Joseph Stieb (Author of The Regime Change Consensus)

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 " You got it! "
May 22, 2026 07:20PM · see review
Joseph Stieb is now friends with Nate
May 22, 2026 11:59AM · like
Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 by James Shapiro	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The main thing I learned about this book is that it is maddeningly difficult to connect Shakespeare's life and context to the content of his plays. He was, after all, someone who made his living writing a lot of plays. Shapiro details the political a ...more
May 20, 2026 07:06AM · 3 likes · like · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific by Robert Leckie	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A remarkable book, maybe the best combat/war memoir I've ever read (it's certainly up there). Leckie is a vivid, beautiful and funny narrator who communicates the pathos, bathos, and sheer grime of the Pacific War and life in the Marines. Leckie foug ...more
May 16, 2026 12:41PM · 1 like · like · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book liked it The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Thought this was fine. The book is pulpy and goes fast, but it does feel a bit corny even though books like this have obviously been hugely influential. The characters are pretty good, and there are some decent laughs. But I was expecting a better my ...more
May 14, 2026 09:42AM · 1 like · like · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery by Siddharth Kara	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Really good book! I thought the first half kind of meandered around too much, but I suppose SK had to provide background on the triangular trade for the general reader. I wasn't aware of the horrific story of the Zorg and its consequences for the tra ...more
May 11, 2026 07:11PM · 11 likes · like · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This was wild, sprawling, darkly, confusing, and singular; a reflection of the Vietnam War in literature if there ever was one. In some ways, the book is kind of a mess, with some plot lines that overlap and others that's kind of drift off, a decent ...more
May 09, 2026 05:15PM · 3 likes · like · see review
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History " It's very good! Oh, I think I meant to say that they believe economic development must always take a back seat to strategic/ideological imperatives. ...more "
May 09, 2026 05:15PM · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History by Vali Nasr	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Really useful and timely book. Nasr enhanced my understanding of Iranian grand strategy since the 80s considerably as well as my grasp on IRanian history. He makes a few big points in this fairly slim book: First, he identifies the Iran-Iraq War as th ...more
May 09, 2026 08:26AM · 7 likes · like · see review
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of Alexander Hamilton " good calls "
May 07, 2026 08:00AM · see review

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606

" You got it! "

Joseph Stieb is now friends with Nate

Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it

The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606
by James Shapiro

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The main thing I learned about this book is that it is maddeningly difficult to connect Shakespeare's life and context to the content of his plays. He was, after all, someone who made his living writing a lot of plays. Shapiro details the political a ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific
by Robert Leckie

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

A remarkable book, maybe the best combat/war memoir I've ever read (it's certainly up there). Leckie is a vivid, beautiful and funny narrator who communicates the pathos, bathos, and sheer grime of the Pacific War and life in the Marines. Leckie foug ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book liked it

The Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Thought this was fine. The book is pulpy and goes fast, but it does feel a bit corny even though books like this have obviously been hugely influential. The characters are pretty good, and there are some decent laughs. But I was expecting a better my ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
by Siddharth Kara

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Really good book! I thought the first half kind of meandered around too much, but I suppose SK had to provide background on the triangular trade for the general reader. I wasn't aware of the horrific story of the Zorg and its consequences for the tra Really good book! I thought the first half kind of meandered around too much, but I suppose SK had to provide background on the triangular trade for the general reader. I wasn't aware of the horrific story of the Zorg and its consequences for the transatlantic slave trade. The Zorg was a slaving vessel that left Guinea on its way to the Caribbean. It was overloaded with slaves and undermanned with crew. It ran into a storm that destroyed a good deal of its water supplies, and then the captain became delirious. A brute named Stubbs then became de facto captain, and he made a longitudinal error that caused him to miss Jamaica, a safe port for British ships. The crew of the Zorg then decided to start throwing enslaved people overboard so that there would be enough water to save some of the "cargo" and still turn a profit. They arrived in Jamaica with crew and slaves near starvation and soon parted.

This crime likely would have disappeared to history if not for the greed of the Gregson Company, which filed suit under its insurance policy for payment for lost cargo. They claimed that it was weather and other unforeseen circumstances that forced the massacre of the slaves. Abolitionists like Oladuh Equiano, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp immediately latched onto this horrific case and publicized it across Britain and beyond to highlight the barbarity of the slave trade. The witnesses, however, flubbed their testimony, and it soon became clear that the critical problem in the Zorg's fate wasn't bad weather but the navigational error. Furthermore, one witness testified that it had in fact rained before half of the slaves were murdered, showing definitively that this was a crime and not an unavoidable economic necessity.

