Joseph Stieb (Author of The Regime Change Consensus)

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States by Kori Schake	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
I thought this was outstanding. Civ-mil relations seems like a dry field until you dig into it and realize that it addresses profound questions of American identity and constitutional government. Schake argues that there's a simple test as to whether ...more
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Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing GODDESS OF THE MARKET by Burns	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
An outstanding book by an outstanding historians. Burns chronicles the bizarre ideas and fascinating life of Rand, who is probably one of the most influential thinkers on the right in the 20th and 21st centuries because of the massive popularity of h ...more
Mar 08, 2026 04:35PM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of GODDESS OF THE MARKET by Burns. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — GODDESS OF THE MARKET by Burns <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension " Ugh! As a basketball player, it was non-stop cringe to me (hope you are well btw). "
Mar 08, 2026 03:08PM · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it The War on Terror (Short Histories) by Andrew Thomson	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
I'm reviewing this for a website later, so my short review is that A. This would make a valuable teaching tool B. It's a huge accomplishment to competently sumamrize the GWOT in 160 pages C. I still have some interpretive differences about the GWOT w ...more
Mar 04, 2026 04:59PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The War on Terror by Andrew Thomson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The War on Terror by Andrew Thomson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing A Fate Worse than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War by W. Fitzhugh Brundage	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
Excellent and thoroughly researched history of Civil War prisons, a largely overlooked aspect of Civil War history. This is not a glorious or inspiring history, but rather one of inhumanity and bureaucratic callousness. Brundage argues that the horro ...more
Mar 04, 2026 09:42AM · 5 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Fate Worse than Hell by W. Fitzhugh Brundage. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Fate Worse than Hell by W. Fitzhugh Brundage <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis	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
Very good, almost great! This is a parable-like story of a group of girls with no parents whom the local villagers come to believe are turning into hounds at night and causing chaos. Things escalate as paranoia and resentment grow. Purvis creates a g ...more
Mar 01, 2026 07:52AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind " interesting...I suppose he means that few people have Tucker's sense of where the money/opportunities are at and are totally lacking in scruples? ...more "
Mar 01, 2026 07:48AM · see review
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of American Samurai: Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941–1951 " Even Dower I think goes overboard with that argument. But yes, as a study of a single-unit across time, it's very good. Also: wow, I didn't know that a ...more "
Mar 01, 2026 07:47AM · see review
Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert (Goodreads Author)	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 really incisive look at women in popular culture from the late 1980s through the 2010s. Gilbert argues that the wave of independent female artists of the 1980s (the archetype being Madonna, but also more defiant punk movements like Riot Girl and ma ...more
Feb 27, 2026 06:59AM · 3 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost " I know! This could have been a 200 page intervention and more people would have read it. "
Feb 26, 2026 11:43AM · see review

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

The State and the Soldier by Kori Schake

The State and the Soldier: A History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States
by Kori Schake

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I thought this was outstanding. Civ-mil relations seems like a dry field until you dig into it and realize that it addresses profound questions of American identity and constitutional government. Schake argues that there's a simple test as to whether I thought this was outstanding. Civ-mil relations seems like a dry field until you dig into it and realize that it addresses profound questions of American identity and constitutional government. Schake argues that there's a simple test as to whether a democracy's civ-mil relations are functioning: A. Can the civilian leadership remove/replace military leaders at their discretion? B. Do military leaders obey the legal orders they don't like from civilians?

This may seem minimalistic, and it is, but it's a helpful structure for thinking about the essence of civilian control. If these things aren't true, then you have a civ-mil crisis, but you need a lot more than these things to have a fully functional and robust civ-mil system, including trust, communication, understandings of each other's tasks/realms, the integration of political goals and military objectives, and the involvement of Congress in structuring the military itself. =

There are also things that the military can do that approach the line of violating civ-mil principles but don't quite get there. For example, there's nothing inherently wrong with military leaders doing some politicking and advocacy for their service's interests or a certain strategic approach as long as their opinions are being solicited by Congress, policymakers, or to some extent the media. Once the decision is made, however, they have an obligation to support the policy in public or resign. Military leaders can also shirk, or slow-roll the execution of policies they don't like; this isn't quite defiance but can have the same effect. A lot of civ-mil relations comes down to this kind of ambiguous competition/interaction, although there are also clear red lines that must not be crossed.

Civ-mil studies can get a little theoretical at times, which is why I enjoyed Schake's robust history of civ-mil relations. There are dozens of case studies, starting with the principles set down by the Constitution and exemplified in the person of George Washington, that allow Schake to illustrate the core dynamics of civ-mil relations. In most cases, military leaders come close to the line but don't quite cross it; the big exception was MacArthur, who publicly disagreed with Truman's strategy in Korea and thereby challenged civilian control. His firing was an important reaffirmation of civilian supremacy, which is an essential constitutional principle.

