I have always been a fan of tables and matrices – reducing ideas to the simple format of a 2x2 or 6x3 (or whatever) table. They not only relieve the text but force you to whittle text down to the bare essentials. Perhaps that’s why I love these Central Asian and Russian miniatures so much. And it might also explain my preference for ESSAYS as against books - for which I’m developing increasing distaste. London, of course, from the 16th to the 19th centuries, was home to the great Englosh essayists - Francis Bacon. (1561-1626); Joseph Addison (1672-1719) William Hazlitt (1778-1830) and Charles Lamb (1775- 1834)
But, these days, I am more interested în the political essayists – two of whom I would like to draw to me readers’ attention, a Brit and a German William Davies is one of my favourite political scientists with several books
to his credit. He’s just penned a review of two important books about the apparent decline of the left and some of his other essays can be found here This is not normal – the collapse of Liberal Britain is a collection of his
essays which appeared in 2020. Wolfgang Streeck is a German sociologist whose writing has been celebrated
several times on this blog. But I have failed to mention the essays he gave us
in Critical Encounters – capitalism, democracy, ideas (2020) which reviews
books by the likes of Mark Blyth, Perry Anderson, Quinn Slobodian, Yanis
Varoufakis, Jurgen Habermas and Peter Mair. It’s
... a collection of essays on political economy, stimulated by reading books for review. It is also a celebration of the book as a medium of communication among scholars and with a wider public....
Different book reviews by the same author, as collected in this volume, are only loosely connected: by accident of personal acquaintance, of time believed to be free, or of the reviewer’s sense of adventure.
How to review a book that is worthy of being reviewed? For me it requires deep reading, beginning usually with the last chapter, then the introduction, then several expeditions into the interior. This takes time. During reading sessions, I highlight what I find remarkable and sketch my own emerging views in the margins, or on the last pages where the publisher advertises other, often related, books. When I am finished with a book, it looks a little deranged. Having let it sit for a while in this condition, I return to it and read my notes. Where they yield a pattern, for example by repeating themselves, is where the reading has left an impact. Then I begin writing. Writing book reviews means taking the book seriously as a vehicle of scholarly communication; or, as in my case, even extolling it. In the social sciences, journal articles have come to predominate, which I find deplorable.
On the logic of minimalism, I should be a fan of poetry but draw the line at Brecht, Burns, Eliot and Mitchell (Adrian)
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