Frederick C. Beiser, The German Historicist Tradition. Lengthy and dense, but full of good material and written with extreme indeed almost unbelievable clarity. The historicists are these days the underdiscussed approach in the history of German thought. Have you ever wondered why Justus Möser was important, and why he focused on the history of Osnabrück? Or how Leopold Ranke saw his work as an answer to Hegel? How about the difference between Dilthey and Rickert? If nothing else, this book is also excellent background for grasping the development of Austrian School methodology in economics. After reading it, I did proceed to order further books by the same author.
Celine Dietziker and Lukas Gruntz, Aalto in Detail: A Catalogue of Components. I hadn’t realized just how much he was a “micro architect.” This book, for instance, has a fantastic collection of different photos of stairs he designed. There is a chapter “Handrails,” “Door Handles,” and also “Drainage.” This is a book for me.
Zeke Hernandez, The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers, delivers exactly what its title promises.
Neil Taylor, Estonia: A Modern History, is by far the best history I have found on that country. It also has a rave blurb from Robert Service.
Arthur Brown Ruhl, New Masters of the Baltic, a travel book from 1921. If you visit any place, you always should try to read a much earlier travel book on said place. Fantastic for perspective, indefensible but nonetheless insightful generalizations, and these books give you a sense for just how contingent history can be. Who was “the good guys” was often more up for grabs than you might have thought.
Then there are bits like this: “I asked if they thought that Latvia would be able to keep her independence when Russia was herself again. Yes, they said, they did; if the non-Russian border peoples got together in a defensive alliance, old Russia would have some trouble in coercing them. But they would like to ask me a question. Did the Allies, who had encouraged them to declare their independence, really believe in it? Or were they merely being used because the Allies thought their own soldiers too good to send against the Bolsheviks?”
