Steve Eubanks (Author of All American)

Steve Eubanks wants to read The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture by Heather Mac Donald	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
Aug 25, 2026 04:48PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Diversity Delusion by Heather Mac Donald. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Diversity Delusion by Heather Mac Donald <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War by James M. Scott	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 challenges in narrative nonfiction are you’re either telling a well-known story, which makes it tough to keep the reader engaged, or you’re telling a story that isn’t known at all, which makes it difficult to capture the reader early. As a writer ...more
Aug 24, 2026 08:36AM · like · see review
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing What Great Leaders Do: 7 Essentials for Enduring Impact by Andy Stanley	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
Andy Stanley is my pastor even though we’ve never met in person. Until I read this book, I was off about 10 years in guessing his age (in the direction he would like, I’m sure). But I love his messages and believe he has done tremendous good in the w ...more
Aug 07, 2026 01:04PM · like · see review
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876 by Bret Baier	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
Almost five years ago, when Bret Baier’s book on General Grant first hit the shelves, I cornered him outside the media center at an LPGA/Celebrity event in Orlando and asked him to sign a copy for my son who was studying to be a history teacher. Bret ...more
Aug 06, 2026 01:35PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of To Rescue the Republic by Bret Baier. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — To Rescue the Republic by Bret Baier <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing The Concrete Alibi (Mason Pierce, #1) by Michael Stagg (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
Finding a new fiction writer is always a treat, even if he’s been writing for years and you just stumbled upon him. That’s true now more than ever, because nonfiction works, especially those related to the news cycle, have become so dark and heavy th ...more
Jul 24, 2026 09:18AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Concrete Alibi by Michael Stagg. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Concrete Alibi by Michael Stagg <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America by Noah Rothman	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
When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ul ...more
Jul 13, 2026 06:35AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Blood and Progress by Noah Rothman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Blood and Progress by Noah Rothman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump by Arthur Herman	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 difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand. “Founders Fire” by Arthur ...more
Jul 06, 2026 09:14AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Founder’s Fire by Arthur Herman. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Founder’s Fire by Arthur Herman <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Ironwood (Catalina, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #42) by Michael Connelly (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
You can tell when genre writers get old and tired and cranky. The formulas become so predictable and rote that even AI would object. You know those authors. They’ve become more enamored with self-promotion – polishing their platforms and brands – tha ...more
Jun 22, 2026 09:13AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Ironwood by Michael Connelly. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Ironwood by Michael Connelly <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind by Gad Saad	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
How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away ...more
Jun 15, 2026 08:36AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steve Eubanks rated a book it was amazing The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World by Douglas Brunt (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
I’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into ...more
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Steve Eubanks wants to read

The Diversity Delusion by Heather Mac Donald

The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
by Heather Mac Donald

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Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War
by James M. Scott

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The challenges in narrative nonfiction are you’re either telling a well-known story, which makes it tough to keep the reader engaged, or you’re telling a story that isn’t known at all, which makes it difficult to capture the reader early. As a writer The challenges in narrative nonfiction are you’re either telling a well-known story, which makes it tough to keep the reader engaged, or you’re telling a story that isn’t known at all, which makes it difficult to capture the reader early. As a writer, climbing those hills requires a deft combination of skill and talent. If you bog the reader down with details when he already knows the ending, you risk having him skim and drift, turning pages while half-listening to Ella Langley in the background. If you’re introducing the reader to new characters and a drama he doesn’t know, you better keep it moving and make it a page-turner. Otherwise, the reader opens Wikipedia and closes your book.

In his three books on the Secord World War in the Pacific, James Scott answered the call on both of those tasks with the kind of discipline and talent that made it seem effortless. His latest, EMPIRE OF ASHES: TRUMAN, HIROHITO, AND THE DESCENT INTO TOTAL WAR, is one of the most riveting accounts of the final months of the War ever written, which is amazing given the hundreds of books and films covering every jot and tiddle of that time period. Scott does this by achieving the ultimate goal for every author: his pacing, plot, detail, and character development make you forget you’re reading. Within a few pages you’re so engrossed in a story you have known your entire life that you can’t put it down and the world around you goes quiet.

Relying on so many sources that his notes and bibliography encompass 82 pages, Scott weaves in enough biographical and sociological detail to put you in the minds of men like General Curtis LeMay, General Leslie Groves, President Harry Truman, as well as Geneal Tojo, Emperor Hirohito, and Defense Minister Anami.

