August 11, 2026

Best Non-fiction Reads of 2012

Last year was a great year for good books. I tend to prefer history over other topics, but this year’s non-fiction picks included sociology, economics, and literature…but all, still, with a link to history.

In no particular order, then, my favorite non-fiction reads of 2012 are…

Book Review: “Civilization: the West and the Rest” by Niall Ferguson

With that flippant, matter of fact, almost “devil may care” attitude then, Ferguson determines to take the reader through a grand narrative of the last five hundred years, identifying six “killer apps” that Western civilization adopted to rise to a dominance unmatched in breadth and duration in human history. It is this broad overview, as told in Ferguson’s urgent and quick witted voice, that makes the extended argument so interesting and in an age of multicultural relativism, refreshing.

Much ado about immigration in Utah

Image via Wikipedia There’s a scandal brewing in Utah over a list of alleged illegal immigrants that was sent to a number of government leaders with a demand for action.  A conservative bastion in the west, even the lone Democrat in Utah’s congressional delegation, Jim Matheson, votes with his Republican colleagues almost as often as he does with Nancy […]