OPINION

Three Books to Better Understand the World Around You

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Benjamin Franklin once said, “The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.” Perhaps that quote should be amended to say, “The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a Coronavirus quarantine who doesn’t know how to read.” Now, as millions of Americans are forced to spend more time indoors, many are wondering how to pass the time. Here are three books you can use to help better understand the world you now live in.

Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy by George Gilder

“The Age of Google, built on big data and machine intelligence, has been an awesome era. But it’s coming to an end,” the book’s jacket copy explains. In Life after Google, “George Gilder—the peerless visionary of technology and culture—explains why Silicon Valley is suffering a nervous breakdown and what to expect as the post–Google age dawns.”

You’re likely using less and less physical money, even before you started your quarantine. Perhaps you own some cryptocurrency. Is this technology good for just making online purchases? Or is there something more to it?

Life after Google is the book to understand what the technology of the future looks like, and how you can take advantage of it today. Gilder brilliantly explains how the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will free us all from the tyranny of unwanted advertisements and needless invasions of privacy by big tech giants.

Gilder, long heralded as one of President Ronald Reagan’s greatest thinkers, published this book in 2018 and has sold thousands of copies, earning praise from across the technology and financial markets.

Billionaire Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, praises Gilder, saying, “Google’s algorithms assume the world’s future is nothing more than the next moment in a random process. George Gilder shows how deep this assumption goes, what motivates people to make it, and why it’s wrong: the future depends on human action.”

“This [blockchain] is a movement that is just as important as the original internet movement,” Gilder once explained.

Life after Google is your guide to this new movement and a must-read book for an in-depth look at how our entire economy will change thanks to cryptocurrencies.

Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America by Mark Levin

“America’s founding fathers had a clear and profound vision for what they wanted our federal government to be,” Mark R. Levin explains in his first book, Men in Black. “But today, our out-of-control Supreme Court imperiously strikes down laws and imposes new ones to suit its own liberal whims––robbing us of our basic freedoms and the values on which our country was founded.”

What has happened to the Constitution in America, and what role has the Supreme Court played? Perhaps you’re wondering what authority the federal government has to insert its power into your everyday life. Levin, now known around the world for his brilliant legal expertise and political commentary, shines in Men in Black and gives you a crash course in understanding how the third branch of the federal government is screwing you over.

Publishers Weekly says, “Many like-minded critics are certain to be galvanized by this spirited ‘clarion call,’ which is bookended by raves from conservative radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh and former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III.”

Levin’s Men in Black is required reading to understand how once this crisis is over, conservatives’ first focus should be on limiting the powers of the Supreme Court to preserve their freedoms.

September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series by Skip Desjarden

The more things change, the more they stay the same. More than 100 years ago, in September 1918, three things came to Boston: war, plague, and the World Series.

Suppose you want to understand what precedent America has for dealing with a world threatening sports, our daily way of life, and an indiscriminate virus impacting every single America? Look no further than Desjarden’s September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series. September 1918 is perfect for sports fans missing the excitement of baseball, great for historians wondering how America has dealt with pandemics in the past, and a fantastic read studying World War I.

In the tradition of Erick Larsen's best-selling Devil in the White City, September 1918 is a haunting three-dimensional recreation of a moment in history almost too cinematic to be real.

As Connecticut sportswriter Dom Amore recently said, “If you’re looking for some relevant reading, I recommend this Skip Desjardin book, which weaves together fascinating stories of the 1918 World Series, WWI, and the Spanish Flu pandemic. You’ll learn a lot.”

Three books from Regnery Publishing dealing with different, but all-too-important topics of technology, the law, and history. This time of self-quarantine can be used to help understand the laws currently governing you, the technology of the future, and the lessons from the past.