The ruins of yesterday and tomorrow.

In the empire of the messianic neurotics.

Since the holidays I’ve become engaged in two two-volume biographies: Ramachandra Guha’s life of Mohandas Gandhi, and Stephen Kotkin’s life of Josef Stalin. Gandhi is not of particular interest to me, but Guha is in the category of writers — alongside Mark Bowden, Rick Atkinson, and others — whose books I will always buy regardless of the subject matter…