Hacker News Books

1. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

2.Too Big to Fail: Inside the Battle to Save Wall by Andrew Ross Sorkin

>"Lincoln's War Cabinet by Hendrick Burton - learn to surround yourself with ideas you don't necessarily agree with and be influenced by the most unlikely minds"

"Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin explores the same topic, specifically how Lincoln made up his cabinet from talented rivals.

Apparently Obama referred to this book (reference http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/obama-propos...) which made me curious enough to buy it. It is a great read and a fascinating study in leadership.

Right, so let's agree to a system when the government will open every letter, scan the contents, save them to a database, but not read them until after they've run some analysis and determined that your specific letter is of interest. That is precisely what they're doing here, except on a much larger scale than the post office could ever fathom.

It is shocking to compare this to the past. I've just finished reading "Team of Rivals", a biography of Lincoln, and the amount of deeply sensitive stuff that these high-level politicians shared in personal letters to their loved ones and colleagues is astonishing. No politician today would ever put such stuff in writing - if it got into the wrong hands, it could cause incalculable damage to their reputations, relationships, etc. Those guys were being entirely honest in hand-written letters that were delivered days away in different states by a very rudimentary postal system. They clearly had complete trust in the sanctity of the privacy of their letters.

This level of trust in the US government (or any, in fact) is pretty much unthinkable today. We (the people) have lost a lot of valuable ground here.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Doris Kearns Goodwin.

I think this can be addressed by really thinking about your users and their profile. If these people tend to like to be informed about unique or little-known facts, they are probably fairly inquisitive. They might even like brain teasers, quiz games, etc. I think you should test this out by including one or two featured links to products that your market might appreciate.

For example, when talking about the Abe Lincoln/Secret Service example you might include further reading about Abe Lincoln with a link to the book Team of Rivals. This is a good example of an obvious subject-link related to the little-known fact. However, you could also include links to trivia games on Amazon, or general knowledge books like the World Almanac of Presidential Facts. I would include some humor in your links as well.

Take your best ideas and include a short survey in your email to get your users' opinion on the options.

There's evidence Bannon has been the chief author behind some of the recent executive orders. Especially the immigration order. Trump is arrogant but he's very easily influenced. And I'm not convinced he even understands what he is signing.

His antisemitism has been well documented. How he gets along with Kushner and Ivanka, I have no idea. I suspect they don't get along at all. There will plenty of books on Trump's Team of Rivals, though probably much less glowing than for Lincoln's similar team.

One reference for Bannon's antisemitism: http://www.timesofisrael.com/stephen-bannon-5-things-jews-ne...

Speaking of which: I also wouldn't be surprised if Bannon is behind Trump's recent Holocaust statement in which Jews aren't mentioned at all.

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America - Really interesting to hear about the atrocities of the Nazis and the need of the Americans that they would actively recruit war criminals to keep up with the Russians.

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America - I read this a few years after Hurricane Katrina. It provides some historical context to the problems of Katrina, especially the levee system

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln - This is the current book to read on Lincoln

The Island at the Center of the World - If you're interested in NYC history this is one of the books to read.

American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation This is a must-read if you're interested in religion in the US

EDIT: formatting and switched out the Triumph of William McKinley with American Gospel

(I assume this is posted because of the preamble on legal realism and George Floyd, which I'm addressing.)

I just finished _Team of Rivals_, an excellent history of Lincoln and the Civil War. Specifically, the political and administrative side of the war, with a lot less focus on the military aspects.

Something that really popped out at me from the book is how often public opinion is in a feedback loop with the law. Both the formal bits and the realist bits.

I think Levine is right when he says that the law is, more-or-less, what the people with tear gas do. But what the people with tear gas can get away with is partly determined by where public opinion is. And even if the laws about restricting police and military actions are often worthless, other laws matter. Like budgets, and procurement rules. Police can't fire tear gas if they can't buy it.

There's no shortcut, but not all is hopeless. Don't give up.