November Books Read

• The World of Yesterday, Stefan Zweig.
This is an easy read.  It's basically a lament and a memoir of sorts about a remembered lost world.  Zweig grew up in Austria from 1880.  He describes the decline of the world from the stable, safe, free societies of the 19th century, to the suicide of World War One, to the disintegrations of societies between the wars, with the end at the horrors of World War Two.  It's the viewpoint of a safe middle class European intellectual.  He did not get involved in any of the fighting or violence.  He was a successful public author

As an Austrian Jew he witnessed the devolution of anti-semitism from being a non-issue before WW I to forcing him to leave Austria as the Nazis gained power.  This is discussed, but is just one small aspect of the disintegration of Europe that he despairs.
• Confucious Says - There are no fortune cookies in china,Edward V. Yang.  Fast fluff of various social do's and don'ts when in China, or dealing with chinese.

• China's Management Revolution, Charles Edouard Bouee.

This is an interesting perspective on their different style of management.  It's a bit of a pangyric and sweeps things like Cultural Revolution and Tiennaman under the rug as trivial issues. This is a bit much to take at times.  The "crossing the river" meme is intensive throughout.

• Logistics Clusters, Yossi Sheffi.

Not bad as an introductory book explaining what these are, with examples of how they work, strengths, weaknesses, etc.  I wish it had more in depth analysis of some of the issues.  But the concept is well presented.  Logistics clusters are as significant in the world economy as innovation clusters like Silicon Valley.

• Rethinking Secularism, Craig Calhoun, et al, editors.
This is a highly academic series of essays on society, government, religion, and their relationship current and historical.  It's motivated by the changing assumptions that dominate society.  The belief that religion was a dying irrelevant consideration has changed.  Some of the comparative meanings of "secular" are also interesting.  France and the US are at one extreme of secularism, but even within that extreme they are very different.  The French lacite expunges religion from public affairs, while the US welcomes religion and expunges religion from government.  Sweden and England are both far less religious yet both have an official state-funded religion, and in England religious leaders are part of the government simply because of their position in the church.  

Each of the essays has a different focus.  The quality varies, but all manage at least average readability.

• The Future Declassified, Mathew Burrows.
This discusses the "global trends" long range prediction efforts from the national intelligence community.  They are non-partisan analysis of major trends, singificant, alternatives, etc.  They present trends, etc. in isolation, and then present a few alternative world scenarios that highlight the combinations that might emerge. He discusses the components and discusses his current list of trends and gives some scenarios.

The official NIC documents are also available.  The most recent is to 2030 Global trends.

• Story Wars, Jonah Sachs.
Really about marketing, advertising and the use of story in marketing and advertising.  Lightweight fast read.  Nothing new or exciting if you've read about Campbell, etc.