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Societies plunge into chaos when two preconditions are met. The first is anocracy - the transition zone between democracy and dictatorship. Doesn't matter which way they're moving, it's the change, like a hermit crab getting a new shell, that creates the hazard.

The second is factionalization. We've got well past political parties and into a world where changing is as momentous as converting to a new religion. We mix a little bit less each day and it feels like violence is never very far away.

America has multiple aggrieved ethnic and sectarian groups. The only way to climb down from this is to focus on democratic participation, as South Africa did in the 1990s. The GOP are dragging us precisely in the wrong direction, making violent conflict inevitable.

Orlov's experience of the Soviet collapse and his observations on where American society is in less resilient condition got my attention when I read it clear back in 2008. Some of the things about the Trump years that puzzled and infuriated people around me were what I expected, having read this book well in advance.

Orlov is a sharp observer and despite its age this is still a good read, given the troubles we face today.

This book covers the work Pakistan's ISI did supporting the Afghan mujahideen in their battle to expel Russia from their country. I have heard that when this came out CIA personnel bought every copy they could find in order to limit its distribution. I've read a lot of war history over the years, this is one of the absolute best in that genre.

This was one of the first books I picked up during my western history reading phase twenty years ago, and it's the one in my memory that stands out as being a really good read for background on what's happening there today. There are echoes of the Ottoman collapse to be seen in Russia's current convulsions, so it's good for more than just the Kosovo/Serbia conflict.

This late 1990s political thriller has always seemed fairly prophetic to me. The social constructs and the problems a post collapse America faces in this book are eerily similar to what a quick spin around the news channels on YouTube will show you of 2022.

I have owned three or four copies of this book; it's so good it keeps walking off. I have a fresh copy I acquired in later 2022 that I intend to reread in the first quiet moment ... if 2023 manages to provide such a luxury.

From the bitter loss of JFK to saving Reagan, the Secret Service is the president's shield. But the troubles that began during the Clinton years spiraled up to the agency leadership participating in Trump's coup attempt. The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service is the perfect summation of what this book chronicles.

During the fall of 2001 Mike German was before a Senate panel, talking about various problems with the FBI's policing methods. Then 911 happened and instead of reform, things got SO much worse.

If you want to know all the grim details, this is a fine place to start.

I know a LOT about MAGA world. I was really excited when this book came out and it's OK as a spy novel, but as a review of history there are way too many instances where Unger does some hand waving to connect things that, if true, would be truly explosive. There are a dozen books on my shelf related to the Trump years, taking the time to read this one left me filled with regret.