Book Review

Victory has a Thousand Fathers – Sources of success in counter-insurgency

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

Interesting, but not extraordinary. This Rand research document discusses good and bad counterinsurgency or we may call it counterterrorism practices and derives conclusions that are educative to forces involved in CT operations. In all about 30 cases were taken for study. Having seen CT ops closely in Kashmir, AP, Chhattisgarh and North East, I can […]

The Misfit’s Manifesto (TED)

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

It is a different kind of book. ‘The Misfit’s Manifesto’ is a life story of the author, weaving into it the stories of several of her friends, who, starting off as misfits or different people, transformed their lives. Failed lives to fulfilling ones. It is not a book of psychiatry. It is rather a biography. […]

Kissinger the Negotiator – Lessons from Delamaking at the highest level

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

Henry Kissinger is rated as the best Secretary of State for the US in the last century. He is credited with path breaking negotiations with China, in West Asia n during the Vietnam War. This book analyses Kissinger’s negotiating skills and comes out with 15 lessons to be learnt. A good book to know what […]

Political Tribes – Group Instinct and the fate of Nations

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

Yale professor Ami Chua’s provocative, informative and thought-provoking work on new politics of identity. Very insightful. Primal group identities are today driving the political upheaval in the world, she argues citing countless examples. The racist side of the contemporary US politics that she highlights is frightening as also the duplicity and double-standards of the Left […]

The Twice Born – Life and Death of the Ganges

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

It stirs you up; fabulous and poignant. Aatish surpasses his own excellence, and presents another literary marvel in ‘The Twice-Born’. He proves his prowess once again as a master chronicler. The Benaras that we didn’t know, regardless of umpteen visits we might have made, is showcased; not just as a travel diary, but as a […]

Origin Story – A big history of everything from the Big Bang to the first stars, to our solar system, life on Earth, dinosaurs, homo sapiens, agriculture, an ice age, empires, fossil fuels, a Moon landing and mass globalisation. And what happens next …

Ram Madhav, May 4, 2020

Most fascinating, complex, illuminating and often frightening history of ‘us’, from the origin of the universe to an unknown future. Except for the part dealing with the evolution of the human race, where one can get less convinced about the very linear nature of it, the entire book keeps you spellbound, makes it a mind-boggling […]