Recently Mentioned Books

4. Nils Karlson, Statecraft and Liberal Reform in Advanced Democracies .  How did liberal reforms happen in Australia and Sweden?  This book tells you about the world, rather than the theory or the taxonomy.  There should be many more books of this sort, a study in actual public choice.

3. Barry Hatton, The Portuguese: A Modern History .  “Portugal largely missed the Enlightenment.”  This is the best introduction I know to that charming country.  In 1986, Portugal had only 123 miles of highway.  It had not occurred to me, by the way, that the 1974 coup was the first Western European revolution since 1848, unless you count the Nazis.  Here is a picture showing Portugal as an Atlantic rather than Mediterranean economy .  Explanation here .

2. Richard McGregor, Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century .  I am sick of books on these topics, because they tend to repeat the same old same old.  This one has fresh content on almost every page, and it is especially strong on explaining how the revisionist history debates in China and Japan fit into domestic politics and also foreign policy.

1. The New Testament , translated by David Bentley Hart, Yale University Press.  I’ve spent a good bit of time with this book, and if you own and read a few New Testaments, this should be one of them.  It is the most accurate translation conceptually and philosophically, taking care to render the Greek of that period as faithfully as possible.  It doesn’t try to make the text “read nice,” nor does it make all of the books sound the same.  Of course, with any Bible translation you care both about...

Doug has a very exciting new book on the history of trade coming out , which I covered here .  Here is Doug on Twitter .  Here is Doug’s recent WSJ Op-Ed on Steve Bannon, trade, and the history of America’s greatness .

6. Like David Brooks , I enjoyed Eli J. Finkel’s The All-or-Nothing Marriage .

The author is Mehrsa Baradaran, and the subtitle is Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap .  Here is one excerpt:

5. William Ian Miller, The Anatomy of Disgust . Miller’s books from the 1990s remain an underrated source of “stuff for smart people.”  His book on disgust could be the best in that series, for me this is a reread and yes it did hold up.

4. Stephen Greenblatt, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve .  In general I am a Greenblatt fan, and not persuaded by the critics of his popularizations, but this book is not doing it for me.  For the Hebrew Bible I prefer to read densely argued Straussians.

3. Fred Hersch, Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life in and Out of Jazz .  How someone from a previous generation a) became a star jazz pianist, b) discovered gay liberation, and c) woke from a coma to resume a miraculous career.

2. Declan Kiberd, After Ireland: Writing the Nation from Beckett to the Present .  A very high quality and original look at how Irish literature reflects the nation’s development, though it assumes a fair knowledge of the works being discussed.

1. Peter Sloterdijk, Selected Exaggerations: Conversations and Interviews, 1993-2012 .  No, he’s not a fraud, and this volume is probably the best introduction to his thought.  Is there an extended argument here?  I am not sure, but I did enjoy this bit:

1. Robert H. Bates, The Development Dilemma: Security, Prosperity, & a Return to History , provides an interesting look at Kenya vs. Zambia with regard to state capacity, and drawing some parallels to earlier England vs. France.

That is the new biography by William Taubmann , who won a Pulitzer for his Khruschev book .  At first I didn’t want to read it, feeling I was already too familiar with the topic, but it was a fascinating treatment throughout, with many revelations.  It is perhaps the best overall treatment of how the Soviet Union collapsed, and the parts on Gorbachev’s early career provide a superior look at how Soviet bureaucracy and the Communist Party actually functioned.

That is the new biography by William Taubmann , who won a Pulitzer for his Khruschev book .  At first I didn’t want to read it, feeling I was already too familiar with the topic, but it was a fascinating treatment throughout, with many revelations.  It is perhaps the best overall treatment of how the Soviet Union collapsed, and the parts on Gorbachev’s early career provide a superior look at how Soviet bureaucracy and the Communist Party actually functioned.

1. Forthcoming collection of Eugene Fama papers .

I have several other of his books in my pile to read; this latest one focuses much of its energy on Lacan and also the Slovenian theorist Alenka Zupančič .  It turns out Žižek also is a big fan of Liu Cixin and The Three-Body Problem .

That is the new, forthcoming Žižek book , here is one brief excerpt:

That is from the new and excellent Jean M. Twenge, iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood .

Barry Riley, The Political History of American Food Aid: An Uneasy Benevolence , I have only perused bits, but it seems to be the book to read or own on this topic.

John L. Campbell and John A. Hall, The Paradox of Vulnerability: States, Nationalism & the Financial Crisis , considers the state capacities of Denmark, Ireland, and Switzerland in responding to the financial crisis.  I liked what was there, though wanted more.

Thomas S. Mullaney, The Chinese Typewriter: A History , is a thorough and informative treatment of what its title suggests.  Here is a WSJ review .

Brian Fagan, Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization .

Lizzie Collingham, The Hungry Empire: How Britain’s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World , with a slightly different title for the U.S. edition, and

3. Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 .  This will make the year’s “best of” list for sure.  I’m not usually a fan of reading a 900 pp. plus survey book to cover a period of more than three decades.  Usually too much stays superficial, and the author does not apply consistent quality standards to the whole work, if any of it.  But this book is interesting and informative on virtually every page, and it is unfortu...