“The Knights of the Order: St. John * Jerusalem * Rhodes * Malta”, by Ernle Bradford

 

245 pages, Dorset Press, ISBN-13: 978-0880297271

The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem – or, if you prefer, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani…or maybe Cavalieri dell’Ordine dell’Ospedale di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme…more simply the Order of Saint John, the Order of Hospitallers, the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights Hospitalier or just Hospitallers – c’mon, just pick one, already! – is the world’s oldest order of chivalry. A modern-day hospice group originally founded to care for the sick and the poor in the Holy Land during the Crusades, the Knights of St. John later rose up to seize the sword of Christendom in the war against Islam. Uprooted from Jerusalem…then from Rhodes…and then again from Malta…the Order survives into the present day where knights – or perhaps “knights” is more appropriate – have redefined their charitable mission by serving as medical and relief workers all over the world – even the Near and Middle East, the very countries against which they once took up arms (oh, irony, how I love ya). The Knights of the Order: St. John * Jerusalem * Rhodes * Malta by Ernle Bradford recounts such famous battles as the Siege of Malta – in which a contingent of 9,000 Knights routed an overwhelming Ottoman force of 40,000 led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent – and all of the other more famous things the Knights have done throughout the centuries. And as far as it goes, it’s alright; just a general history of a knightly order that is not only still in existence, but that is still pursuing its original aim of caring for the sick and the infirm…and not slaughtering the infidel on the side. For a deeper, more in-depth history, I’m just going to have to look elsewhere. I’ll let you know.

“A History of Russia”, by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky

 

776 pages, Oxford University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0195121797

The late Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of numerous books on Russian history and European intellectual history; his book, A History of Russia, has been reissued several times (my version is, in fact, the 6^th Edition). Widely acclaimed as the best one-volume survey text available, this book does what it sets out to do: present the whole span of Russia’s history in one volume, a history that spans the origins of the Kievan Rus state and the building of an empire, to Soviet Russia, to the successor states and beyond. Drawing on both primary sources and major interpretive works, my 6^th Edition updates its existing coverage of the social, economic, cultural, political and military events of Russia’s past, and even includes a new chapter on the post-Gorbachev era, as well as helpful updated bibliographies and reading source lists. I gotta tell ya that it’s a damn shame that Riasanovsky has kicked off, for while my 6^th Edition examines several contemporary Russian issues – such as the rise of Yeltsin, the nationalities question and Russia’s attempts to market capitalism – it is, of course, silent on Putin’s rise and the failure of democracy to catch hold in Russia. Oh, my beloved 6^th Edition takes the study of Russia straight into the new millennium, continuing A History of Russia’s nearly forty-year track record as the leader in the field, but how I would love to hear Nick’s take on all that has happened lately.

“Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy”, by James Fallows

 

296 pages, Pantheon, ISBN-13: 978-0679442097

While first published way the hell back in 1996, James Fallows’ Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy is still sadly (pathetically) all too relevant even today. His account of contemporary American media is a painstakingly detailed and thoughtful dissection of how, where and why the media has gone awry. In his careful deconstruction of the MSM, he explains how the politicization of the news is not necessarily a result of an increasingly corrupt public sector, but rather as a result of media celebrities incapable or unwilling to keep up with the very news they’re reporting. He also discusses at length the buying of journalists (through the pundit lecture circuit) and the disenfranchisement of the American people from their government as a result of the media’s partisan irresponsibility.

Farrows looks not only at contemporary circumstances, but examines the history which led us to this point, and how technology, money and the expansion of available knowledge at such an accelerated pace serve to encourage a waning of professional ethics on the part of the media. He also looks at how a media lacking credibility which chooses to focus on issues tangential to the public interest undermines the American public and the objectives of American democracy. The majority of this book helped to quantify a lot of what was bothering me about the press, then and now. Something just didn’t feel right, and while I could explain some of it, I was at a loss to put into words just what was bothering me. This book really helped to bring clarity to my intuition, with the added bonus of some awareness of some things that I hadn’t noticed.