The Non Fiction Roundup

I just finished reading Hugh Brogan's new biography of Alexis de Tocqueville. Well written with sharply drawn characters and lively accounts of the France's political and social upheavals in the first half of the 19th century, it's worth reading for the student of history and the lay reader. A broad familiarity with French history is a plus, though (I wish I knew more about the July Monarchy).

A new book about Reconstruction by journalist and historian Stephen Budiansky, "The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox," was recently reviewed favorably by the Times. Budiansky is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and former foreign editor of U.S. News and World Report; he has written on topics ranging from dogs and horses to Elizabethan spies. In his latest work he charts the failure of Reconstruction in the face of Southern resistance and Northern apathy. Budiansky tells the story mostly through the correspondence and writings of several Northerners, some eye witnesses, some active participants. Definitely worth checking out, if only for these contemporary voices. Eric Foner's 1990 classic, "A Short History of Reconstruction," is still the word on the subject.

Ayesha Siddiqa's "Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy" has been making waves at home and abroad (it was banned in Pakistan) for its analysis of Pakistan's extralegal military economy. The implications for the "war on terror" and our alliance with this unstable country are far-reaching.

"The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" is a superb account of today's court by Jeffrey Toobin. More a crackling character study than a conventional history of the court and its constituents' stances, Toobin's book manages to bring the shadowy priesthood of the highest court in the land to vivid life. This came out last year, but it's too good not to mention.

"The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World," by FT columnist Tim Hartford, tries to show that all human decisions are founded on logical choices. What exactly that means, I'd have to find out by actually reading the book's 255 pages. Although you can disagree with rational choice theory, as I do, it's still worth taking a look at this cogent defense of it.