Recently Mentioned Books

Tim Rogan, The Moral Economists: R.H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E.P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism .  The subtitle says it all.  People talk less about Tawney these days, but his book is well worth reading if you don’t already know it.

John C. Hulsman, To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk .  A consistently interesting history of political risk analysis, I most liked this sentence: “The chapters themselves are baroque in structure, a fond homage to the genius of the pioneering musician and peerless producer Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, particularly his work on his masterpiece Pet Sounds .”

Shaun Walker, The Long Hangover: Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past .  Most of all useful for the Russia-Ukraine recent history.

I do not have time to read it now, but this appears to be an amazing and very high quality volume: David Biale, et.al., Hasidism: A New History , over 800 pp. but it does all appear to be well-written and also interesting, often gripping.

That is the subtitle, the title is No Ordinary Woman , and the author is Angela Penrose, daughter-in-law of Edith.  Here is one sentence:

And I very much enjoyed reading Ross’s forthcoming book To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism , which I found totally engrossing.

I think it’s probably fair to say that Chesterton’s Father Brown stories had as much influence on my worldview as his more sort of polemical and argumentative writings. And, again, I think therein lies some important insight that I haven’t thought through, but I think you’re correctly gesturing at, about a particular way of thinking about God and theology that isn’t unique to Christianity, but that is strongly suggested by just the structure of the revelation that we have. Marilynne Robinson has...

Here is the full review, which also covers Susan Wise Bauer’s Rethinking School .  You can buy Bryan’s book here .

Here is the full review, which also covers Susan Wise Bauer’s Rethinking School .  You can buy Bryan’s book here .

That is from Charles Albro Barker’s Henry George , still a useful biography.  Barker points out, by the way, that the notion of a “single tax” on land barely appears in Progress and Poverty , as at that time George was more focused on land nationalization.  The single tax idea became more prominent a bit later in the 1880s.

That is from Ingrid Semmingsen, Norway to America: A History of the Migration , and I believe the original reference is to ” Immigration and Insanity: A Study of Mental Disease Among the Norwegian-born Population of Minnesota,” Ø Ødegaard – Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, Suppl, 1932.”  Here is a related post on gene-culture interaction .

19. Japan : In the old days I might have suggested Karel von Wolferen , but now it is badly out of date.  What else?

18. Singapore and Malaysia : Jim Baker, Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore.

15. India: Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India .  Or India , by Michael Wood.

15. India: Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India .  Or India , by Michael Wood.

12. Mexico ; Alan Riding, Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans .  Even though it, like the Barzini book, is out of date.

10. The United States : Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America .  Or de Tocqueville?  John Gunther’s Inside U.S.A. ?

10. The United States : Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America .  Or de Tocqueville?  John Gunther’s Inside U.S.A. ?

9. Ukraine : Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine.

8. Russia : Geoffrey Hosking, Russia and the Russians .  One of the very best books on this list.

5. France : Graham Robb: The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography .

4. Spain : John Hooper, The Spaniards .

3. Italy : Luigi Barzini, The Italians .  Or David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Peoples, and their Regions .

3. Italy : Luigi Barzini, The Italians .  Or David Gilmour, The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Peoples, and their Regions .

2. Germany : Peter Watson, The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century .