Two Non-Fiction Books Look at How History Has Shaped Current Affairs

This blog entry is not meant to be political in nature. I picked these two books from an article in the New York Times written by the book review staff and entitled The Best Books of the Year (so far). Of course the year is almost over so there may not be many more that make the list, but here are two that I would like to read. And, on another note, of course history shapes current events. We all know that. Interesting that, most of the time, people take no heed. Both books are, needless to say, non-fiction.

In this book by John Ganz, we travel back to the 1990’s, a time of relative stability in our nation. Or so it seemed. The author points out factors in the 90’s that resulted in the rise of ratical conservatism. The title of the book When the Clock Broke comes from a speech made in 1992 by liberal economist Murray Rothbard in which he pledged to “break the clock of social democracy.” The reviewer goes on to state that Ganz is an excellent historian and a gifted storyteller who will often interject humor and irony.

In Everyone Who is Gone is Here, Blitzer makes the case that longtime US Foreign policy in Central America is directly linked to the current migrant crisis. The author lays out the complicated history of one of the most tragic and worrisome dilemas of our time by using first hand accounts and examples. He states that the situation took a long time to develop and will not go away anytime soon.