Since there are no plots to spoil, the book opens in Warm Springs, Georgia where Franklin Roosevelt sat for a portrait in the quaint quarters known as the Little White House. As an aside, it was Roosevelt’s uncle Teddy who first called the Executive Mansion in Washington the White House, and Franklin was the first to extend that title to an off-site location. In the sitting room where a fussy assistant and artist waited on the President, Roosevelt didn’t seem himself. A couple of minutes into the session, he put his hand to his head and complained of not feeling well. Within minutes he was unconscious and died soon after.

Truman was everything Roosevelt wasn’t – hardscrabble, direct, unworldly, and poor, the kind of guy who preferred cold cuts to caviar and who expected you to get right to the point in every conversation. How that sudden personality change effected the culture in Washington and the world is a big part of Scott’s book.

Also, Scott captures the disconnect – which continues to this day – between Eastern and Western values, traditions, philosophies, and priorities. For example, right now, in 2026 with the world smaller and more connected than ever, trying to explain “face” to the average Missourian is like asking him to, well, build an atomic bomb. That cultural chasm played a huge role in the debates and decisions that lead to Little Boy being dropped on Hiroshima. And for those armchair generals who still can’t believe the U.S. did such a thing, keep in mind that even after LeMay’s firebombing left Japan on the brink of starvation, Anami had amassed almost 900,000 troops to repel the expected U.S. invasion, and citizens were being ordered to craft spears out of bamboo to fight to the last man, woman, and child. Even after the second bomb hit Nagasaki, Anami wanted to keep fighting. There was even a brief coup attempt at the Royal Palace in Tokyo by pro-war advocates.

Scott covers all this and much more with an elegant prose that moves like the most compelling epic you’ve ever seen. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Yes, you know the ending – you even know the biographies of most of the characters – but EMPIRE OF ASHES is still a must-read for all the right reasons. ...more

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What Great Leaders Do: 7 Essentials for Enduring Impact
by Andy Stanley

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Andy Stanley is my pastor even though we’ve never met in person. Until I read this book, I was off about 10 years in guessing his age (in the direction he would like, I’m sure). But I love his messages and believe he has done tremendous good in the w Andy Stanley is my pastor even though we’ve never met in person. Until I read this book, I was off about 10 years in guessing his age (in the direction he would like, I’m sure). But I love his messages and believe he has done tremendous good in the world. Even when I disagree with him, as I did throughout the turmoil of 2020, I think the Lord has blessed us with Andy for all the right reasons. Why it took me this long to read one of his books remains one of life’s mysteries, but better late than never.

I liked it. Even though “WHAT GREAT LEADERS DO: 7 Essentials for Enduring Impact” is listed as a leadership book and will probably be found in the business section of your local bookstore, Andy lets the teachings of Jesus drive his lessons, even when he’s being subtle about it.

For example: his first essential is that great leaders lead themselves well. While this seems axiomatic, Andy shows you how many great leaders fail to keep themselves inside life’s guardrails. He doesn’t call names, but I will. I knew Jack Welch when he was running GE. No leader was more respected. Jack was heralded as a genius for the modern age. Then, as night follows day, he divorced his wife and married a woman in his organization who fit the profile – half his age plus 5 years with the kind of spunk that seems exciting for about six months. After that, Jack never regained his luster. The same happened with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who have become creepy and clownish respectively. New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel might take his team to another Super Bowl, but he will forevermore be looked upon with skepticism after the scandal with NFL reporter Dianna Russini. Andy is much kinder than I in not calling this out – he even admits to telling his wife he should retire before he falls to similar temptations –
but his point remains valid: the difference between effective leaders and great leadership starts with how well you lead yourself.

I don’t want to give too much away, but the quote that stuck with me, and the one that hangs on the wall outside Andy’s office, says: “Be a Leader worth Following.” His point is that guys like Hitler were dynamic leaders, but are they are not worth following. Every kooky cult creator has had devotees because each possessed dynamism and the ability to connect with an audience. However, history has shown that they weren’t worthy of being followed.

Leaders who model themselves on the teachings of Jesus and discipline themselves and their organizations around those same principles build trust and set standards that outlive them. Those are the founders whose companies last for centuries, the patriarchs whose values endure for generations, the women you live to never disappoint, even after they’re gone; those are the leaders worthy of being followed.

