Book Reviews

Technology

The book at the center of thinking about long cycles in history is The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age, by James Dell Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg (Touchstone). This book asserts that every 500 years something revolutionary happens -- life after the marker is different than it was before it. Davidson and Rees-Mogg introduce a concept called megapolitics, which states that it is possible to determine what a society will look like based on the cost of violence. When weapons of mass destruction can be produced cheaply, societies are much more violent in general. Conversely, when the weapons are expensive, more empires and a certain level of peace prevail.

Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos by Robert D. Kaplan Random House This book is on the cutting edge of illustrating how history doesn't repeat itself, but rhymes. There's something peculiar and unsettling when in viewing the annals of ancient history one can see current events. Robert Kaplan is the master of relating ancient principles to modern thought. A must read for those whose interests lie in politics and current events.

As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth By Juan Enriquez. Crown Business. More far reaching and cogent than Sovereign Individual, Juan Enriquez's book concentrates on technological trends that are shaping our present and our future at the same time. Socrates once said that within every form of government lies the seeds to its own destruction. This book is a frightening look at the clash that is coming quickly between technology and political structures.

Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict By Michael T. Klare. Metropolitan Books. As the world centers into the next fourth turning, a secular winter marked by a time of crisis, Resource Wars examines possible flashpoints likely to develop because of limited supply of precious resources, especially water, timber and arable land, due to the crush of overpopulation in the world's poorest nations.

Further Reading...

• The 500 Year Delta : What Happens After What Comes Next By Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker. Harperbusiness.
• The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War. By Robert D. Kaplan. Vintage.
• Technotrends: How to Use Technology to Go Beyond Your Competition. By Daniel Burrus. Harperbusiness.
• Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy. By Stanley M. Davis and Christopher Meyer. Little, Brown and Co.
• The Monster Under The Bed: How Business is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit. By Stan Davis and Jim Botkin. Touchstone.
• School's Out. By Lewis J. Perelman.
• The Roaring 2000s: Building The Wealth And Lifestyle You Desire In The Greatest Boom In History. By Harry S. Dent. Simon and Schuster.
• The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy. Robert D. Kaplan Vintage.

(James T. Harris is available to conduct 1-2 day Path seminars or generational workshops as part of his Seminars and Workshops program.)