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| Domesticated |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
Did this finish well? I like Tom Twyker's films, but the movie was just :wtf: |
I finished it last night. Yes and no. The ending is kind of stupid, and I assume the same as the movie's, but the story isn't so much the kind that you look for a definitive ending or resolution. It's just so well written and bizarre that the pleasure is in the reading the actual story and the ending is a bit insignificant anyway. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Damerchi
The State of Africa -Martin Meredith
States and Power in Africa-Jeffrey Herbst(recom. by lebez)
just delving into africa. |
lol - I scanned your post quickly and hit reply to write "fantastic choices!" and then as I was writing that, saw your comment.
:)
Herbst's book is an interesting perspective, but Martin Meredith is simply the man when it comes to African history.
edit: did you mean "The Fate of Africa"? If so, that was like my bible for grad school. It provided basic historical context for nearly every course I took. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by Domesticated
I finished it last night. Yes and no. The ending is kind of stupid, and I assume the same as the movie's, but the story isn't so much the kind that you look for a definitive ending or resolution. It's just so well written and bizarre that the pleasure is in the reading the actual story and the ending is a bit insignificant anyway. |
I might have to check it out. The movie was definitely an odd one, but I imagine it translates better on paper. |
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| DJ Damerchi |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
lol - I scanned your post quickly and hit reply to write "fantastic choices!" and then as I was writing that, saw your comment.
:)
Herbst's book is an interesting perspective, but Martin Meredith is simply the man when it comes to African history.
edit: did you mean "The Fate of Africa"? If so, that was like my bible for grad school. It provided basic historical context for nearly every course I took. |
its quite a fatty, but he goes into great detail state by state from the period right before independance onwards. Ive only burned about 80 pages so far, but I have already learned a great deal about Nkrumah, Humphrey Bouguet, Ben Bella, leopold senghor, Nasser, and Bourguiba. It has focused more on french west africa so far, but it gave a detailed analysis of the gold coast independence as well. Right now Im reading about Ben Bella's adventures, with about to hit the fan in French Algeria. That ******s still alive!
I really like the gunsgermssteelesque approach of herbst, and it seems great so far. One issue I had was that although he would disclude the North African state structure in his theory, He would use the entire african land mass(including the north african sahara) to prove his points of arid lands, sparsely populated peoples, fluctuations in environment and geography...but Im probably just splitting hairs. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Damerchi
Weiiiiiiiird. He must have changed the title at some point.
but I have already learned a great deal about Nkrumah, |
Nkrumah is a baller, or at least was before gaining power. There's a wonderful book I started but didn't finish awhile back about Nasser, Nehru, and Nkrumah, and how they attempted to maintain neutrality in the Cold War through the creation of a non-aligned alliance of developing states. They accomplished a fair amount in terms of international customary law and the like, but obviously failed in their objective.
| quote: | | I really like the gunsgermssteelesque approach of herbst, and it seems great so far. One issue I had was that although he would disclude the North African state structure in his theory, He would use the entire african land mass(including the north african sahara) to prove his points of arid lands, sparsely populated peoples, fluctuations in environment and geography...but Im probably just splitting hairs. |
Yeah, there seems to be a great deal of disagreement about whether North Africa belongs as part of Africa or the Middle East. Gets even more complicated when you're dealing with states like Sudan that are split ethnically (and religiously). That was an inconsistency I didn't realize, though I think the population comments still probably stand for much of the rest of Africa (and the arid comment for parts of southern Africa as well). Enjoy - section 2 was the most interesting for me, when he starts comparing the European experience more explicitly to the African one, and then lays out the ramifications of urbanization for African governance. |
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