The Myth of Capitalism - Jonathan Tepper

 A book that take down the myth of the American capitalist system as a system of competition and constant renewal.  He outlines how the actual American economy has become both monopolistic and monopsonistic with a small number of companies controlling huge areas of the economy, setting prices, wages and even what suppliers will be paid.  Innovation and new company creation are steadily slowing.  Smaller firms are more and more swallowed up by a few big ones.  The end result is lower wages for everyone, the disappearance of family farms and businesses and higher prices for everyone too.  This is actually the driving force behind growing income inequality:  wages shrink, prices go up, large corporations and big share holders grab more and more of the wealth. 

Since slavery the basic American economic model has been highly exploitative.  Then came colonialism/imperialism on the world stage.  Now they are back consuming their own people to get rich.  

Nothing is done because money runs politics.  Congress works for the wealthy shareholders and corporations by granting monopolies, increasing regulation that makes it harder for small companies to get started and changing laws that benefit large companies and the wealthy.  He underlines the importance of how government advisors and top administrators move back and forth between the private and public sector.  

This problem is particularly important in the U.S.  Canada and Europe are far more stringent in applying anti-trust and anti-monopoly rules.  The U. S. has given up on this.  

This book explains why Google and other large tech companies have been having legal problems and being fined large sums of money in Europe whereas nothing is happening in the U.S.  

Worth rereading for the details,

The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire - Robert Bickers

 An account of the humiliation and exploitation of China in the late 1800s by England and America.

Goes a long way to explaining the current determination of the Chinese government to build a strong system of central control, project a strong presence in the world and to build a system of links and allies, and to remain at the crest of new technology, both civilian and military.  The current leaders have learned their lessons from history...

Le tranquille affligé - Gilles Jobidon

    Un écrivain québécois mais aux thèmes très larges.   Un petit livre, très lisible.  Il se déroule en Chine au cours du 19e siècle peu avant la deuxième guerre d'opium en 1850 et la chute de la dynastie Qing.  Il suit qui pourtant ne fait que partie de l'histoire.  L'auteur a aussi fait ses recherches sur la cour impériale et présente de façon vraisemblable des réflections sur la façon de voir et de comprendre le monde courante en Chine à l'époque.
     Un autre côté intéressant du livre est les aperçus qu'offre l'auteur des rapports entre la Chine et l'Occident, c'est à dire l'Angleterre dans le contexte du livre.  Il offre un aperçu des effets de ce commerce forcé d'opium sur la société chinoise.  Il raconte aussi la sac et la destruction du Palais d'été et du jardin impérial par les troupes britanniques.  Il fait mention aussi de la rapacité des forces coloniales en Chine après la chute des Qing.
     Ces aperçus offrent peut-être une explication de la méfiance contemporaine de la Chine envers l'Occident, et aussi de son désir de se rétablir comme un pouvoir important et capable.  Les perdants ont la mémoire longue, chose qu'oublient toujours les gagnants....

    Un sujet à explorer en plus de profondeur.

Adua- Igiaba Scego

A novel by a Somali-Italian author, translated from the Italian. 
It portrays the life of a Somali woman who moves to Rome to become a film star, but ends up working in the porn field.
What is interesting is the portrait of Italy's engagement with Somalia and the Horn of Africa in the course of the 20th century.  There is a lot of exploitative history there, and historical ugly racism that is explored in the book.  Somalia was Italy's exotic East, same role as the Levant and North Africa played for France and Britain.

The Dawn Watch - Maya Jasanoff

A biography of Joseph Conrad.  The author also sets his novels against the historical events and shifts of the time.  Nice integration of historical perspective and literary themes.  Jasanoff is basically developing the idea that Conrad was ahead of his time in exploring the alienation and rootlessness of modern society, the mechanization of work and the passing of skilled workers and tradesmen, and also the predatory nature of modern capitalism hidden beneath its veneer of social improvement.

A History of Modern Italy - Anthony L. Cardoza

Italy from late 1700's to 2016.  Nice concise account of unification and the formation of the Italian State.  You get a sense of who the people are whose names are on so many streets in Italian towns.  (Basically, important figures in the struggle for unification.)
Yet another example of a state that can't seem to escape its historical political culture.  So many conflicting interests - regional competition; state vs. church; competition for dominance within a specific region; district or town; winner take all approach with accompanying corruption and crime; corrupt elites in all areas of leadership who mainly look out for themselves.  Been like this for 1000 years, and no one can seem to change it.  Politicians serious about change are always chased out in the end.  The wealthy and powerful elite doesn't seem to have modified their greed and grasping ways since the heyday of 19th century capitalism.
One thing that leaves me angry is how the current populist parties like the Northern League, etc. can dare to suggest that Italy's problems are the result of immigration!  In fact, they are self-created and self-perpetuated, and have been decades, centuries even, in the making.

