David Sogge (Author of Give And Take)

David Sogge started reading The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow by Timothy Mitchell	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
May 23, 2026 03:28AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge rated a book really liked it The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leith	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 expansive survey of writings for children (and some grown-ups too) brought much to mind, plucking a few heartstrings along the way, right up to its last page, which features the tearjerking end of E.B. White’s Charlotte‘s Web. But the book also ...more
May 18, 2026 06:54AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge rated a book it was amazing A Stranger in the Land: Jewish Identity Beyond Nationalism by Daniel Cil Brecher	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
May 14, 2026 07:29AM · like
David Sogge rated a book really liked it The United States and the Ends of Empire: Decolonization, Hierarchy, and World Order since 1776 (New Approaches to International History) by Sean T. Byrnes	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 book chronicles and illuminates episodes and trends in US relations with those at receiving ends of its exploitations. Explaining the ways scholars and pundits have approached this contested history isn’t its major purpose, but the book does sig ...more
May 06, 2026 07:54AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The United States and the Ends of Empire by Sean T. Byrnes. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The United States and the Ends of Empire by Sean T. Byrnes <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge made a comment on his review of Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI " Corroborating and extending this book's findings is a report published in April 2026 by the Balanced Economy Project: “Licensed to Loot: Big Finance, ...more "
Apr 27, 2026 04:54AM · see review
David Sogge wants to read The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal	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
Mar 24, 2026 11:26AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge rated a book it was amazing The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization by Martin Thomas	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 is a superb work of prodigious scholarship. Its scope is wide, nearly comprehensive of 20th century histories of the ‘oceanic’ colonial orders (of Britain, France, Portugal, &c; thus not the land-based empires of Turkey, Russia &c.) and of the s ...more
Mar 11, 2026 11:21AM · 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 End of Empires and a World Remade by Martin Thomas. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The End of Empires and a World Remade by Martin Thomas <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge wants to read Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences by Anton Jäger	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
Am an admirer of Jäger's books (see my short take: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) but also find Oliver Eagleton's 2025 critique 'Beyond Hyperpolitics' [https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/...] persuasive. ...more
Mar 07, 2026 03:14AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Hyperpolitics by Anton Jäger. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Hyperpolitics by Anton Jäger <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge wants to read The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism by Clara E. Mattei	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
Mar 05, 2026 04:37AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Capital Order by Clara E. Mattei. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Capital Order by Clara E. Mattei <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
David Sogge made a comment on his review of Different Speeds, Same Furies: Powell, Proust and other Literary Forms " It’s gratifying to read your positive remark about my review. Thanks! I was intrigued by your further comment on Powell’s political views toward leftwi ...more "
Mar 03, 2026 08:23AM · see review

David Sogge started reading

The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell

The Alibi of Capital: How We Broke the Earth to Steal the Future on the Promise of a Better Tomorrow
by Timothy Mitchell

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

David Sogge rated a book really liked it

The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading
by Sam Leith

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 expansive survey of writings for children (and some grown-ups too) brought much to mind, plucking a few heartstrings along the way, right up to its last page, which features the tearjerking end of E.B. White’s Charlotte‘s Web. But the book also This expansive survey of writings for children (and some grown-ups too) brought much to mind, plucking a few heartstrings along the way, right up to its last page, which features the tearjerking end of E.B. White’s Charlotte‘s Web. But the book also acquainted me with writers I’d never heard of (Frances Burnett, Edith Nesbit and dozens more) and reminded me of why my total lack of interest in those I had heard of such as Tolkien, Rowling and various sci-fi writers can be justified.

Apart from lighting my stroll down memory lane, this book had for me practical significance: its abundance of evidence and nuanced judgements making it clear, to me at least, that much of today’s fare is pretty thin soup.

In terms of cultural history, the book tracks ebbs and flows of British norms laid down about those growing up, such as ‘naughtiness’ and, less stringently, mischief-making. It signposts some patches of British literature and the interlinking of rootstalks hidden under that lush garden. The book also opened windows onto the British publishing industry, pre- and post-Harry Potter, and the mutual reinforcing linkages of children’s literature (and comic books) with radio and later with television and cinema.

