Required Reading from the School House
Ron,
I purchased the Black Swan, but haven't started it. Also ordered the Walid Phares book - The Confrontation.
A few that we've had to read that were well worth reading:
Shattered Sword - The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (Parshall and Tully)
Emergence (Steven Johnson)
Making Things Work - Solving Complex Problems in an Complex World (Yanner Bar Yam)
thanks for the heads up on the others
Don't bother with "Army of the Republic"
"The Army of the Republic", a novel by Stuart Archer Cohen, was a tedious and predictable story set in America of the near future. The author made bold claims about his research with guerrillas, but focused on Latin American guerrillas, and did not offer any insights that couldn't be gleaned from reading Che Guevara's "Guerrilla Warfare" or Alberto Bayo's "150 Questions for a Guerrilla". It was a long-winded leftist diatribe about how corporations are bad and how glamorous it is to be a guerrilla. The only reason I bothered to do the Amazon review of this dud was to stay in a program where I get reviewers' copies of books.
Note to authors on the council: I will read and review any book (or watch) I am given as a reviewers' copy. Caveat Scriptor - I review it as I see it, not as you would wish me to see it, and boy, was this guy snotty about my honest opinion of his rant.
Steve Biddle's Military Power
I'm currently finishing Steve Biddle's "Military Power: Explaining Military and Defeat in Modern Battle" Does anyone remember if this book was discussed on a SWC thread?