Tales of Belkin - Alexander Pushkin

A collection of short novellas - early writing.  Wonderfully crafted.  Even though the world he portrays (rural Russian estates, military officers) is very foreign, the stories hold your attention.  An interesting look into the values and social conventions of another time and another place.

A People's History of Scotland - Chris Bambery

An interesting book that takes a working person's perspective on history and changes in Scotland since the 1600s.  Some time is spent looking at the Clearances, but a lot of the book chronicles social history of urban and working class Scots through the Industrial Revolution to the post-Independence vote.
A lot of the history of Scotland since the beginning of industrialization seems to be a history of unions and social protest for better working conditions, better pay, stable jobs.  This history, particularly in the 20th century, seems to mark it off from the history of England, where social protest seems to have been less of a force (except in the Border regions, which shares similarities with Scotland economically.
Bambery manages to bring out the elements of colonialism operating in the relation between England and Scotland.
He also touches on a lot of other issues, some worth exploring further:
- blows up the myth of Scottish clans, tartans and all:  upper class English romantic invention in the late 1800s
- the general decline of England since 1900:  causes, elements
- Thatcher's goals and policies which deliberately lead to the collapse of British manufacturing, social hardship, and incidentally shifted the economy to a London/finance base
- also a source for Scottish authors, both current and historical, who stand apart from the English literary stream

Through this book you get a sense of the ugly, exploitative effects of the British/Anglo model of capitalism.

The Islamic Enlightenment - Christopher de Bellaigue

An interesting look at modernizers and enlightenment figures in Muslim societies from the 1800's on.  He first looks at early figures country by country, and then in the 20th c., switches to a broader perspective as figures and movements become international in influence.  As you read about these figures, you get a sense of how the religious conservatives have fought this movement for the past two centuries.  You also get a sense of how the West's duplicity, naked pursuit of self-interest, and blatant hypocrisy in the region has played into the hands of the conservative religious leaders, discrediting ideas and movements that have any association with the West and the Enlightenment tradition.
A bit too much detail at times, but it is easy to skim over some sections.

The Other Paris - Luc Sante

A history of Paris over the past few hundred years, though mostly focused on the 19th and early 20th centuries, because this period has much richer information sources.  The book looks at various aspects of the city (Ghosts, Zone, Canaille, Le Business) in each chapter, with an historical view of that aspect.  Very much a history of the people - which for most of this period implies poor people.  What I see underlined in this book is the fact that so much of what we consider picturesque or essential to our view of "Paris" is based on poverty and misery.  The idealized street life is in part a life of poor people with no other place to be, except a miserable hole to sleep in.   Or trying to cobble together some kind of sustenance scrambling after opportunities in the street.  There is some kind of dissonance between this idealized view of free, wide open Paris (or New York) and the poverty and misery that underlies it.  Free and wide open because so many of the inhabitants have nothing to lose and nothing to look forward to?  No future?
On the other hand, you can see how buckled down, narrow and safe life has become as western societies have become wealthier across the board, and have accumulated more things that can be lost. There has been some kind of taming of humanity, a hollowing out in some way, a domestication.  In a sense we have become farm animals - safe, secure but oh so dull.  Trade it for uncertainty, instability but ever so much excitement and stimulation?  Hmmm.  No society has made this reverse choice yet. This is what is happening in Istanbul right now actually.  As the middle class grows, the society becomes more enclosed and more homogeneous.
Hard choices.

This book also underlines how Vanishing New York by J. Moss is a bit naive in its complaint.  There is still a whiff of the white middle class tourist on a slumming run (though a small whiff, as the author has his reasons for searching out the freedom and openness of New York City).

I suppose, in a sense, there  are two types of people in this swirling mass of humanity that gave New York and Paris their character and flavour.  One, the people who are genuinely different somehow, who don't fit in - for them, the jumble and mishmash of the city represents some kind of freedom to be.  The other type are the poor and miserable for whatever reason - drugs, lack of education, generational poverty, psychological problems.  They live on the margins, not by choice, but by necessity, or through inevitability.  These are the people who are ignored when you romanticize this older time period.