Especially enlightening were the author’s deft vignettes of writers, their creative energies and eccentricities and, in an astonishing number of cases, their troubled relationships with their children. Some were downright lousy parents.

A remarkable number of 19th and 20th century writers were conservatives of a ‘little England’ persuasion, bearing “baked in nostalgia” for a middle and upper class British past, including its former Empire. Overcoming baked in racial stereotyping in children’s literature has taken a generation or more in postwar multi-racial England.

Leith devotes attention to racism and ‘othering’ (a term he doesn’t use) but says little about writers’ wider political perspectives. Two exceptions stand out. US-born Theodor Geisel (‘Dr Seuss’), who held outspoken progressive views, produced wildly popular tales in verse. The second was was an American of the same epoch, Munro Leaf, whose wildly popular The Story of Ferdinand carried an anti-war message that drew the ire of Hitler and Mussolini and some American warmongers too. In The Haunted Wood these two get shunted into the last chapter, about illustrated books.

In a big book highlighting writers who pitched their work for children I had expected to meet many with ardent capacities for empathy, even social solidarity. But from the evidence presented, such writers are, or were, pretty scarce.

The author's choices of who and what to exclude are matters of dispute, as shown in many reviews here on Goodreads. Anticipating readers’ objections, he defines his remit as a British nursery bookshelf. Yet that remit seems to get a slippery interpretation. For example, a good number of late 20th century American pieces of “Young Adult” fiction get full discussions, but translated French ones (surely present and well-thumbed on many British nursery bookshelves ?) from Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea to The Little Prince to Babar the Elephant, go completely unmentioned.

Those quibbles aside, this book provided enjoyment, insights, and a few throbs of nostalgia. ...more

David Sogge rated a book it was amazing

A Stranger in the Land by Daniel Cil Brecher

A Stranger in the Land: Jewish Identity Beyond Nationalism
by Daniel Cil Brecher

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

David Sogge rated a book really liked it

The United States and the Ends of Empire by Sean T. Byrnes

The United States and the Ends of Empire: Decolonization, Hierarchy, and World Order since 1776 (New Approaches to International History)
by Sean T. Byrnes

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 book chronicles and illuminates episodes and trends in US relations with those at receiving ends of its exploitations. Explaining the ways scholars and pundits have approached this contested history isn’t its major purpose, but the book does sig This book chronicles and illuminates episodes and trends in US relations with those at receiving ends of its exploitations. Explaining the ways scholars and pundits have approached this contested history isn’t its major purpose, but the book does signpost alternative interpretations. It distinguishes chiefly between those emphasising structural/material factors and those focusing on cultural/ideological factors that can explain US behaviour. Between those concept-clusters it seeks and usually finds a convincing balance, with evidence that the two often operate together and sequentially.

The author by no means ignores the “ideas all the way down” school in which foreign affairs get defined by cultural/ideological priors; he reminds the reader repeatedly and usefully of how those influencing or making policy have routinely wheeled out ‘self-evident’ notions of hierarchy of peoples and nations to justify courses of action or inaction toward the non-Western world. Utterances in the 1970s by US conservatives such as Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan at the UN illustrate this. Frames and tropes do a lot of work to reinforce the hierarchy. Yet the author usually sees material and structural factors doing the heavy lifting. In accounting for armed interventions in Central America, for example, lenders and investors came first; then came assertions of national interest with accompanying gunboats: “the flag…followed the money.”. In this regard I think he gets the balance right, and makes his account convincing.

Among the book’s stronger points are its accounts of how the US disparaged European imperialism, promoting instead its own “empire-lite” version, including the cultivation of local elites. That began in the 19th century and continues today, as shown in their recruitment into the IMF, World Bank and other bodies effectively run by the US to help safeguard preferred macroeconomic policies, including open doors to US corporations.

