The last batch of books from my book order arrived a couple of days ago... and again, a bit of a varied bunch of things to read. Ranging from Current Affairs/Politics, to History/Education, and then to a touch of Physics.

The first on the list was the actual reason why I did a book order in the first place. The History of Australia Schooling is a required textbook for a course that I'm doing. Actually, the development of education over the years in the Australian context is pretty interesting. The way that it has developed, shaped by societal and political demands, means that it has evolved into something that probably could use a complete overhaul... except for the problem that there are now too many entrenched interests to really make that possible, despite the fact that incentives are skewed and outcomes are less than ideal for most of the schooling population. So, pretty much the same story as everywhere in society really...

With the Falling of the Dusk is an intriguing book on current affairs by the Australian journalist, Stan Grant. I'm a bit up in the air about Stan Grant... I'm not really sure if I always agree with his ideas and analysis... but they are still pretty interesting to follow and to try to understand. This particular book deals with the fairly current rise of China and the idea that the world is at a crossroads, and a crisis... I think with the idea that liberal democracies have possibly failed. Or at least that they are under serious challenge by non-liberal, non-democracies.

The blurb references the Fukuyama "End of History" essay and set of essays. Using the same tired idea that suggests that Fukuyama was too early in his declaration that liberal democracies represented the "end of history". Oddly enough, when I read the Fukuyama essays... I didn't come away with the notion that liberal democracies were the natural endpoint of human societies and political organisation... There are so many people that seem to have taken that away as the primary notion, and I think that that is just a shallow analysis that is a bit of a TL;DR version. I understood the Fukuyama thesis to be that liberal democracies were outwardly perceived to be "weak" in comparison "strong" styles of regimes and organisations... but that was their innate strength, their flexibility... meaning that they would be a point of political and organisational stability, in comparison to "strong" regimes that would require ever increasing force and coercion to maintain. As far as I can remember, he never made the point that liberal democracies would be the end all... I believe that there was mention that they could also fall out of stability, and move to a different style... but that outward strength would always remain a weakness that would eventually erode to a "weaker" form of governance.

Lastly... ,the original Mr Tompkins by Gamov. This is a entertaining romp through Theoretical Physics ideas... told in a storybook style, but re-imagining the various "weird" effects occurring at our macro-human sized experience of the universe. I read the newer comic book version with my older daughter... and I'm really keen to introduce her to the older original version by the father.

So... there you have it... that completes my book order, and I have lots of things to ponder over in the coming months!

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