Reading, pt. 2

Yesterday, I finished the second of two books I have read on my own this semester.

This is compared to 6-8 I would have had time to read during my undergraduate years. One of those expressions people like to repeat is that "the law is a jealous mistress". I definitely understand now what those people were talking about, because my free time to devote to reading and personal enrichment has been about a third of what it used to be. If you are in undergrad and reading this, and thinking about law school, be prepared to work your tail off, because that's what you'll be doing in law school, and in your career as well.

But getting back to reading:

1) The first book I read this semester was Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. He is a professor at UCLA, officially teaching geology, but has a broad range of knowledge in ornithology and environmental history, among other things. The basic premise of his book was that some societies in the past failed, and others succeeded, because of environmental factors. Some of these factors were induced by the population, and some occurred naturally, but different societies responded either successfully or unsuccessfully, thus "choosing" to fail or succeed.

The book is basically structured as a case study of past and present societies, such as the Greenland Norse and Easter Islanders (past), and China and Australia (present). Before each case study, Diamond included a chapter that listed the factors he would consider for each; these were things such as cultural traditions, the way the society made decisions (passed down from chiefs or decided by individuals), and the amount of contact with other cultures or societies, such as through trade. Then for each case study, he ran through the factors to determine what caused the society to collapse, or succeed and survive to the present day. The Greenland Norse and Easter Islanders died out because they depleted their natural resources and lived in almost total isolation from other societies; Tokugawa Japan succeeded because the shoguns regulated deforestation several hundred years ago, and preserved the country's environment.

The last part of the book talked about environmental conditions today-how companies are adopting new, more environmentally-friendly policies, for example, or factors that will either preserve the environment or destroy it.

When I first got into the book and found out it was all about environmental history, my first impression was that it would be another Silent Spring-type book written by another alarmist professor, talking about the proverbial sky was falling unless we began living like cave people and gave up all luxuries or vestiges of modern life. But Diamond's approach was actually pretty reasonable, and I thought he made some good points. One was that it is actually in many corporations' best interests to adopt environmentally sound policies, since it helps with securing contracts in developed and developing countries. Another was that societies have to have the courage and foresight to adapt their behavior to environmental realities, instead of holding on to their cultural traditions at any cost. For example, one Pacific island thrived after the islanders killed their pigs, which were a status symbol even though they harmed the environment, yet the Greenland Norse held on to cows until the very end, which factored into their collapse by starvation in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Overall....a good read, although it took me a long time to read (about 2 months) because of the dense material, and since I only spent about 10-15 minutes a day on it. I would recommend it if you want to learn more about how environmental conditions affect the course of history. It is also a good companion to one of Diamond's other books, Guns, Germs, and Steel.

2) The other book was 1776 by David McCullough, the Pulitzer-Prize winning historian (I will get around to reading his book John Adams soon). 1776 talks about this pivotal year of the Revolutionary War from the British and American perspectives, starting with the political tumult in England over the war, and covering the siege of Boston, the battle for New York, and finishing with Washington's attack on Trenton and crossing of the Delaware.

Instead of having a specific thesis like Diamond, McCullough's book takes the form of a narrative, focusing on the generals (Washington, Henry Knox, and Nathanael Greene for the Americans and William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Charles Cornwallis for the British) and the "regular people" in both armies. It was a spectacular read and I thought it was very entertaining-I read this one in three days over spring break.

I actually had a few thoughts and reflections on the book, that might apply to the Christian experience, law school, or life in general:

A) If there was ever a lesson on confidence you could get from the history books, look to George Washington. Whatever his other failings were, a lack of leadership was definitely not one of them. Washington was the American Revolution. At one point (p. 43), McCullough quotes the patriot Benjamin Rush as saying that he "has so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be a general and a soldier from among 10,000 people."

Not that I come from a military background, but this is the kind of confidence I need to project that I lack too many times. Why? Who knows. All I know is that I need to start acting more confident, then maybe I will be more confident. One of the book's recurring themes was that Washington was miserable and down in his spirits about the war, from all the hardships he faced as commander, but he always kept his chin up and inspired respect when the Glorious Cause was in its darkest days. If you need to exude confidence, there is no better example than that.

B) As a Christian, reading 1776, I was impressed by how God used people like Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene to lead the American army, one of the most important causes in all of human history. Neither was born into wealth or an aristocracy. Knox was an overweight bookseller before the war, who became a highly decorated artillery commander. Greene had a limp from a previous accident, and was not even considered fit to drill with a militia company, yet he ended up being Washington's right-hand man and commanding Continental troops in the South later in the war.

The amazing thing is, the world had written these guys off. Who were they next to William Howe and Lord Cornwallis, rich noblemen who were some of the best military minds in the world? But we all know how the story ends. I believe it was God's hand that gave America its independence, and He used these two men, and so many others, so that we could be free today. This is a lesson too-no matter what your circumstances, no matter what you did before, just put your trust in the Lord and He will make a way. "With God, all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26 KJV).

C) No way to prove this, but there were so many miraculous twists and turns in the story of the American Revolution, that I truly believe God had a hand in it all. Just one example: when Washington's army was surrounded by the British on the edge of Long Island in New York, they were severely outnumbered and had to escape. On land, they were surrounded by the British army, and they had their backs to the East River, where the British fleet could come at any time and trap the army, thus the war would be over and the British would have won. Yet amazingly, the wind blew out of the northeast and kept the British fleet at bay, and shifted to blowing out of the southwest just long enough, and at the exact time, to allow the American army to escape across the river. Not only that, but when not all of the troops got across before dawn, a thick fog settled over the area, preventing an all-out British attack. Coincidence? I don't think it was.

I know this has been a long post, but I will be reading more books in the coming weeks, and posting on them again. Collapse and 1776 were both great, and I hope my schedule allows me to read more again soon.