2025 Kvetching & Books
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Robert Moses
15 min read
The author mentions reading 'The Power Broker' about Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Moses was the controversial 'master builder' who reshaped New York City's infrastructure for decades, and understanding his methods and legacy provides deep context for urban planning, power politics, and the tension between progress and community displacement.
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Six-Day War
13 min read
The author describes Michael Oren's book on the Six-Day War as 'genuinely thrilling to read' and discusses multiple books on Israeli history. This 1967 conflict fundamentally reshaped the Middle East and remains central to understanding current Israeli-Palestinian tensions, making it highly relevant educational context.
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Berlin Blockade
11 min read
The author notes that Truman 'navigated the Berlin embargo without getting into nuclear war' - referring to the 1948-49 Berlin Blockade and subsequent airlift. This was a pivotal early Cold War crisis that tested American resolve and established patterns for superpower confrontation, providing rich historical context for the Truman discussion.
First, a request.
Yaacov Levitan was killed at the Bondi Massacre. Our sons are friends and classmates. He leaves behind a wife and 4 kids. I would be deeply grateful if you would contribute directly to his family here.
I have never asked for any payment or a donation before. I am asking this once.
For donations of any size, I will give you a shout out in a future post.
For donations >A$300 I will give you a 1 hour video call.
For donations >A$1,000 I will try and write a kvetch of your choice — subject to appropriate discourse and it falling within my circle of competence — happy to discuss first.
Just give directly and send me proof and we’ll sort something out.
See Kvetching & Books 2022, 2023, 2024
Well that was a miserable end to the year.
On 1 November I wrote:
You don’t want to wait for an illness or some other calamity to strike you or a loved one to realise how good you have it. And besides — at least you’re not on the Eastern Front.
For some, it may as well have been the Eastern Front.
My most popular post this year (and ever) was Ambitious Australia. An uncharacteristically optimistic kvetch perhaps, there’s a lot of pent up energy for high agency, big vision optimism for Australia.
This was followed by my chat with Tyler Cowen, then my recent spicy take on male inadequacy, then my take on WWII’s Eastern Front (that was a brutal rabbit hole). Somehow my piece on Helen Garner’s memoir and the movie Conclave did good numbers, the latter (I am told) in Catholic group chats.
I’ve noticed my Australia essays having an impact on discourse (e.g. on Abul Rizvi and Australia’s bureaucracy, Australian identity, and political stirrings). They’re a mix of reaction and a culmination of a couple years of Australian history reading. I find it odd that US institutions occasionally reach out for me to write for them and Australian ones never do. I know you guys read this :)
This year I wrote a few pieces that I decided would be best left in my drafts folder. One is ‘Sabra and Shatila was a Stitch Up’, but feels too niche and curmudgeonly even for me. Another is ‘Immigration is a Choice’ but I ...
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