If there’s a critique to this book it is that Andy writes the way he talks, which takes a minute if you’ve never heard him. There are one-word sentences, which would earn him an F from many English teachers, and there are times when you wish he would dive deeper into anecdote before hitting you in the mouth with the message. But overall this is a quick, important, and impactful book that will make you pause and think about your leadership. It will also send you searching for more from Andy Stanley. Thankfully, there’s plenty to find. We hope you will join us at one of our churches, if not this Sunday, then very soon. ...more

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To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876
by Bret Baier

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Almost five years ago, when Bret Baier’s book on General Grant first hit the shelves, I cornered him outside the media center at an LPGA/Celebrity event in Orlando and asked him to sign a copy for my son who was studying to be a history teacher. Bret Almost five years ago, when Bret Baier’s book on General Grant first hit the shelves, I cornered him outside the media center at an LPGA/Celebrity event in Orlando and asked him to sign a copy for my son who was studying to be a history teacher. Bret was accommodating and thanked me when I told him how much I enjoyed his “Three Days” books on Eisenhower and Reagan, especially since I’m something of a Reaganphile, having reached voting age just in time to cast a ballot for the Gipper in 1980 and having subsequently read everything written about the man. But I didn’t get around to reading “To Rescue the Republic” until now, and I feel poorer for waiting this long.

Baier succeeds where many good biographers fail: He humanized a figure who died 150 years ago in a way that made you understand him in the beginning, admire him at his pinnacle, and grieve for him in the end. Many others have tried to explain Grant – Jean Edward Smith, Ron Chernow, and even the great Shelby Steele – but all those writers dove deep into the military minutia in ways that lost many readers. Chernow’s book is more than 1,100 pages, just 20,000 words shy of Grant’s original two-volume autobiography. It’s almost twice as long as the New Testament, whereas Baier’s book, at a digestible 333 pages in hardcover, moves quickly and covers all the salient points of Grant’s life without bogging down on the weather at Shiloh or the number of steps in front of Wilmer McLean’s house in Appomattox Courthouse. Instead, Baier used just the right mix of dialogue, contemporary written accounts, and historical documentation to paint a complete picture of a humble and grounded, but sometimes ruthless and committed leader, a man who was not boisterous or gregarious in any aspect of life, but was a genius with a near photographic memory and a soft spot for horses and dogs.

In the last few years, I’ve read excellent biographies of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson – the latter, “Rebel Yell” by S.C. Gwynne being one of the best biographies ever penned – and after Baier’s book, one thing struck me. Lee and Jackson grew up without fathers in their lives. Of course, they had mentors and relatives and officers who guided them. Lee finished second in his class at West Point and graduated with no demerits. But they didn’t have a daddy around to ground them. If you look deep enough, you can see them chasing ghosts. Grant’s parents were huge influences. His father instilled a moral clarity and tempered spirit in young Ulysses Hiram (the “S” was a typo at West Point that stuck) that made him a hero of the nation.

I only had one unanswered question when I finished, and it had nothing to do with Grant. The penultimate section of Baier’s book focused on Grant’s role in the 1876 controversial election of Rutherford B. Hayes over Samual J. Tilden, an election rife with fraud and results that almost no one trusted. How did Baier know that this history would repeat itself in 2020? I’ve written enough books to know the length of the publishing process. To sell a proposal like this and then have the exact thing you’re writing about play out again in real time is the kind of coincidence that makes you say, Hmm. That is one of the reasons I’m glad I waited to read it, even though the delay was unintentional. I’m a lot more receptive to conspiracy theories now than I was in 2021.

That aside, this book is terrific. If you haven’t yet read it, please do. No matter how much you think you know about General Grant, which is what he was called even after his presidency, you will learn a lot more. ...more

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The Concrete Alibi (Mason Pierce, #1)
by Michael Stagg (Goodreads Author)

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Finding a new fiction writer is always a treat, even if he’s been writing for years and you just stumbled upon him. That’s true now more than ever, because nonfiction works, especially those related to the news cycle, have become so dark and heavy th Finding a new fiction writer is always a treat, even if he’s been writing for years and you just stumbled upon him. That’s true now more than ever, because nonfiction works, especially those related to the news cycle, have become so dark and heavy that you occasionally need to mix in the literary equivalent of a bag of chips.

That’s what you get with Michael Stagg, whom I discovered through Kindle Unlimited with “The Concrete Alibi”, the first in a series of legal thrillers with a cool protagonist who is a combination of Jack Reacher and The Lincoln Lawyer with a little down-home Carl Haaison humor thrown in, if Carl wrote about working-class Michiganders instead of trailer park-crazy Floridians.