The one thing that is radically different though, is the way rich and poor mixed in Paris - at the theatre, in the street, in cafes and bals.  This does not happen in Toronto (or New York any more) by the sound of things.  Probably not in Paris either, as lower income people are pushed further and further out from the centre.

This book also touches on art and its role in gentrification.  This may have actually started in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.  Before then, artists were in the orbit of the rich and the wealthy (theory) but when art moved away from representation and tradition, (and buyers) artists ended up in the poorer areas like Montmartre.  As the artists get discovered (and also establish centres in cafes and restaurants), their milieu gets discovered, and seems so much more exciting than the run-of-the-mill.  This draws money, draws moneyed people, and we go on from there.

Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul - Jeremiah Moss

Brilliant look at gentrification - causes, specifics, effects.  Told through the changes that have happened in different New York neighbourhoods.  He looks at specific longtime businesses, at the politics and policy behind changes, at the effects on lower income families, at the disaster that sometimes follows high rent gentrification.  He also adds comments and analysis from the literature on gentrification and its effects - these are good sources for followup.  There is also some discussion of the social changes that are behind this gentrification and suburbanization of the city.
I like his view of the historical role and importance of cities - essentially an environment of freedom and tolerance.
Reading this book brings back a lot of memories from my trips to New York in the late 70s.  Also, early days in Toronto.  The process of urban change has been similar in Toronto, though not so extreme or so rapid.  But the result, the "same-ification", the whitewashing, the commodification has been the same.
Interesting to read someone writing about the same questions and complaints I have had about Toronto over the past few years.  A subject to pursue.

The real question though, is what next?  If the city has lost its place and role as a home for diversity and difference, where do you go?  Scattered and down your own rabbit hole?

Bosnian Chronicle - Ivo Andric

A novel set in Travnik during the late revolution Napoleonic period.  It chronicles the life of the French Consul in a small town in Bosnia during the time period when the Ottomans were allied with the French and attempting to modernize their antiquated army and administrative structure.

It basically looks at the enormous gulf in world views between the locals and the Western European mentality as represented by the Austrian Consuls and French Consul.  There is even a huge gulf between the Ottoman administrators and the local population, including the very conservative Muslims.

Some insights that he offers:
- the folding back into your religious community as a form of resistance and cultural survival strategy
- backwardness, self-imposed isolation and conservatism as a form of passive resistance to occupation
- the fragmented identities divided by religion as the main challenge to building a modern Bosnia as a country, even then; the need for a Bosnian identity that transcends religious identity or tribe - here he even predicts the violence and conflict that in fact arose after the "super identity" of Yugoslavia collapsed

For me, a bit of a slow read.  Too much internal dissection and monologue of the characters' thoughts and feelings.  Very 19th C in style.

Le Pont sur la Drina - Ivo Andric

Un classique d'un auteur de la Bosnie-Herzégovine.  Il raconte l'histoire de Visegrad, une ville sur la Drina, à travers les siècles de l'occupation Ottomane jusqu'au début de la première guerre, tout centré sur ce pont qui semble indestructible.  La première partie est très intéressante parce qu'il donne un aperçu, un goût de la vie de l'époque.  Quand il arrive à l'époque moderne, c'est moins intéressant parce qu'il se perd dans les discussions idéologiques autour de l'indépendance et la politique.
Le livre se termine avec la destruction d'une partie du pont au debut de la guerre.

Il aurait été horrifié par les événements sur ce pont au cours de la chute de l'ex-Yougoslavie...

King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild

A brilliant piece of historical writing on a very charged and disturbing period in history.It is an interesting read and not because of the horrific abuse - the author does discuss this, but it is not the main focus of the book.  He spends most of his time looking how this all came about, with background on the great European colonial period in Africa, on the situation and character of Leopold himself, and on the mechanics of organizing and carrying out such a horror.  Hochschild also chronicles in detail the slow rise of international pressure to end this cruel exploitation.

I think this may actually be the most horrific massacre of the 20th century.  Certainly the numbers justify this.  But one other thing:  this massacre was not undertaken for some bizarre ideological reason (Hitler, Pol Pot) or grandiose economic plan (Stalin)  In the Congo it went of for 25 years purely as an act of individual greed on the part of King Leopold.  This was not Belgium's colony - Belgian politicians wanted nothing to do with colonies.  It was his personal cash cow - the only justification for the deaths and abuse was his desire for an endless supply of money.

