I have made several key changes in direction and revisions for how I want to tell my story. And, perhaps most importantly, I've hit upon a title (which will remain secret for now). Looking around, I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I've been picking away at a few paintings and drawings, but nothing is finished. I've been sketching a bit as well.
I finished Richard White's history, one of the best books I've read all year. This one was quite a surprise. My initial reaction was very lukewarm, but once I reached the Gilded Age I was riveted. I knew very little of the period and so the book was very useful in filling in many gaps as well as showing me paths forward. Stepping away from the book I was curious about what came after. I realized I knew about as little about the Progressive Age as I did about the Gilded Age. I may get to Daniel Rodgers' Atlantic Crossings later this year.
A book very different than White, but compelling was David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years." I had been looking for an answer to a question libertarians kept posing, or rather, not a question, but rather a questionable assertion: would life be better without government? Graeber's book is full of surprising and interesting observations, many of them culled from archaeology research that has been known about for years, but never integrated into current understandings of economics.
Lastly, per the suggestion of Philip Nikolayev, I read Plato's Republic. Actually I read it twice and will most definitely read it a few more times. I don't feel like this was at all a diversion from my reading plan, since my topic is Economics and Utopia. There was a lot I found useful in reading the Republic. The cycles of government was particularly important for me. Perhaps, the second most valuable aspect of the book was its beauty. The rhythm of the language expresses a way of thinking and being in the world that I have been adapting to my day to day life.
Books Read:
Richard White, The Republic for Which it Stands
Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes
Plato, Apology, Crito, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Menexenus, Ion, Gorgias, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus, Lesser Hippias, Greater Hippias, The Republic
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life
April Reading:
Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Finish Graeber's Debt
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Gilbert Ryle, Plato's Progress
William Flesch, Comeuppance