The story is quick and compelling. A new associate at a big law firm that has opened a satellite office in his hometown has a big case fall into his lap when the deck of a local pub collapses. Prosecutors and civil litigators conspire, and shenanigans ensue. That fact that the new lawyer is a 6’6” former construction worker with a bald head and broken nose adds to the storyline.

There’s no cursing or sex here – although both are implied – so you can give this book to a teenaged boy if you want to hook him on reading, which is something every adult should do. I’m still reeling over the recent “Atlantic” cover story about the state of American literacy. According to the magazine’s research, less than half of adults read one book a year. That means a majority of our citizens are losing or have lost the ability to understand narrative arc, layering, and the importance of a character’s experiences chronicled over time. We are also losing the feeling that written language stirs in the soul; the warmth generated by a 500-word Faulkner sentence, or the through-and-through understanding of a thing once John Steinbeck finishes describing it. I also fear we’ve already lost the lessons of history – recent and long past – that not only shaped our existence but keep us from going down perilous paths.

We can reverse these trends by shutting off our phones and picking up a potato-chip book like this one from Stagg. Is it high art? Like most things, that depends on your definition. But it’s fun and quick and builds tension in a way that compels you to turn the next page. In other words, it makes you feel.

And that, in the end, is what we’ve been missing. ...more

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Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence in America
by Noah Rothman

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When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ul When you’re young and studying history, after the obligatory “why do we need to know all this old stuff?” the first question that pops into your mind is: How did these people go so wrong? What could lead to such bloodthirsty, murderous, awful, and ultimately self-destructive behavior?

In some cases, the answers are obvious. Japan had no natural resources, and its neighbors did. Conquest seemed logical. But why did the native tribes of North America slaughter each other en masse using some of the most torturous methods in history, practices so barbaric that settlers decided apartheid was the only way to live with a people they deemed “savages”? Same with the Incas and Aztecs who built beheading temples. Scores and perhaps hundreds of tribes are lost to history because their indigenous neighbors slaughtered every man, woman, and child.

Of course, the lesson in genocide taught more than any other is the rise of the Nazis. But somehow, when it comes to violent leftists blowing up buildings in California in the early 1900s, or the killing of police officers, or planting bombs in the U.S. Capital and plotting the violent overthrow of the government in the 60s and 70s, or the burning of cities and vandalizing businesses in the 2010s and 20s, or the assassinations of an innocent business executive or an evangelical who promoted free speech and debate, almost no effort is made to step back and analyze. No classes are taught or societies formed to dive deep into these impulses. No museums are built to remember the dead or display the horrors of left-wing violence. If anything, those actions are swept away as if they never happened. To the extent they are acknowledged, violence is rationalized as necessary for some greater good.

Noah Rothman’s “Blood and Progress” chronicles this murderous ideology and the societal rot that justifies it. From the bombings of the San Francisco Chronicle and the L.A. Times a century ago (the latter of which is the subject of Howard Blum’s great book “American Lightning”) to Luigi Mangioni, Tyler Robinson, and the mass psychosis (much of it engineered) that followed the deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd, Rothman highlights the bending curve of violence and how “assassination chic” and pretzel logic like “destroying property is peaceful” lead ordinary Americans to arm up as if a Comanche war party is on the move.

The biggest difference, as Rothman points out, between the violence of the 1910s and what we’re seeing today is not the methods or the murderous mindsets – those domestic terrorists were just as driven by bloodlust as today’s Antifa – it’s the institutional acceptance. When major political, educational, and media entities cheerlead for terrorists, things race downhill. A century ago, assassins or bombers were caught, convicted, and hanged within months. We’re almost a year from Charlie Kirk’s assassination and still in the probable-cause stage. That radicalizes victims and pits sides against each other in ways that, historically, have ended in Rwanda-type civil war.

All the examples Rothman cites are worthy of books, and a few have been written about most to them. Alas, too many have been sympathetic to the bad guys. What I think Rothman misses, however, is the real root of this phenomenon. By focusing on the last century in America the reader doesn’t appreciate that this is not recent. In fact, it is the most ancient of things. The impulse to kill outside your tribe dates back to the dawn of humanity. And it is spiritual.

You might not believe in demons, or in a spiritual realm that predates history – although every generation before we became “enlightened” considered those things self-evident – but it’s impossible not to see similarities throughout time. Just in the last 250 years we’ve had the Jacobins, the Nazis, the Communists, the Taliban, Al Quada, ISIS, and countless other smaller groups that were just as vicious and relentless. Dive deeper into history and you see them everywhere, in every generation.