Yet I think the author’s political sociology could have gone further, perhaps by devoting less attention to the likes of Moynihan and more to US law-making and enforcement. I would have liked to read what the author would have to say about hugely lucrative and politically important matters such as the trade in narcotics, or the protection of intellectual property and of offshore and onshore secrecy jurisdictions/tax havens, or today’s massive and scarcely regulated non-bank financial universe, pivoting on Wall Street. But I could find no substantial remarks about those matters.

Regarding US “soft power” it was refreshing to find a reference to US government practice in the 1960s of hiring “Jazz Ambassadors” to perform abroad. But it was disappointing to find no mention of its much wider and more successful stratagems in promoting US-owned radio, film, tv, music, internet products, university educations and so forth. Other “soft power” mechanisms neglected in the book include American evangelical churches, whose emergence in Latin America and elsewhere is massive and growing. At the outset the author warns readers that his selection of sources is necessarily incomplete. Fair enough. But so too, I fear, is his selection of topics relevant to his history.

All in all, despite some missed opportunities, this book offers an impressive and insightful chronology of US empire-building. ...more

David Sogge made a comment on his review of Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI

" Corroborating and extending this book's findings is a report published in April 2026 by the Balanced Economy Project: “Licensed to Loot: Big Finance, ...more "

David Sogge wants to read

The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
by Edmund de Waal

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

David Sogge rated a book it was amazing

The End of Empires and a World Remade by Martin Thomas

The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization
by Martin Thomas

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 is a superb work of prodigious scholarship. Its scope is wide, nearly comprehensive of 20th century histories of the ‘oceanic’ colonial orders (of Britain, France, Portugal, &c; thus not the land-based empires of Turkey, Russia &c.) and of the s This is a superb work of prodigious scholarship. Its scope is wide, nearly comprehensive of 20th century histories of the ‘oceanic’ colonial orders (of Britain, France, Portugal, &c; thus not the land-based empires of Turkey, Russia &c.) and of the struggles by opposition movements within and among those colonies.

Complementing its wide scope is deep-going attention to colonial and post-colonial settings and actors in specific places and times, often in detail. There’s no slippage into unqualified generalizations, or into describing decolonization in the past tense. Indeed the author recognizes that processes of decolonization continue to this day:

These processes are perhaps easier to understand not as waves, which come and go, but as currents, whose intensity might change but whose ﬂows never stop.

Hence, extreme violence of the kind seen today in the Occupied Territories of Palestine can’t be dismissed as something wholly out of the ordinary; a full sub-chapter on Israel/Palestine, written before the genocide, explains why. Likewise the book pays attention to continuing exploitation at the behest of Western economic interests, crippling authentic decolonization. The author poses a question in the title of his concluding chapter "A World Remade by Decolonizattion?" and procedes to explain why the answer must be no:

the unmaking of empire did not mean the end of colonialism. We still have some way to go.

I noted a few missed opportunities. Perhaps a deeper discussion of figures, beyond the case of Houphouët-Boigny, the author briefly refers to as interlocuteurs valables or ‘constructive nationalists,’ puppets (sometimes with armed followings) employed by colonial/settler powers to sidetrack decolonization? Or of how Western food dumping distorted decolonization in Africa? But those are minor quibbles.

This book and the scholarly findings it assembles, underpinned with copious footnotes, make it a work of reference for me, one I will want to revisit and recommend to others. ...more

David Sogge wants to read

Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization without Political Consequences
by Anton Jäger

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

Am an admirer of Jäger's books (see my short take: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) but also find Oliver Eagleton's 2025 critique 'Beyond Hyperpolitics' [https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/...] persuasive. ...more

David Sogge wants to read

The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
by Clara E. Mattei

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

David Sogge made a comment on his review of Different Speeds, Same Furies: Powell, Proust and other Literary Forms

