Weekend reading and touring

More than 10 years managing programs at USIP have left me well behind in the bookreading category.  This week’s efforts will be focused on finishing Joseph Stiglitz’ and Linda Bilmes’ The Three Trillion Dollar War, now two years old but still edifying, and Michael Mandelbaum’s more recent and even more edifying The Frugal Superpower, which examines the constraints fiscal stringency will put on American foreign policy. Both are well-written, easy reads, on which I’ll comment more fully once I’ve finished them.

I’m also planning a visit today to President Lincoln’s Cottage, where he spent many nights during the Civil War.  Adjacent to a Union cemetery, the cottage is today largely unfurnished.  But the National Park Service tour somehow manages to evoke the environment in which Lincoln deliberated on slavery and war.  There is nothing like your own civil war for beginning to understand other people’s civil wars.

I’ll be on the road tomorrow but hope to be up and running again bright and early Monday.  Have a fine weekend!