Anyways, this is a great text for both advanced historians and for students, as it is quite accessible but still challenging. It gives just enough of the theory of civ-mil to inform the reader, but it sticks to history for the most part. And it reaches a bold but correct conclusion that the stability of civ-mil relations is one of the great success stories of American democracy. We created a powerful military that, for the vast majority of its history, has not been a threat to democracy itself. Trump is now threatening that tradition through unrelenting politicization of the military; this book offers important historical insights into why his actions are so dangerous. ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

GODDESS OF THE MARKET
by Burns

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An outstanding book by an outstanding historians. Burns chronicles the bizarre ideas and fascinating life of Rand, who is probably one of the most influential thinkers on the right in the 20th and 21st centuries because of the massive popularity of h An outstanding book by an outstanding historians. Burns chronicles the bizarre ideas and fascinating life of Rand, who is probably one of the most influential thinkers on the right in the 20th and 21st centuries because of the massive popularity of her novels (which are terrible, btw). Rand is a good example of someone whose ideas don't really make any sense but who finds a niche within a culture that makes her influential.

Her philosophy was essentially one of radical individualism and selfishness, which to a great extent seems like a reaction to her childhood in the Soviet Union. Rand's parents were bourgeois Jews, and her father's business was appropriated (i.e. stolen) by the Soviet state, plunging her family into poverty. She escaped to the US, where she became a movie screenwriter and then novelist. Her novels are fast paced, popcorny-fare that are incredibly didactic; they are little more than vehicles for explaining her philosophy, which make them inferior as literature. But, as Burns argued, she did become a sort of gateway drug to the right or to libertarianism for smart but somewhat disaffected young people who believed big government was stifling creativity and entrepreneurship. I've always thought that it's a sign of a weak intellect to like Rand past the age of about 20, but she clearly reached millions of people and was a major factor in the making of the modern right.

Rand, however, was incredibly ornery and hard to categorize, in part because she refused to be categorized and insisted that her philosophy of objectivism was an air-tight, perfect system. She didn't identify with libertarians because she thought they were too squishy and because they often challenged her ideas. She despised religion and abortion, which meant she couldn't fit with the mainstream conservative movement of William F. Buckley. She was anti-government and anti-war, which again created conflicts with the mainstream right. She was basically a misogynist who worshipped male strength (including disgusting rape scenes in her books that are passed off as sexy male domination) and believed the feminist movement was mere victimhood culture.

She essentially derided anything that smacked of collectivism, but at the same time, in her inner circles she recreated the dynamics of totalitarianism that her philosophy was supposed to counteract. She ruled over a small circle of deep admirers and created cult-like cells around the country, where objectivism was taught as gospel truth. There was not only a correct set of ideas, but a correct set of music, movies, and art. She and her top lieutenants humiliated and ostracized those who deviated from orthodoxy. Despite her worship of rationality, she was exceedingly emotional (mostly angry). She was fundamentally uninterested in intellectual exchange. And she was wildly cruel to her own husband; at one point, she demanded that he let her have an affair with a much younger man. She then required him to leave the house for several hours each week so they could have their liaisons. This, I should add, is only the tip of the iceberg of her bizarre and authoritarian personality.

Rand was, in short, an ideologue and a basically bad person who invented elaborate defenses for selfishness. She had a totally closed worldview and became even more doctrinaire over time. Nonetheless, the history of ideas isn't necessarily the history of good ideas. We have to study the kooks, axe-grinders, and other assorted weirdos to understand why they resonate with people and how they shape the world. In this regard, Burns' book is a dramatic success and a fascinating study. ...more

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

There's Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

" Ugh! As a basketball player, it was non-stop cringe to me (hope you are well btw). "

Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it

The War on Terror (Short Histories)
by Andrew Thomson

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I'm reviewing this for a website later, so my short review is that A. This would make a valuable teaching tool B. It's a huge accomplishment to competently sumamrize the GWOT in 160 pages C. I still have some interpretive differences about the GWOT w ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

A Fate Worse than Hell by W. Fitzhugh Brundage

A Fate Worse than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War
by W. Fitzhugh Brundage

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Excellent and thoroughly researched history of Civil War prisons, a largely overlooked aspect of Civil War history. This is not a glorious or inspiring history, but rather one of inhumanity and bureaucratic callousness. Brundage argues that the horro Excellent and thoroughly researched history of Civil War prisons, a largely overlooked aspect of Civil War history. This is not a glorious or inspiring history, but rather one of inhumanity and bureaucratic callousness. Brundage argues that the horrors of CW prisons were not accidental results of the chaos of war, but conscious and predictable policy decisions. Andersonville, for example, was set up with basically no infrastructure for housing, feeding, and providing medical treatment to soldiers. Camp administrators were callous at the top down, setting the tone that prisons would receive minimal support and accept massive death from disease and starvation as a matter of course. Captain Henry Wirz of Andersonville was of course callous, but his callousness reflected larger policy, for which he paid the ultimate price when he was executed after the war.

