Person
Every book Sarah Paine recommended on podcasts
Sarah Paine’s most recommended books
- The Art of War by Sun Tzu
- Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow
- Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
- The Old Regime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville
- Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
- Code of the Samurai by Thomas Cleary
- On War by Carl von Clausewitz
- The Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, D. E. Tarver
- The Political Thought of Mao Tsê-tung ; [selected and Translated By] Stuart R. Schram. Enlarged and Revised Ed by Zedong Mao
- The prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Sarah Paine appeared on the Dwarkesh Podcast to discuss historical conflicts, political theory, and military strategy while referencing several foundational texts. During her discussions, she highlighted Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution, pointing to his observations on how governments are most vulnerable when they begin to reform and discussing the final days of the French monarchy before the revolution. Paine also invoked Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, analyzing strategies such as disrupting alliances, isolating adversaries, and motivating people through fear, love, and hate. Discussing the history of modern China, she grounded her presentations in Stuart R. Schram's multi-volume work on the political thought of Mao Zedong, describing how Schram compared complete works across different published editions to track historical changes. Furthermore, she discussed Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China, characterizing it as a longstanding primary source and the original footnote in Western knowledge of Mao, detailing how Snow conducted interviews and navigated draft corrections with Mao and his translators to document a previously unrecorded historical era.
Books recommended by Sarah Paine
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The Art of War
The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an ancient military treatise offering timeless strategic principles on leadership, outmaneuvering adversaries, and conflict resolution.
Discussed“Here you have Sun Tzu, who's China's big guru, Art of War, who's talking about how it's really important to disrupt alliances.”
Where to get it
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Red Star Over China
Discussed“What Edgar Snow writes, Red Star Over China, you can probably go to Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy there. It's been in print ever since, and it's the original footnote in Chinese history because no one knew anything about Mao.”
Where to get it
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Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is a foundational sociological and political study analyzing the structure, culture, and institutions of American society from the perspective of an outside observer.
Recommended“This gentleman, Alexis de Tocqueville, is very famous for writing a book about the last days of the French monarchy before the French Revolution overturned it. He also wrote something about Democracy in America, both excellent books.”
Where to get it
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The Old Regime and the Revolution
The Old Regime and the Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville is a historical analysis examining the final days of the French monarchy and the conditions that preceded the French Revolution.
Recommended“This gentleman, Alexis de Tocqueville, is very famous for writing a book about the last days of the French monarchy before the French Revolution overturned it. He also wrote something about Democracy in America, both excellent books.”
Where to get it
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Bushido, the Soul of Japan
Discussed“And I'm going to use as my cultural bridge this man Nito Inazo who wrote a book much later in 1900 Bushido's soul of Japan. Why am I doing this? He provides a concise definition of Bushido.”
Where to get it
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Code of the Samurai
Discussed“What they have is Bushido Code of the Samurai. It's a whole literature and it was written in the Tokagawa period which quite ironically was a period known for peace not warfare never mind.”
Where to get it
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On War
On War by Carl von Clausewitz is a foundational treatise on military strategy, political theory, and the nature of armed conflict, written by the Prussian general following the Napoleonic Wars.
Discussed“So the Japanese don't have just the one book like Sununza's the art of war or Clausowitz's on war. What they have is Bushido Code of the Samurai.”
Where to get it
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The Hagakure
The Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and D.
Discussed“Here's my first piece of the Tokagawa literature. Yamamotosmo's the Hagaur that he wrote in the early 18th century. It translates variously as hidden leaves, hidden by the leaves.”
Where to get it
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The Political Thought of Mao Tsê-tung ; [selected and Translated By] Stuart R. Schram. Enlarged and Revised Ed
Discussed“This presentation is based on the first eight volumes of Stuart Schram's Collected Works of Mao. What Schram did is he compared Mao's complete works, as published in the 1950s, to whatever he could find as the earliest version of whatever it was.”
Where to get it
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The prince
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is a classic 16th-century political treatise offering a pragmatic, unflinching guide on how political power is acquired, maintained, and wielded.
Discussed“I'll give you some Machiavelli on this one. He's the founding father of political science. He talked about motivating people with fear, love, and hate. He's talking about it in The Prince.”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“He needed to read Mein Kampf to understand, "No, you're a menu item for Hitler. He's eventually going to come around."”