It felt like this book was written JUST for me, and I loved it! The chapters on a wealth demand for currency driving inflation were extremely insightful, and its accounts of exactly where profit/investment is supposed to come from in the traditional orthodox economic schema was refreshing, pointed, and damning. You definitely need something of a background in economic theory to get a lot out of this book, but it’s claims are difficult to refute and play out clearly in the news every day. Great book, love the focus on India, for people who care about the specific mechanisms of imperial accumulation, it’s a must read

Excellent account of how violence and Western extractivism make it basically impossible for the Arab world to develop economically along traditional neoclassical/neoliberal lines. My biggest caveat is that the sentence I just wrote is pretty much the substance of the book. If you’re unconvinced or just want a large number of case studies to buttress that pretty intuitive claim, then here’s your book! I liked reading it

not very readable, and pretty dated at this point. Modern works such as the indigenous people’s history of the United States and other BLM-informed decolonization focused works probably suit the modern reader a bit better, but damn if this thing doesn’t have the RESEARCH. This is a great resource for people that don’t mind using discipline to slog through history books. I learned a huge amount, and have nothign but respect for Drinnon’s pathbreaking work. There’s a reason this book is cited in all the more modern and readable attempts at the topic!

VERY ABOUT CHRISTIANITY. Yes racism is there, but the engagement with modern protestantism stuck out to me as more of the focus. As a person in the American southwest, the relationship between evangelical movements, traditional Catholic churches, and their effect on families is front of mind for me at all times, and reading this made me feel a sense of strained urgency and sadness. Thank you James Baldwin for writing so personally and with such clarity

REALLY strong biography. Approaches the subject with a materialist/Marxist lens, which I really appreciate in religious or classical studies. As a result, one leaves feeling like they can inveigh on Islamic topics in a more informed and relatively unprejudiced way, even when talking about the more controversial elements of the prophet’s life, such as his marriage to Aisha or massacres of Jewish tribes. This book gave me a lot of context for understanding people group relationships in the Arabian peninsula, as well as early religion formation.

The worst of the empyrean books so far. Kind of a slog. Good world building, ok twist, should probably have collapsed book 3 and 4 into one book, but we’ll see when 4 comes out. I’ll still read it, but this book did not leave me exciting and curious like book 1 did.

Actively upsetting to read in an extremely cathartic way. I wish I could memorize every chapter. Seymour is a great writer (if verbose, and his defense of his own verbosity is pretty silly (sorry Richard, love you)) and this book is on the actively readable side of his catalogue. Basically essential reading for 2026 and the second Trump regime/4th reich

Really really good, has some deep dark controversial facts that are hard to find in english language literature. I rated it less than 5 stars because I feel like you need to go into it already having a pretty substantial background in the historical controversies, accounts, and relevant authors in order to really be able to contextualize this book appropriately, but for those invested in the subject of a materially grounded analysis of Stalin, it’s great

Excellent account of the relationship between drug trafficking, service member death, and US corrupt cultures of impunity regarding all sorts of anti-society behavior. Often reads like a true crime drama followed by super disturbing statistics that contextualize the violence and enable the reader to come to structural conclusions, rather than lingering in the interpersonal. The research is pretty well done, although sometimes speculation is presented as established fact. For example, the author posits COVID-19’s origin in a Wuhan lab as established fact, as well as some causal claims regarding things like the Ukraine war. While I personally am generally sympathetic to the author’s stances (I think he’s usually right) these accounts go uncited, and that’s a little frustrating. Compulsively readable, highly recommended, made me super mad

Very well balanced book with a lot to interest those interested in actually comparing the records of the USSR and USA on civil rights and liberties. I had to get it custom printed. It’s pretty easy to access on archive websites, but extremely hard to find physically. Well worth it though!!