How? Why? If you’re honest and spend more than a day or two away from technology, the answer reveals itself. Evil exists in every man. It always has. And as the Apostle Paul rightly noted, and Rothman, unfortunately, missed, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

Even with that miss, though, “Blood and Progress” is worth your time. You will learn more than you expected, and be better prepared for the battles that are almost certain to come. ...more

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Founder’s Fire: From 1776 to the Age of Trump
by Arthur Herman

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The difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand.

“Founders Fire” by Arthur The difference between founding and managing is the difference between sculpting Apollo and Daphne and giving tours of the Borghese Gallery to bored high schoolers. Both are important. Only one turns your name into a brand.

“Founders Fire” by Arthur Herman, is a litany of American greatness, a bag-of-potato-chips history lesson that runs from George Washington to Elon Musk and is full of fascinating nuggets that get left out of modern lesson plans, either from malice or ignorance. I have my suspicions.

Each chapter takes you through the story of a founder or two that changed the course of history. There’s Washington and the other Founding Fathers, of course, and then Lincoln and the rebirth of the nation. But there is also a list of men who have been wrongly vilified by our intellectual class: founders like John Rockeffer and Cornelius Vanderbilt, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, all the way through Steve Jobs, developer Donald Trump, and Musk in the modern era.

If there is a specific hook that makes this one worth your time it is the contrast drawn between founders and followers. Robert McNamara was a manager at Ford before taking over the Department of Defense and escalating the Vietnam War – one of the men Halberstam ironically called “The Best and the Brightest.” But he didn’t create or found anything after leaving public life other than a nonprofit no one remembers. The same is true for Tim Cook at Apple. Other than making the iPhone a little better at the margins, what earth-changing innovation has Cook ushered in as an executive?

Who followed Commodore Vanderbilt, or J.D. Rockefeller? What happened to Ford when there were no more Fords at the helm? Would Walt and Roy Disney recognize the company that still bears their family’s name? We all know, but we choose to look away because of the uncomfortable truths those answers reveal about our past and about us.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a quick exercise, and don’t cheat: Name a famous dead business manager or accountant whose name everyone would recognize. Now, name a famous dead writer, artist, musician, composer, and founder. Didn’t take long, did it?

That is what American liberty provides and what we cannot lose. Our history is the story of founders, people who had the vision and genetic makeup to create and build and the drive to keep moving.

This book is about inspiration, but it also an introduction. You finish it and immediately want to pick up Issacson’s biography of Elon, or the many great biographies of Washington and Lincoln; you want the real history of the men who have been casually slandered as “robber barons,” and you want to understand the foundation that allowed a brash, foul-mouthed developer from Queens to become the world’s most recognized business and political figure.

It’s a pretty quick read and the stories, while incomplete, are a wonderful starting point for understanding and perhaps igniting the Founder’s Fire in you. Pick it up. You’ll be glad you did. ...more

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Ironwood (Catalina, #2; Harry Bosch Universe, #42)
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)

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You can tell when genre writers get old and tired and cranky. The formulas become so predictable and rote that even AI would object. You know those authors. They’ve become more enamored with self-promotion – polishing their platforms and brands – tha ...more

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Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind
by Gad Saad

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How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away How much you will tolerate is how much a tyrant will inflict. If you had to sum up Gad Saad’s book “Suicidal Empathy” in one sentence, that would be it. Like every other good and decent human impulse, empathy can and is being weaponized to take away your freedoms and break your will.

Don’t believe it? Just pick and issue from the last 20 years and look at it through the lens of Suicidal Empathy.

Back when climate change was global warming, how often did you hear “You don’t care about the children!” or “What kind of world are you leaving for the next generation?” or “You must be greedy and selfish.” Some variation of that rained down on us almost every day. The message was always the same: Do what we say, no matter how absurd and unscientific our arguments, or you’re a monster.

Did you question the efficacy of paper masks and an experimental gene therapy being advertised as a vaccine? Did you believe that when it came to injections, it was your body your choice? Why, you must hate old people. Are you trying to kill grandparents? The Science! “We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” – President Joe Biden.

When hordes of people – mostly military-age males – from scores of third-world countries poured across the Rio Grande and were whisked away on charter flights to Des Moines, Westchester, Macon, Kansas City, you were told to shut up, that if you were alarmed you must hate brown people. It became racist to expect existing laws to be enforced. Why don’t you care about those poor immigrant children who just seek a better life?

