StonerBook John Williams
Williams sees a soul where others see a stand-in.
Greer's book note on John Williams's novel about an unremarkable middle-aged professor.
2025-06-20·scholars-stage.org ↗
Recommendations you can check.
Writer and analyst on Chinese politics, strategy and cultural history; author of the blog The Scholar's Stage and director of the Center for Strategic Translation.
5 things
StonerBook John Williams
Williams sees a soul where others see a stand-in.
Greer's book note on John Williams's novel about an unremarkable middle-aged professor.
2025-06-20·scholars-stage.org ↗
The Early Chinese Empires: Han and QinBook Mark Edward Lewis
Mark Edward Lewis' The Early Chinese Empires: Han and Qin is probably the best companion piece to your Sima Qian readings
Greer answers a reader who wanted the historical background needed to read the East Asian section of his Great Books list.
2022-07-01·scholars-stage.org ↗
Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900Book David Graff
David Graff's Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900 is actually a political-institutional history of China from 200 AD-1000 AD, and is probably the best political narrative history we have for the time period.
Greer answers a reader who wanted the historical background needed to read the East Asian section of his Great Books list.
2022-07-01·scholars-stage.org ↗
Early China: A Social and Cultural HistoryBook Feng Li
Feng Li's Early China: A Social and Cultural History is a staid yet serviceable overview of the pre-imperial period.
Greer answers a reader who wanted the historical background needed to read the East Asian section of his Great Books list.
2022-07-01·scholars-stage.org ↗
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the WestBook Alexander Karp and Nicholas Zamiska
In form and tone it resembles a business class airport book—and this comparison is insulting to the airport paperbacks.
Greer's book note on the Palantir CEO's book, which he calls by far the most disappointing book he read that year.
2025-12-10·scholars-stage.org ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.