History

This book seems to address the myth that primitive societies are more harmonious than our present societies.

The book takes a nuanced take on the uncanny marriage of corporate America and the “woke” social justice movements. The author, Vivek, was born to an immigrant Indian family, studied at Harvard, worked on wall street, and started his own biotechnology company before writing this book.

The book Magicians of the God is an interesting thesis around a lost civilization. Wikipedia has a scathing review calling the author, Graham Hancock, a pseudo-historian. However, the book has some insightful ideas.

The book is a good read on why some nations are rich today while others are poor.

The book provides a scientific perspective on the history of how humans came to dominate the planet. The book’s biggest focus is on the three revolutions the cognitive revolution which started 70, 000 years ago; the agricultural revolution which started 12, 000 years ago; and the scientific revolution which started 500 years ago and shaped the destiny of our species and the planet.

The book presents a generalists view of post-independent India. Unlike “India Unbound”, this book focuses primarily on post-independent India and takes a more pragmatic approach towards understanding the problems of contemporary India. The best parts of the book are the interesting contradictions that the nation went through - love/hate relationship with the English language, fear of technology, and neglected urban development.

The book is divided primarily into three parts, the pre-independence era [focused on the British Raj including some stories of the Mughal period], the post-independence pre-liberalized era, and post-liberalized India. The author was born in 1943 in West Punjab, which is now under the occupation of Pakistan. The author narrates his personal experiences of the economic conditions of India from 1947-2001.