The shipping company lost their appeal, but more importantly, the Zorg became emblematic of the horrors of the slave trade. It was well known around the transatlantic world, and it lent momentum to the burgeoning anti-slave trade movement, which finally succeeded in abolishing the trade in 1808. This was a major step toward the abolition of British slavery entirely in 1833 because abolishing the slave trade made it much harder to supply the British Caribbean plantations with new laborers (it was also, in some ways, an implicit admission that slavery was immoral).

This is a compelling and moving story that more people should know. SK tells it well and succinctly. Highly recommended! ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it

Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This was wild, sprawling, darkly, confusing, and singular; a reflection of the Vietnam War in literature if there ever was one. In some ways, the book is kind of a mess, with some plot lines that overlap and others that's kind of drift off, a decent ...more

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History

" It's very good!

Oh, I think I meant to say that they believe economic development must always take a back seat to strategic/ideological imperatives. ...more "

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History
by Vali Nasr

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Really useful and timely book. Nasr enhanced my understanding of Iranian grand strategy since the 80s considerably as well as my grasp on IRanian history. He makes a few big points in this fairly slim book:

First, he identifies the Iran-Iraq War as th Really useful and timely book. Nasr enhanced my understanding of Iranian grand strategy since the 80s considerably as well as my grasp on IRanian history. He makes a few big points in this fairly slim book:

First, he identifies the Iran-Iraq War as the formative event/period for Iranian, even more than the Iranian Revolution. While the new theocratic leadership of Iran entered power with a strong ideological drive to spread their revolution, the war with Iraq shifted priorities much more toward nationalism and resistance to outside invaders and interlopers. Moreover, the war with Iraq strengthened the alliance between the mullahs and the military, including the IRGC, and led to the finishing off of the Iranian left and other challengers to the regime. The war with Iraq permitted a consolidation of the Revolution but also a moderation of its goals, to some extent, to more conventional matters of sovereignty and regional influence. Still, Nasr emphasizes that from the beginning, the Ayatollah believed that Istiqlal, or independence from outside powers, was as important as any drive to spread the pan-Islamic revolution. This makes a lot of sense given Iran's experience with imperialism and outside interference from the British, US, and Russians.

Next, Nasr discusses the ongoing trade-off in Iranian foreign policy between security/resistance and development. The Rafsanjani and Khatami prime ministerships led to something of a cooling of revolutionary fervor, and the nation focused more on modernization and economic development. But there was always a short leash for the technocratic modernizers, who were seen by the clerics as letting Western influence into the country. The clerics and the hardliners who run the IRGC and othe security services believe

The War on Terror and the foolish US antagonizing of Iraq after 9/11 (which forfeited an opportunity for rapprochement after the attacks) led Iran to adopt a grand strategy of forward defense that focused on 1. asymmetrical capabilities, including nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles 2. alliances with militias and terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iraqi Shia groups. 3. Using those groups to tie down and bleed the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other anti-Iranian states. Iran has also allied with Syria and Russia as part of this larger "axis of resistance" to the US-led coalition in the region.

Forward defense, however, has had high costs. For one, it has provoked sanctions from much of the international community and stoked the fears of Israel and the Gulf States, driving them even closer to the US and paving the way for both unconventional and conventional (as we see now) strikes to contain Iranian power. Iran may be pursuing a fairly realist grand strategy (this is at least Nasr's argument), but it continues to speak the language of revolution, including genocidal threats against Israel, so it's not surprising that everyone is afraid/resentment of them. These sanctions have cost Iran's economy and standard of living dearly, creating a gap between the strategy of forward defense and the people's willingness to pay the costs of that strategy (along with putting up with the regime's suffocating theocratic rule). Furthermore, by siding with the Assad government in its brutal civil war, Iran sacrificed much of its public image in the region.

There's a lot more to unpack from this excellent book, including a great chapter that argues that the JCPOA failed not because the deal was inherently unworkable but because it did not address the deeper geopolitical problems of the region (and wasn't terribly popular in the US, Iran, Israel, and the Gulf States). This is a great book for putting the current conflict and the Iranian crackdown in January of this year in context. It's also reasonably short and strikes a nice balance between informing the general reader and engaging with the views of specialists. ...more