The political manoeuvring around this exploitation is also interesting.  The abuse was on the world radar for many years, but Leopold was a master at all the techniques that have become standard fare in the 20th C - buying off the press, starting your own publishing companies to pump out positive articles and studies (fake news), bribing politicians with money and shares, spreading disinformation, character assassination, framing the story in favourable ways, bringing business on board through special deals, offering show tours to journalists and investigators, starting your own human rights organization, buying off opponents.  The only thing added by Hitler, Stalin, the U.S. et all seems to be political assassination...  I wonder if he invented all this?

Oh, and of course, Leopold had one perversion - sex with underage girls....

Hochschild has also included an afterword touching on several related points.  First, he points out that the nature of most colonialism is in fact slave labour.  Funny I've never seen this stated so explicitly before - unfair taxation, theft of resources, oppression, exploitation, yes, but never the actual statement "slave labour".  

He also discusses the curious fact that Leopold's scheme became such a focus when other countries - France, England, Germany - were exploiting their African colonies in exactly the same way.  Why him, and not them?  Also, irony in this as far as England is concerned, with their reputation of being a great anti-slavery nation.

Lastly, he touches on the continued sorry state of the Congo today.  As if the colonial period was the model for civil society and "government"  and the model has continued up to today, but with different players at the top - mining corporations and corrupt local strongmen.

Nights in the Big City: Paris, Berlin, London 1840-1930 - Joachim Schlor

A real sociological study of how night changed in the city with the introduction first of gas lighting, and then of electric lighting.  While the text is a little too detailed and dense for my level of interest, there are still some interesting ideas.  He also quotes and refers to many important cultural and literary figures of the time as part of his research.

Until the mid-1800s cities pretty much shut down once it was dark.  Many had laws about being inside at home from dark until dawn.  This was largely as a measure of social control in a time when forces of order would have trouble watching the goings-on in the street.  With the initial introduction of gas lighting, and later with electric lighting, the streets became much busier at night.  Walking the lit up main streets became a destination and an amusement in itself.  Prostitution and petty crime also flourished in this early stage of city street lighting - while the main streets were lit, the smaller streets remained very dark, easy places for hiding and disappearing.  Near the end of the century, nightlife began to move off the street again and into lit-up interiors - cafes, clubs, restaurants, brothels, bals dansants, theatres, etc.  This was the preferred outcome for the forces of order, as interior spaces are much easier to control and supervise than the street, interestingly.

Many of the chapters in the book deal with the competing claims of freedom, excitement and the need for security, morality and social order.  I was less interested in these chapters.  The second-last chapter, Nightwalking, was the most interesting for me.  It traces the unusual affinity of some walking the city at night.  He discusses the concept of flâneur, and mentions Apollinaire.  Flâner as a meeting of open-minded observation with erudition - nice description.  Schlor also notes how many sources discuss how the growing presence of very bright light combined with the retreat to interior space again, destroyed the art of the flâneur, as the streets became both emptier and less mysterious, less suggestive.  He also notes the general consensus that by 1920 in both Berlin and London, the riotousness, the unpredictability and the frisson of night life was gone, replaced by commercialized, stereotyped entertainments of the night.  Captialism at work...

There is an excellent bibliography at the book for exploring some of this further

Edvard Munch Archetypes - Paloma Alarco

While I still really love much of the work of Munch and enjoyed looking at the reproductions, I found the essays rather pedantic.  I suppose it is more of a scholarly look at his work.  And I do see how they pull the archetypes idea out of his body of work.

I have a couple of problems with this though.
First, his archetypal images of women border on stereotypical - mother whore, innocence temptress,  youth crone.  True, these are enduring images of women dating back to Shakespeare, commedia dell'arte, etc - which could be said about the other archetypes he explores around men and people in general.
I guess the thing I find disturbing is the absolute seriousness with which he portrays these classic tropes - there is no wit, no humour.  These stereotypes date back to commedia dell'arte, some even to ancient Greek theatre, and there, in those times, there was a lot of irreverence and humour injected into the interplay of these archetypical characters.  I find them disturbing, even a bit scary, when presented with such seriousness.

