April - 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #85: Combat, My Years in the US Senate

Joe Pace

Apr 30, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #85: Combat, My Years in the US Senate

New Hampshire used to be a Republican state. Reliably red, as was the rest of New England. Even Massachusetts ("where Lodges speak only to Cabots, and Cabots speak only to God"). Now, of course, New England is a Democratic stronghold, and even rock-ribbed New Hampshire is a bluing shade of purple. That Republicanism in NH was never ideologically conservative in the modern sense as much as it was leave-me-the-hell-alone proto-Libertarianism, curmudgeonly Yankee communitarian t

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #84: Marvel, The Characters and Their Universe

Joe Pace

Apr 29, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #84: Marvel, The Characters and Their Universe

In a couple of hours I'm heading to soak up the experience of Avengers: Endgame, the capstone of the unprecedented and magnificent continuing experiment that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I've managed to avoid any spoilers thus far - being out of the country helped - and I'm giddy with anticipation. I understand and appreciate how widely shared the love for the MCU is. It's well-earned; Marvel has redefined cinematic storytelling and set a standard that its longtime rival

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #83: The History of Iceland

Joe Pace

Apr 19, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #83: The History of Iceland

Part of the fun of travel is doing the homework ahead of time. I’ve always tried to cultivate some level of understanding of areas I’m about to visit - Mexico, Hungary, New Zealand, etc - I find that it heightens my enjoyment of the trip. So I’ve been working my way through Karlsson’s well-regarded one-volume history of the island nation (Karlsson is a professor of history at the University of Iceland). Iceland has a history unique among European nations given its founding du

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #82: American Reformers, 1815-1860

Joe Pace

Apr 18, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #82: American Reformers, 1815-1860

I've made mention before on this list - and will again, with some of the books I've yet to cover - of my fascination with the era of the early American republic. This was a time when two forces emerged that continue to shape who we are as a nation: the commercial or market revolution that cemented aggressive capitalism as the primary tenet of our national economy, and the Second Great Awakening that installed robust Protestant evangelicalism as our default faith. These forces

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #81: Fatal Shore, the Epic of Australia's Founding

Joe Pace

Apr 17, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #81: Fatal Shore, the Epic of Australia's Founding

I've never been to Australia. I've spent some weeks in New Zealand, and adore it, but I've never visited big brother down under. One might wonder why I didn't make the trip when I was in the neighborhood years ago, but it's not as close as one might imagine. It's not unlike visiting Boston and thinking "I'll just swing by Miami". Auckland to Sydney is a similar distance. Despite never having set foot there, I have maintained an interest in the history of the world's biggest i

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #80: Robert's Rules of Order

Joe Pace

Apr 16, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #80: Robert's Rules of Order

Back in high school, I had the great opportunity to participate in the YMCA Youth & Government program. More than a mock legislature, this was a youth house, a youth senate, a youth executive council, a youth governor. Heck, a youth judiciary and youth press corps. It's one of the more awesome programs I've ever been a part of, and I've seen my share. It was during my sophomore year as member of the general court from the Exeter High delegation that I fell in love with the ru

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #79: Walking Across America in My 90th Year

Joe Pace

Apr 15, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #79: Walking Across America in My 90th Year

The passing of our friend Mark Connolly has led me to think about some of the people who have made New Hampshire politics such a vibrant and eclectic menagerie. We've had our share of scoundrels and saints, of kind and generous and thoughtful men like Mark and, well, some not so much. There have been characters too, people like Doris "Granny D" Haddock. When she was 88 years old, Granny D set out from California on foot and spent the next fourteen months walking about ten mil

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #78: 1920, The Year of Six Presidents

Joe Pace

Apr 12, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #78: 1920, The Year of Six Presidents

We’re coming up on 2020, and it’s instructive to consider that years ending in zero have provided some of the most momentous presidential elections in American history. 2000: Bush v Gore and the opening act of endless war and unsustainable tax cuts for the wealthy 1980: The Rise of Reagan and the normalization of the poisonous supply-side ideology that enabled him 1960: JFK v Nixon and the bilious marriage of politics and television 1940: FDR’s unprecedented election to a thi

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #77: Puget's Sound

Joe Pace

Apr 11, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #77: Puget's Sound

I'm a New Hampshire guy. I think I probably made that abundantly clear from my Granite State of Mind series a couple of years ago profiling the places in New Hampshire that are important to me (and, you know, the rest of the time). Having had the opportunity to spend extended time in Maryland and Washington while Sarah was on active duty certainly did nothing to diminish my affection for my native state. And yet, there were certainly things I appreciated about the other place

Joe Pace

Apr 10, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #76: 1776

As a quasi-serious historian, I sometimes feel like I should be torn over writers like McCullough and Philbrick. Their work is the USA Today treatment of history, digested and simplified and repackaged to be palatable to a broader audience. And yet I can't find it in me to muster a snobby attitude about mass-market popular history books and authors. For one thing, anything that gets people to read instead of watch the tube is worth it (well, almost anything). In particular, b

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #75: Continental Liar from the State of Maine, James G. Blaine

Joe Pace

Apr 9, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #75: Continental Liar from the State of Maine, James G. Blaine

Federal government in the United States of the 19th century was an overwhelmingly Congressional exercise. Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln aside, the vast majority of energy came from the legislative branch. Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Stevens, Reed. The presidents between Lincoln and McKinley are largely forgotten by most. (I once won a free pass on a history test in college by accepting the challenge to name all of what the professor termed the "cough drop box" presidents from 1

Joe Pace

Apr 8, 2019

Favorite Non-Fiction Books

Favorite Non-Fiction Books, #74: Nudge

It's never been a secret that I'm an incrementalist at heart, that I believe public policy to be an iterative, not revolutionary exercise. This costs me street cred with some on my left, but I also believe that there are multiple roles to play in the mosaic of our community dialogue. Some of us are fated to push the envelope, some to lob idea grenades, some to cleave to policy preferences with unswerving fervor. This moves the debate, to be certain. There are also those of us

1

2

Categories

Archive