World Military and Social Expenditures (1981-1996) Ruth Leger Sivard

Sivard maintained for many years a worldwide catalogue of military education and healthcare expenditures for each of the 191 countries.  One year she catalogued the deaths from each war in the twentieth century, mainly the 77 million in the two world wars, but also the many third world proxy wars costing tens of millions of lives during the Cold War.  From my point of view, her multi-decade bar charts of the G7 and leading economies of world showing how as military spending increases capital investment and manufacturing productivity decrease.

Climate and Life (1983) Steven Schneider

This is a fascinating account of the rise of life on planet Earth over 4.5 billion years. How volcanoes gave the early Earth water for the oceans and carbon dioxide for the atmosphere, the two key ingredients for plant life.  How for the first 2.2 billion years of 3.8 billion years of life, life existed without the benefit of even a cell wall in the primordial sea.  Here I learned in a paragraph the importance of evaporation as the main first use of solar energy (85%) and the main difference in heating rates of land and ocean. This leads to all that follows in my discovery of the natural global warming cycle origins of the Kondratieff Wave.  The book is an impressive tour de force by a leading climate scientist and journal editor.

Spirit Level (UK 2010 US 2011) Richard Wilkinson and Kate Puckett

These authors document the extensive relationship between social disfunction and rising income inequality.  Human beings, as social animals, do not relate well to a sharp rich poor divide.  Indeed, this may well have been the central message of Jesus of Nazareth.  Society operates better as equals than as lords and serfs.  The lack of social mobility, crime, and poor health are all functions of the Genie coefficient.  Also, anxiety levels continue to escalate over recent decades in America.

Guns, Germs, and Steel:  the Fate of Human Societies (1997) Jared Diamond

Diamond documents the emergence of Western civilization in a scientific non-racist way.  He notes the importance of large mammals to domesticate as a key.  No region of the world has more than one or two such animals except for the fertile crescent.  The cow goat sheep pig combination of four allowed mankind to inoculate from disease becoming hardier.  Later the separation into many nations allowed Europe to learn from others nation's mistakes and successes, speeding development.

Long Cycles (1987) Joshua S. Goldstein

This political scientist at MIT was no doubt influenced by J. W. Forrester's long cycle work in the business school.  Forrester founded system dynamics.  Goldstein tracks European war deaths as a percentage of the European population for each war since year 1500.  This five hundred year study clearly shows a robust 50 some year cycle in major wars.  I find a clear 54 year cycle in the start date of these major wars by my own analysis. 

Statistical Abstract of the United States (1899-2012)

My favorite here is the Bicentennial Edition showing a continuous record of economic data from 1889 to 1975, free from the obvious political bias of the individual year publications under various presidencies.  The rich variety and inherent accuracy of these records are confirmed by their use in my stunningly accurate economic model from 1920 to 1996 of the United States. Crime records and state by state military spending records are invaluable.  That this has been discontinued is a terrible shame.

Trends 90 (1990) Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center

This compendium of temperature records for various sections of the planet allows for the necessary data to document my natural cycle theory on several levels.  The key for me was graphing the difference between the annual warming records over the last century and a half of the Northern versus Southern Hemispheres.  This is a good proxy for the land versus the ocean.  The dominant Southern Hemisphere for the sixty years 1860 to 1920 and the subsequent Northern Hemisphere dominance of 48 years from 1921 to 1968 show the 108 year cycle that colors the successive 54 year cycles.  Now we are in a new Southern Hemisphere dominant cycle from 1969 to 2028.

1984 (1948) George Orwell

Orwell correctly anticipated the war is peace double speak of the Ronald Reagan re-election bid in 1984.  He saw how the Cold War was beginning to color our dialogue after World War Two.  He anticipated the tortured language and justifications of empire as power transferred from the British Empire to the American Century (a euphemism for American Empire).  Wars in this period of time are repeatedly justified with language later shown to be false and misleading, just aa in this great work by a great author.  Having read this book in the sixties, I later re-read it in 1984 and noted how well it described that year's dominant politics.

The Gospels of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)

The Sermon on the mount in Matthew's chapter four states that the peacemakers shall inherit the earth.  Indeed, this is the fundamental truth of Peace Economics.  Low military spending nations grow their economies faster than high military spending nations, eventually becoming dominant. Those nations who live by the sword die by the sword just as the gospels say.  As you sow, so shall you reap, and pride cometh before a fall also ring true in my Peace Economics research.

For a basic seven pages read on my ideas and background:

https://www.academia.edu/33884446/Main_Ideas_Summary_July_2017_7_pages

Please cite this work as follows:

Reuschlein, Robert. (2018, May 6), "Great Reads Make Theories", Madison, WI:  Real Economy Institute.  Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Great-Reads-Make-Theories,2018157177.aspx

Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute

Nominated Vetted 2016, Given Odds 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Possible Favorite in 2018 Nobel Peace Prize October 5th.

Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com, Info: www.realeconomy.com