The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario - Peter S. Schmalz

An older book, but a very thorough look at the history of the Ojibwa in Ontario - how they came to settle and move into the former Huron lands, their dominant position vis a vis the Iroquois in Ontario and the north east in general, their role in various conflicts (1812, WWI, WWII).  He also looks at how the government, settlers and Indian Department failed to honour agreements, maintain reserve lands, administer band land and finances to the tribe' advantage.  It is obvious, when you read of Ojibwa being moved off farms they had cleared and settled, that the talk of integrating natives into the white man's world was meaningless.  There are also many examples of Indian Affairs refusing to invest the bands' own money in projects that would have helped economic development, especially when there was the possibility of competing with white businesses.  The primary attitude and motivation all along on the part of whites has been greed - greed for the native's land, and for any money or economic benefits coming from that land.
The book follows the history up to the 90's and traces the gradual development after WWII of Native activism and a stronger voice in insisting on treaty rights and self-determination.
This chronicle of the willful robbery of their property and wealth guaranteed by treaty rights over the many decades highlights why Natives need a new deal, as well as vast amounts of cash recompense.

The Toronto Carrying Place - Glenn Turner

A nice bit of local historical work brought to life by an actual ramble along a rough route of the old Carrying Place portage.  Turner works in a lot of early native and settler history along the way, with glimpses of how that history lingers even today.
There are some sections he mentions near the top of the trail by the Holland River that sound like they might be worth walking.
(Book is on my Kindle)

Macedonia and the Macedonians - Andrew Rossos

An excellent overview of Macedonian history from ancient times to the present.  It answered many of the questions I had about how Macedonia came to be such an important part of Balkan, and modern European, history.
Excellent discussion of how, over many years, the Macedonian people struggled to assert their identity and establish a homeland in spite of almost constant resistance from Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia.  Quite an accomplishment, actually.  Really the work of the people themselves, as they had no foreign sponsors, no Macedonian church, no strong political elite or association for most of their history.
There is also some interesting discussion of Macedonia's place in Yugoslavia - the Yugoslavian communists were the first (and only) to recognize Macedonians as a distinct ethnic group and support the establishment of a Macedonian state.
Didn't read every detail of the 20th century ins and outs of the struggle, but the book is well set up for skimming, with a summary at the beginning of each more detailed chapter.

Why Nations Fail - Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

A brilliant analyses of the state of many of the world's countries based on the nature of the economic and political structures within the country, and also the relationship between the two.
They analyze many examples to back up their central ideas.
They analyze both economics and governments based on two polar opposites which are different aspects of the same dichotomy.  Economically, there are inclusive or extractive structures operating.  Politically, there are inclusive or exclusive/oligarchic/dictatorial structures in place.  Inclusive economic structures encourage the dispersion of wealth through society, extractive structures concentrate wealth at the top.  Inclusive structures encourage innovation, economic renewal/evolution and competition.  Exclusive structures discourage investment and promote stasis and stagnation, as change threatens the economic and political elite.  Same for exclusive/inclusive political structures. Oligarchic or dictatorial political structures can promote strong short-term growth as they can dictate where resources, both financial and human, are directed.  The growth does not last, though, because of the tendency towards stasis and economic stagnation to guard positions of privilege.
They analyze various political and economic structures - colonialism and post-colonial government and economics, Stalin, Britain, China, and others - within their parameters, and a lot of it makes sense.  I find I am seeing current events and history in a different light using these concepts.

There are also several sections on a question that has puzzled me for quite some time - how the British ended up developing this particular democratic system in combination with a strong economy.  An interesting read.

Some other ideas worth considering - the importance of a centralized state as a prerequisite for inclusive economic and political structures.  Centralized states can go both ways, but without centralized power there is no chance for inclusive structures.  Everything is just chaos and infighting.

Another is the sheer chance of Britain and Europe developing the systems they now have.  They talk about critical historical junctures, or moments of possible conflict - which forces win is not a forgone conclusion.   If you are lucky, the inclusive forces win and life improves for most people.  If not...
It also makes you realize that the continued existence of inclusive structures and economies is not a given; they can be slowly eroded by small changes in laws and regulations - I think you see this happening to a degree in the U.S. for the past decade or two.

The ideas in this book also make you realize the enormous difficulties of changing exclusive structures in failed and failing states, as these structures often have very deep historical roots.  Our current structures are the result of centuries of slow change and growth - it is close to impossible to impose these in a country in a short time, especially if the elites benefit from the existing exclusive structures.

Another idea that strikes me is that most people on the planet live in extractive economic structures of varying degrees, and with no real political or social power.  I can't imagine what it is like to live in a society where you are seen as something to be exploited (labour, taxes) and where the government has absolutely no care taking function.  Pirate states...