Please Recommend Thought Provoking Books

[Ray]

Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley

Roots begins in a small African village named Juffure with the birth of a son to Omoro and Binta Kinte. The boy is named Kunta Kinte in honor of his famous grandfather, Kairaba Kunta Kinte, who saved the people of Juffure from a terrible drought.

At the age of five, Kunta graduates to the second kafo. He begins to herd goats and go to school. When he is eight, Kunta goes with his father on a journey to visit the new village his uncles, Janneh and Saloum, have founded. By this time, he has formed a close relationship with his younger brother, Lamin.

At the age of ten, Kunta completes his schooling and goes through his manhood training with his mates. He moves into his own hut and gets his own land to farm. By fifteen, he has built a thriving farm. One day, while hunting for wood...

The story of the Amistad
Emma Gelders Sterne

Gripping tale of the epic 1839 voyage of the schooner Amistad and her cargo of Africans bound for slavery in the New World. The Africans revolt, seize the ship, and start for home. Are the rebellious slaves mutineers or honest men and women who sought to regain their freedom?

 

[Cliff@sea]

The Heart Of India
by Nirad C. Chaudhuri


The Heart Of India,the result of the author's life time effort to understand the nature of things Indian,describes the human situation in India after Independance.The author resorts to the historical method,and surprisingly encounters not staticity,but a continuing,dynamic,and even explosive process,within which history and geography have worked to create dissimilar communities and endless conflicts.In the process of research he works exhaustively with Indian ethnic communities.The account has the kaleidoscope quality of a motion picture,linking all historic events from Aryan migration upto Nehru's death in a coherent,though shifting perspective,which also reveals that the grip of established tradition on all communities has not relaxed.Yet the highlight of this book is undoubtedly the author's imaginative interpretation of the Hindu personality based on original sources.Chaudhuri's language is forceful and expressive,and his arguments are well defined and lucid.The Heart Of India is without doubt,one of this controversial author's most compelling and authoritative work - a landmark in Indian literary histroy. The book was originally published as "The Continent of Circe"..

A Classic book.
It is at par with socrates and plato for Indians.
Category it comes under is Psycho-History.
I hope it helps.

For Reviews ::
Amazon.com: The Heart of India (9788172240387): Nirad C. Chaudhuri: Books

 

[Cliff@sea]

^ Same book as above : Earlier Title ::

The Continent of Circe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Book was very Controversial to say the Least . . .Ruffled a lot of feathers , . . . Challenged, for the first time, some baseless presumptions prevalent in Indian Culture to this day and attempted to put them into a realistic historical perspective.

Its Hard to Agree with him on all counts but its impossible to Not see streaks of absolute and original Brilliance in the work . . .

Another Review:

This book deals with a subject matter that continues to remain controversial in present day. Speaking frankly about South Asian historical topics such as race, sexuality, and modern society, Chaudhuri presents a complex and thought provoking picture of the subcontinent. While certainly some of his points were in my opinion anachronistic, a significant amount of his arguments were not only convincing.They also effectively challenged mainstream historical perspectives heavily shaped by particular political leanings and unsubstantiated presumptions .

 

[ani82v]

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Black Swan 0141034599: Book: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (9780141034591) | Flipkart.com

In Black Swan: The Impact Of The Highly Improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb proposes a theory that discusses the extreme effects of unpredictable, one-of-a-kind events, and man's propensity to look for simple explanations for such events in retrospect.


Summary Of The Book

In Black Swan: The Impact of The Highly Improbable, the author projects randomness and uncertainty as a single idea. He puts forth a theory that promotes the idea and value of a society that stands robust in the face of negative events, and manipulates the positive ones to its advantage.


According to Taleb, a Black Swan event is a rare event that has large magnitude and powerful consequences owing to its unpredictability. Such an event is initially a surprise to its observer, but is rationalized by him/her in retrospect. World War I, the rise of the Internet,Big Bang Theory, and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center are cited as examples of Black Swan events.


About Nassim Nicholas Taleb


Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese author and professor. He is currently a professor at the Oxford University as well as the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.


He has numerous literary works to his credit, including The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical And Practical Aphorisms, Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role Of Chance In Life And In The Markets, Black Swan And Domains Of Statistics, Statistical Undecidability, Black Swan Of Cairo, and The Illusion Of Dynamic Replication.


Taleb has a narrative, non-technical style of writing, which borders on autobiography. His commentary intersperses scientific and historical perspectives with short philosophical stories. His writing has influenced several people, including the likes of author Malcolm Gladwell.


Taleb was born in Amioun, Lebanon. Hailing from a Greek Orthodox Lebanese family, he attended a French school. Taleb earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Science from the University Of Paris. He followed them up with an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and then a Ph.D. in Management Science from the University Of Paris (Dauphine). He is fluent in classical Arabic, English, and French. In 2004, he turned to full-time research as a university professor. He has also been a Wall Street trader and a hedge fund manager in the past. He is also a scientific adviser at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Universa Investments. The author lives in New York, where he spends most of his time.

 

[ani82v]

Becoming Indian 0143418238: Book: Pavan K. Varma (9780143418238) | Flipkart.com

Becoming Indian: The Unfinished Revolution of Culture And Identity

What are the consequences of Empire? Do they ever fade? In this follow- up to his bestselling book Being Indian, Pavan K. Varma takes a long hard look at our cultural psyche, sixty years after India's political liberation from Western colonial masters. Examining modern history, contemporary events and personal experience, he demonstrates, with passion, insight and impeccable logic, why India, and other formerly subject nations, can never truly be free—and certainly not in a position to assume global leadership—unless they reclaim their cultural identity.

 

[Predator]

Amazon.com: Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad (9781568590295): Ali Dashti, F. R. C. Bagley, F.R.C. Bagley: Books
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available here Twenty Three Years:

 

[skumar7777]

Trade, Development and Foreign Debt - Michael Hudson - review from Paul Craig Roberts in Counterpunch (explains how foreign trade and economic development have been used to concentrate economic power in the hands of dominant nations, what is really going on covered up with do-good verbiage and formal models and how trade and development are ways to colonize countries that think they are independent.)

Amazon.com: Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (9783980846691): Michael Hudson: Books

 

[pmaitra]

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Jennifer Government - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[KS]

Amazon.com: Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (9780394711959): V.S. Naipaul: Books

One of the best I've read.