Identity and Violence

Identity and Violence
- The illusion of destiny

Amartya Sen (Winner of the Nobel Prize)
- 2007

I read books such as "the clash of civilization" a few years ago. Although the viewpoints made there could not convince me, I never find good arguments against them until I read Amartya Sen's Identity and Violence.

It's amazingly true that a lot of bad things happened just because of the false sense of narrowed, boxed identity of this group or that group of people. The book opened my mind on a lot aspects such as globalization, culture and religion.

The world becomes more and more integrated and people becomes more and more connected. People shall choose their belief and their life based on reasoning rather than based on possibly often over-simplified stereotypes of culture and religion.

This book is highly recommended.

刀锋上的文明

刀锋上的文明
-- 宋辽金西夏的另类历史
梅毅（郝连勃勃大王）
2006年 中国海关出版社

上飞机前，我在北京首都机场买了这本书， 回西雅图后在时差完全调过来前很快就看完了。

我以前只读过宋史，没有看过辽，金和西夏的历史，对这几个少数民族政权的历史知道得很少，这部书填补了我这方面的空白。

书中对着当时中国的几个政权之间此消彼长的变叙述得很清楚。对很多历史人物的描述也有很多独到之处。

梅毅的文笔不错，历史在他的笔下不再枯燥。梅毅显然是一个爱憎分明，立场鲜明的人，忠君爱国，舍生取义的人，不论民族，他都尽量提及，而那些投敌求荣的人他也不会放过。也许这就是中国史家的一个传统。

建议大家读这本书。听说梅毅还写了一本魏晋南北朝的书，也很希望能尽快拜读。