Different Speeds, Same Furies by Perry Anderson

" It’s gratifying to read your positive remark about my review. Thanks!
I was intrigued by your further comment on Powell’s political views toward leftwi It’s gratifying to read your positive remark about my review. Thanks!
I was intrigued by your further comment on Powell’s political views toward leftwingers, in which you detect more sensitivity and nuance than suggested in my (perhaps too sweeping) statement about Powell’s anti-communism. You may be on to something that others have overlooked.
For major parts of an AI-generated response to the question “In 'Dance to the Music of Time' how did Anthony Powell portray leftwing or communist characters?” read as follows:

“Anthony Powell presents left wing and communist figures in A Dance to the Music of Time as often self regarding, opportunistic, or crankish, with their politics folded into a wider scepticism about ideological enthusiasm of any kind.
…
“Powell’s narrator Nick Jenkins repeatedly treats “Left Wing thought” as one more early 20th century craze, not far removed from spiritualism or other faddish beliefs. Characters drawn to communism or advanced left politics are usually shown as driven by ego, social ambition, or guilt rather than coherent conviction. The books never become a simple anti communist tract, but they consistently align communism with philistinism and will to power rather than with generosity or justice.
…
“In sum, Powell’s left wing and communist characters are woven into a larger pattern in which ideological commitment, especially to communism, signals a flawed “method of conducting life”: ambitious, humorless, and ultimately self regarding rather than humane.”
…
“Taken as a whole, the twelve novels track a curve from 1930s “progressive” enthusiasm, through wartime and early Cold War recognition of communist totalitarianism, to a later sense that communism has become both discredited and yet spiritually continuous with other extremist credos. Powell’s own anti communist convictions, visible outside the novels in his association with Robert Conquest and Kingsley Amis, sharpen over time and feed into the increasingly caustic depiction of fellow travellers, spies, and party line intellectuals as the historical record of Stalinism and its aftermath accumulates.” ...more "

David’s Year In Books

David Sogge’s Followers (30)

David’s Bookshelves

David’s Friends (6)

David Sogge

Goodreads Author

Combine Editions
David Sogge’s books

David is Currently Reading

rss
David’s Recent Updates

See a Problem?

Preview — The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell

See a Problem?

Preview — The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith

See a Problem?

Preview — The United States and the Ends of Empire by Sean T. Byrnes

See a Problem?

Preview — The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

See a Problem?

Preview — The End of Empires and a World Remade by Martin Thomas

See a Problem?

Preview — Hyperpolitics by Anton Jäger

See a Problem?

Preview — The Capital Order by Clara E. Mattei

David’s Friend Comments

	Give And Take: What's the Matter with Foreign Aid? 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	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
	Casus Belli: Cómo los Estados Unidos venden la guerra by Martin Jelsma, Zia Mian, David Sogge (Goodreads Author) 3.18 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2011	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
	Mirages de l'aide internationale 4.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2002 — 3 editions	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
	Compassion and Calculation: The Business of Private Foreign Aid (Transnational Institute Series) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1996 — 3 editions	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
	Sustainable Peace: Angola's Recovery really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1992	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
	KAŞIK VE KEPÇE 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2003	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
	Report of a review mission, 6-20 May 1989: Programme of Assistance to Displaced Persons, Huila Province, Angola, of the State Secretariat for Social ... Mondlane Foundation, Programme AO/87/010 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	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

David’s Year In Books

David Sogge’s Followers (30)

David’s Bookshelves

David’s Friends (6)

David Sogge

Goodreads Author

Combine EditionsDavid Sogge’s books

David is Currently Reading

rssDavid’s Recent Updates

See a Problem?

Preview — The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell

See a Problem?

Preview — The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith

See a Problem?

Preview — The United States and the Ends of Empire by Sean T. Byrnes

See a Problem?

Preview — The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

See a Problem?

Preview — The End of Empires and a World Remade by Martin Thomas

See a Problem?

Preview — Hyperpolitics by Anton Jäger

See a Problem?

Preview — The Capital Order by Clara E. Mattei

David’s Friend Comments

Combine Editions
David Sogge’s books

rss
David’s Recent Updates