A few interesting themes stand out in this book. For example, Civil War POW practices marked a significant break in the history of warfare because of the collapse of parole and exchange systems that had defined most of warfare to this date. Most pre-modern or even early modern states had little desire or capacity to take and hold prisoners; they either killed, enslaved, paroled, or ransomed them. But in the Civil War, the initial system of paroling prisoners collapsed when the Confederacy decided to refuse to treat black soldiers as legitimate POWs, instead either killing them or enslaving them. Lincoln made the noble and politically costly decision that US soldiers would all be treated alike. This gummed up the transfer/parole system and led to the construction of massive camps on both sides. The U.S. camps were more well-administered but still deadly; the Confederacy's camps quickly became hellholes where tens of thousands died.

Brundage vividly shows what life was like in these camps, which became important precedents for the surge of concentration-type camps around the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These prisons approached teh status of "total institutions," which simultaneous controlled and deprived their inmates. This was a major growth in the power of the state, one with terrifying consequences.

The Civil War camps, however, fell rapidly out of American memory. They are in no way heroic, in contrast to campaigns and battles. They were also the sites of the most gratuitous harms that Americans did to each other in this conflict. As national memory moved toward reconciliationism and the denial that the war was about slavery, the desire to memorialize the suffering of POWs or highlight the crimes of people like Wirz or Winder faded. As a result, many prison sites were neglected or even razed, and the prisons took up little space in public education about the war. It wasn't until a surge in interest in POWs after the Vietnam War that more attention was paid to Andersonville and other camps, leading to the building of the National POW Museum in the 1990s (which still paid little attention to the Civil War and focused instead on Vietnam and WWI.

Anyways, great book for people interested in the Civil War or the general topic of carcerality. ...more

Joseph Stieb rated a book really liked it

The Hounding
by Xenobe Purvis

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Very good, almost great! This is a parable-like story of a group of girls with no parents whom the local villagers come to believe are turning into hounds at night and causing chaos. Things escalate as paranoia and resentment grow. Purvis creates a g ...more

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind

Hated by All the Right People by Jason Zengerle

" interesting...I suppose he means that few people have Tucker's sense of where the money/opportunities are at and are totally lacking in scruples? ...more "

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of American Samurai: Myth and Imagination in the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division 1941–1951

" Even Dower I think goes overboard with that argument. But yes, as a study of a single-unit across time, it's very good.

Also: wow, I didn't know that a ...more "

Joseph Stieb rated a book it was amazing

Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves
by Sophie Gilbert (Goodreads Author)

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A really incisive look at women in popular culture from the late 1980s through the 2010s. Gilbert argues that the wave of independent female artists of the 1980s (the archetype being Madonna, but also more defiant punk movements like Riot Girl and ma A really incisive look at women in popular culture from the late 1980s through the 2010s. Gilbert argues that the wave of independent female artists of the 1980s (the archetype being Madonna, but also more defiant punk movements like Riot Girl and mature singers like Alanis Morrisette) were gradually replaced with bubble-gum, teen-pop idols who were more malleable, didn't have anything to say, and catered to male desires rather than challenging them. This shift took place as post-feminism took hold of American culture in the 1990s and 2000s. Post feminism is different than anti-feminism because it isn't hostile to feminism; rather, it see feminism as having won already and therefore rendered redundant.

2000s popular culture hammered in a post-feminism that was actually extremely sexist and degrading to women. This included the increasing centrality of porn to music, fashion, language, movies, and other pop culture areas. She shows how porn's language and tropes increasingly infiltrated all of culture, with a particularly keen analysis of its impacts on the fashion industry. She examines the hyper-scrutiny of women's bodies in this period and the fetish for super-skinniness. She looks at reality TV's emphasis on public humiliation and reducing women to stereotypes. There were countervailing trends throughout all of this, but over the tendency of popular culture between 1990 and the 2010s was to set feminism back and pave the way for the Trumpian misogynistic resurgence. This was, essentially, because the levers of cultural production still remain largely in men's hands, which can be demonstrated by looking at who writes TV shows and movies, runs the high fashion industry, etc.

This book resonated with me in large part because Gilbert and I are around the same age, and I remembered so many aspects of the argument, although I hadn't put much thought into critically analyzing them. As someone raised in a very male centric family who then went to an all-boys school, this book was insightful for how popular culture pressured and manipulated women my age. Anyways, I think this is an important and useful book, and it's not terribly long either! ...more

Joseph Stieb made a comment on his review of The Allure of Battle: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost

" I know! This could have been a 200 page intervention and more people would have read it. "

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