Time and again, empathy is used as a hammer. If you believe A or refuse to do B then you are a sociopath, a meany who hates children, puppies, and anyone of a different race. Saad explains this tyrannical tool, and the psychological phenomenon of those who fall for it, with the skill of an academic who is also a great storyteller. “Suicidal Empathy” touches on the history of how our caring instincts have been slowly but steadily used against us.

It’s a must read, quick with tons a examples and explanations. Parts come off like “Sociology for Dummies” but that’s a good thing. We didn’t become suicidal overnight. Being spoonfed out of this cult might be our only hope.

If I have one quibble, it’s that the spiritual component isn’t as prominent as it might have been. Humans have not always been empathetic. Quite the opposite. For most of history, men protected their families and tribes, but looted and razed neighboring villages, killing every man, woman, and child they could catch. Evolutionists as late as the 20th century told us this was “survival of the fittest,” as natural as a summer rain.

Empathy is an anomaly. There have been pockets here and there, but as a universal trait to be admired and modeled, it sprang up about 2,000 years ago during the peak of the Roman Empire. What happened during that time for such a fundamental human change to take place?

The answer was chronicled by four guys named Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You should read them, along with some letters written by a guy named Paul. It is there that you will discover the roots of the battle we’re waging, and who is behind the weaponization of empathy.

Saad summed up his book on the final page with this: “A society dies when it cares more about exhibiting infinite tolerance and empathy than invoking its survival instinct. It truly is that simple.”

He could have added one addendum to that, a quote from that Paul guy mentioned above: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” ...more

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The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel by Douglas Brunt

The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World
by Douglas Brunt (Goodreads Author)

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I’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into I’ve come to believe that you need to write novels first, or at least dabble in crafting plot, character, dialogue, and drama from the recesses of your mind, to stare at a blank screen with nothing but your wits and imagination, before venturing into the tedious and time-consuming world of narrative nonfiction. Great fiction writers learn how to build tension, develop story, force the reader to feel something for the characters, to understand their inner workings and motivations. The biggest compliment you can give a narrative nonfiction book is, “It reads like fiction.”

Enter Doug Brunt who had a bestselling fiction catalogue before shifting gears with the wildly successful “The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Deisel,” which I praised to the rooftops when it hit. But there is always the risk of a sophomore slump. Many great writers have one book in them. The follow-up always tells the tale.

Well, fear not. Brunt’s newest book “The Lost Empire of Emmanual Nobel” is at least as good if not better than his first. Like Deisel, most people only know the name Nobel because of Emmanual’s uncle, Alfred, the inventor of dynamite who created the Nobel Prize. But what you don’t know is that Alfred didn’t conjure his invention out of some dream. His father, Immanual, was an explosives’ expert who created the first contact mine to protect ports in time of war, and Emmanuel, the nephew, stood up to the king of Sweden who wanted the family to contest Alfred’s will. There wouldn’t be a Nobel Prize if not for Emmanual Nobel, about whom you probably know nothing.

When I was in grade school, we were taught that the world’s first billionaire and the richest man alive at the turn at the 20th century was John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. That is probably untrue. Nobel was likely the richest man on earth prior to WWII. His fortune came from Russian oil, munitions, steel, and other manufacturing endeavors that he ran with incredible success.

Unlike Rockefeller, Nobel was known throughout Europe for his honorable treatment of employees and concerns for his communities. He was the first person to transport oil in a tanker ship – one he created – and the first to create his own currency to stabilize the money supply when the rest of Russia lost its mind.

But this isn’t just a book about an industrialist, although it would be excellent if that was the only storyline. This is the most fascinating history you will ever read about the Romanovs, Rasputin, Lenin, and especially Joseph Stalin. Brunt takes you places your history professors dared not tread for fear of ticking off the cranky old commie department head with dandruff on the shoulders of his tweed jacket and teeth the color of Naugahyde. If you want the real story of the Russian revolution, its devastating impact on the Russian people, Europe, and rest of the world, read this book.

There’s more, though. Brunt never writes this – the best ones don’t – but the subtext of “Nobel” is that the revolutionary impulses that darkened Eastern Europe and led to 70 years of death, haven’t gone away. Like evil itself, they live in the heart of every man. We must recognize that fact and stand against the current rising forces, or we too will be relegated to the obscurity of Emmanual Nobel, once the world’s richest man.

In the meantime, read this and recommend it to others. You won’t regret it. ...more

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	All American: Two Young Men, the 2001 Army-Navy Game and the War They Fought in Iraq 3.96 avg rating — 134 ratings — published 2013 — 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
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