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A Hat Trick of Reviews
Apr. 15th, 2013 07:03 pmHey,
So I finished up a series of books over the past couple of weeks and now I hold forth:
First up, Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos. Col. Bogdanos was a New York DA and reserve Marine when 9/11 happened. With his specializations in counter-terrorism and Central Asia experience, he was called back and served a tour in Afghanistan and then on to Iraq where he lead a team of military and law enforcement agents in an effort to recover treasures looted from the Iraqi National Museum. The book covers those efforts.
Well...it talks a lot about his background, his life in the military, his life working for the DA, his time in Afghanistan, and then it finally gets around to the whole "going after looted treasures" thing. I was expecting something a little more procedural and instead I got something more biographical. On the basis of that biography, I wouldn't spend too much time drinking with him, but I'd certainly have at least one. He has a real understanding and passion for artistic and archeological treasures and his efforts certainly helped the museum recover a great deal of its missing treasures. It wasn't quite the book I hoped it would be, but it's an interesting look at one of the many tasks facing America after the fall of Saddam.
Next up, another book about the Iraq war, this time from a very young grunt's perspective. Last summer, I helped a guy with his Kickstarter. Stryker: The Siege of Sadr City by Konrad Ludwig. So Mr. Ludwig decided that he really wanted to fight. He believed in what America was doing and also wanted to test himself in the crucible of combat. So at 17 he tests out of high school and right into the Army. A couple years later, he's assigned to a Stryker Combat Team and sent down to help out with the troop surge. He and his team are sent to deal with the insurgents who control Sadr City.
Young Mr. Ludwig gets his wish to see combat.
I always find these first-hand accounts compelling. The author writes plainly and doesn't flinch from his own mistakes. He's very clearly aware of the toll the job takes on you physically and emotionally but he also shows his convictions and his determination to succeed at a thankless task. I think it's always important to listen to people on the sharp end because we put them there in the first place. Anyway, a solid book.
Finally, a book that's not about soldiers, it's about criminals. In Codes of the Underworld, sociologist Diego Gambetta writes about a fascinating problem -- if you're a criminal, how do you communicate with other criminals? How do you find other criminals to help you carry out illegal activities? How do you do all this without the cops intercepting you?
The author lists a variety of ways that criminals find each other and learn to work together. Displays of strength, displays of weakness or incompetence, mutual blackmail, acting like people from The Godfather, a good long stay in prison, there's a range of methods used in different combinations and in different ways (the yakuza has been able to operate much more openly than the mafia for example).
While an interesting read in its own right, there's a lot of information that can apply more broadly to legal endeavors. How do we build trust with other people? At what point do we betray others? How do we identify those like ourselves?
The book is just a tad dry (the author is very fond of the word "appurtenance"), but it's not pedantic or boring and there's a lot of fascinating information in there. A fun read about a thought-provoking topic.
later
Tom
So I finished up a series of books over the past couple of weeks and now I hold forth:
First up, Thieves of Baghdad by Matthew Bogdanos. Col. Bogdanos was a New York DA and reserve Marine when 9/11 happened. With his specializations in counter-terrorism and Central Asia experience, he was called back and served a tour in Afghanistan and then on to Iraq where he lead a team of military and law enforcement agents in an effort to recover treasures looted from the Iraqi National Museum. The book covers those efforts.
Well...it talks a lot about his background, his life in the military, his life working for the DA, his time in Afghanistan, and then it finally gets around to the whole "going after looted treasures" thing. I was expecting something a little more procedural and instead I got something more biographical. On the basis of that biography, I wouldn't spend too much time drinking with him, but I'd certainly have at least one. He has a real understanding and passion for artistic and archeological treasures and his efforts certainly helped the museum recover a great deal of its missing treasures. It wasn't quite the book I hoped it would be, but it's an interesting look at one of the many tasks facing America after the fall of Saddam.
Next up, another book about the Iraq war, this time from a very young grunt's perspective. Last summer, I helped a guy with his Kickstarter. Stryker: The Siege of Sadr City by Konrad Ludwig. So Mr. Ludwig decided that he really wanted to fight. He believed in what America was doing and also wanted to test himself in the crucible of combat. So at 17 he tests out of high school and right into the Army. A couple years later, he's assigned to a Stryker Combat Team and sent down to help out with the troop surge. He and his team are sent to deal with the insurgents who control Sadr City.
Young Mr. Ludwig gets his wish to see combat.
I always find these first-hand accounts compelling. The author writes plainly and doesn't flinch from his own mistakes. He's very clearly aware of the toll the job takes on you physically and emotionally but he also shows his convictions and his determination to succeed at a thankless task. I think it's always important to listen to people on the sharp end because we put them there in the first place. Anyway, a solid book.
Finally, a book that's not about soldiers, it's about criminals. In Codes of the Underworld, sociologist Diego Gambetta writes about a fascinating problem -- if you're a criminal, how do you communicate with other criminals? How do you find other criminals to help you carry out illegal activities? How do you do all this without the cops intercepting you?
The author lists a variety of ways that criminals find each other and learn to work together. Displays of strength, displays of weakness or incompetence, mutual blackmail, acting like people from The Godfather, a good long stay in prison, there's a range of methods used in different combinations and in different ways (the yakuza has been able to operate much more openly than the mafia for example).
While an interesting read in its own right, there's a lot of information that can apply more broadly to legal endeavors. How do we build trust with other people? At what point do we betray others? How do we identify those like ourselves?
The book is just a tad dry (the author is very fond of the word "appurtenance"), but it's not pedantic or boring and there's a lot of fascinating information in there. A fun read about a thought-provoking topic.
later
Tom
