In his new history of Rome, Kyle Harper recounts how 6th-century Romans reeled before a new pathogen which wiped out 20-30 percent of the population. Edward N. Luttwak, reviewing The Fate of Rome in Tablet, praises Harper, who cites evidence pointing to Yersinia pestis, better known as the bubonic plague in its much later return as the “Black Death.”

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


