User:Sj/gemsofwriting

Interstitial life
William Poundstone: Prisoner's Dilemma
 * Approval of Raymond M. Smullyan ("one of the most fascinating and informative books I have read in years"), Douglas Hofstadter ("Once again, Poundstone has pulled together, in a beautifully idiosyncratic fashion, several profound themes from diverse areas of life"), Ian Stewart ("from poker via the Bomb to the amoral but seductive doctrine of preventive war"), and Andrew Hodges, of the NYTBR.

Bernard Bailyn: To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders
 * "His subjects are the nation's founders, whom he believes to be idealists as much as realists. As usual, Bailyn's ebullient if nuanced admiration for the Framers carries the reader along. Characteristically, he emphasizes how the Framers' provincialism allowed them to spring free of European modes of thought to create something genuinely new... uses pictures to reveal the different aspirations and bearing of the British and founding gentry... One comes away with a rounded appreciation of the founders' limitations, failures and moral failings as well as their extraordinary achievements."