John Rennie Short's 3 favorite reads in 2023

I was, like many people, trying to make sense of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I heard Timothy Snyder in numerous interviews, so I was keen to read one of his books. This one is a history of the Holocaust. It provides the background to the racist geopolitical ideology that informed Hitler.

But what I found most absorbing was Snyder’s argument that it was in the zones, especially those that had experienced both Soviet then Nazi invasions, where the state had ceased to exist that the killing was most rampant. Non-citizens fared worse than citizens. The surprising conclusion is that the worst barbarism was less the result of the state and more a product of the lack of a state.

The savagery was more intense, where the usual function of the state had been interrupted, overturned, or destroyed. The implications for our political understanding of the role of the state are enormous.

Memorable books are ones like this that make you see the world afresh.

In preparation for visiting Scotland in the summer of 2023, I read this book.

It makes a fascinating argument that this small country on the edge of Europe, in a dazzling and brief burst of intellectual creativity, invented the modern world. It is a huge claim but is backed up in the discussion of how Scots such as Adam Smith invented economics, the geologist James Hutton gave us the idea of deep time, and David Hume was the first philosopher of modernity.

OK I am biased. I was born in Scotland. But even if you did not have the good fortune to be born Scottish, the book is a marvelous read. Packed with details without losing the tight thread of the argument, it is also less of a brag sheet than a careful rendering of complex ideas.

I have read many commentaries on David Hume, for example, and most fail to get the essence of his arguments. Herman’s is one of the most considered, clearest, and most relevant for a general contemporary audience. 

I have long had a plan to write a book on the geopolitics of empire, and so I read lots of books on empire and imperialism. I came across this one some years ago, but I continue to read it. Some books are best dipped it over time.

This 4-volume encyclopedia is a great one for dipping into. The entries are arranged alphabetically and written by experts with a useful guide to further reading. The superb scholarship is matched by clear writing.

There are the usual suspects, such as the Aztec, British, and Chinese empires, as well the less known, at least to me, of the Bulgarian Medieval Empire, the Hittites, and the Nogai Horde. There are also thematic entries ranging from cartography and cities to race and sex.

It is my go-to text for general browsing that I return to again and again. Enlightening and entertaining.