A review of “Islam: Empire of Faith” (PBS Empires)

“˹He is˺ Allah! There is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him, the Lord of the Mighty Throne.”

– English translation of The Quran, Surah 27:26

A history of medieval Islam, and the empires that it influenced …

Islam seems always to be in the news these days. Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we have heard much about this religion (not all of it accurate). But this series came out before the terrorist attacks had ever happened – the year 2000, to be specific. This may actually be a virtue of the series, that it came out before then. It makes it easier to be objective about their history, and to not read contemporary interpretations into their history that might be best left out. We get neither a heroic nor a villainous version of Islam, but something in between. We hear well-deserved praise of their massive achievements, as well as some presentation of the controversies involved in their history.

A review of Karl Marx's “Das Kapital” (audiobook)

“A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood. Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.”

– Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” (1867), Volume 1, Chapter 1, Section 4

Those who know me would not be surprised to hear that I’m not exactly a fan of Karl Marx. He has long struck me as a nutball who was wrong about virtually everything he said, and who had very little to contribute to economic science. Nonetheless, he is someone that is worth learning about anyway for someone who debates about economic issues. Many a liberal is a disciple of Karl Marx, and does not shy away from making Marxist arguments. Thus, knowing about Marxist arguments is helpful to anyone who wants to debunk them as I do.

Because of this, I have long thought about reading Karl Marx in the original German – reading his short work “The Communist Manifesto” in German, and even his much longer work “Das Kapital” in German. I’ve read “The Communist Manifesto” in English translation, as it turns out, and have even read parts of “Das Kapital” in English as well. But I have never yet spared the time to read all of “Das Kapital” in any language (even English). Thus, on the off-chance that I would never have the German to tackle this in the original, I acquired an audiobook about it some years ago which gives some basic background information about the book, and which helps to place Marxism as he conceived it into the context of the times – one of the best investments I’ve ever made, in my opinion.

A review of Machiavelli’s “The Prince” (audiobook)

I had read “The Prince” itself before listening to this audiobook, sometime during the winter of 2006-2007. It was in English translation, since I don’t speak Italian, but it would still seem to have counted for something. Thus, you might expect that I didn’t learn anything from this audiobook. But on the contrary, I learned much from this hour-and-a-half audiobook.

Niccolò Machiavelli