The Personal Website of Mark W. Dawson

Book It

Due to underwhelming (sic) demand, I have decided to chirp a monthly recommend books that I have recently read that I think are noteworthy or illuminative. While these books may not always be current, when they are not, I consider them oldies but goodies. For a more extensive list of the books I have read throughout my life please review my article “Further Readings and Literature”.

09/01/20 – The Meaning Of History

Many history books revolve around the times, persons, and actions of historical events or personages. Some history books deal with the meaning of these historical events or personages and their impacts on today’s society. It is these history books that deal with impacts that I find the most interesting and illuminative. The following three books are just such books that deal with President Lincoln and the Civil War. The idiom ‘Food for thought’ is never more apropos than within these books.

• Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction by Allen C. Guelzo
• Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas by Allen C. Guelzo
• Redeeming the Great Emancipator by Allen C. Guelzo

08/01/20 Biography

• Founders' Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Richard Brookhiser
• The Man from Monticello: An Intimate Life of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas J. Fleming
• The Man Who Dared the Lightning: A New Look at Benjamin Franklin by Thomas J. Fleming

07/01/20 Science Topics II

• A Short History of Nearly Everything (Special Illustrated Edition) by Bill Bryson
• The Scientific 100 by John Simmons
• Remarkable Mathematicians from Euler to von Neumann by Ioan James

06/01/20  - Freedom and Liberty

• Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World by Daniel Hannan
• The Cousins' War by Kevin Phillips
• The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty - by Timothy Sandefur

05/01/20 - Statistics and Studies

• Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread From The Data by Charles Wheelan
• The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data by David Spiegelhalter.
• Studies Show: A Popular Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies by John H. Fennick

04/01/20 – America’s Founding

• American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier
• A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution by Carol Berkin
• The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties by Carol Berkin

03/01/20 – Science Topics

• Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans - by Melanie Mitchell.
• Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe - by Peter D. Ward
• Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human - by Richard Wrangham

02/01/20 - Constitutional Guides

• America's Constitution: A Biography 1st Edition by Akhil Reed Amar
• The Constitution: An Introduction by Michael Stokes Paulsen and Luke Paulsen
• The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant 3rd Edition by Robert G. Natelson
• The Heritage Guide to the Constitution: Fully Revised Second Edition by David F. Forte, Matthew Spalding, et al

01/01/20 – Science Critique

• Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder
• The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us by Noson S. Yanofsky
• The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake by Dr. Steven Novella (Author), Bob Novella Cara Santa Maria Jay Novella Evan Bernstein

12/01/19 American History

• Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
• Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man by Timothy Sandefur
• The Souls of Black Folk, Up From Slavery: Two Visions, One Mission by W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T Washington