Recently Mentioned Books

1. George W. Bush, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors .  Not only are the paintings good, but this book is the perfect antidote to too much time spent on Twitter, especially if you read the text about all the injuries sustained.

That is all from the forthcoming Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy , by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake.  Their discussion of venture capital offers further points of interest, including a discussion of why it is so hard to replicate VC environments in other settings.  Here is my previous post on the book .

I’ve been reading the forthcoming Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of the Intangible Economy , by Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, which is one of this year’s most important and stimulating economic reads (I can’t say it is Freakonomics-style fun, but it is well-written relative to the nature of its subject matter.)

The author is Jeffrey Gettleman, the subtitle is A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival , and this travel romance of East Africa has taken a beating on Twitter and elsewhere, for its apparently “neo-colonial” approach.  I bought the book, wondering if I might find a contrarian take to offer.  I’ve only browsed it, but here was one random passage I ran across, noting the scene will culminate in the two making out (and perhaps intercourse?):

That is from the excellent The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains , by Thomas Laqueur.  Here is a truly splendid Marina Warner review of the book .

Jean Tirole, Economics for the Common Good , with nary an equation in sight.

Robert Wuthnow, American Misfits and the Making of Middle Class Respectability .

6. Orhan Pamuk, The Red-Haired Woman .  Eh. Contrived.

5. Beowulf, translated by Stephen Mitchell .  I cannot judge veracity, but to read this is in the top tier of Beowulf renderings to date.  The Old English is presented on the opposing page, this book I will keep.

4. Cynthia Estlund, A New Deal for China’s Workers? The best book I know on labor unions and labor policy in China: “It surprises many Westerners to learn that the labor standards established by Chinese law on the books, apart from actual wage levels, track modern Western (especially European) labor standards rather closely in many respects…Professor Gallagher has described China’s labor standards regime as one of “high standards-low enforcement.””

3. Robert B. Ekelund, Jr., John D. Jackson, and Robert D. Tollison, The Economics of American Art: Issues, Artists, and Market Institutions .  A useful overview and survey of the role of economics in the development of art markets in American history.

2. Alex Millmow, A History of Australasian Economic Thought .  A very good introduction, New Zealand too.  There is no problem filling a book with substance on this topic, in fact it left me wanting more.

1. Karl Ove Knausgaard, Autumn .  While this volume of very short essays does reflect a literary sensibility, I didn’t find it fun or insightful to read.  By the way, “Vomit is usually yellowish and can range from pale yellow to yellowish-brown, with certain areas of quite different colours, like red or green.”  So I suppose the Knausgaard canon really is just the first two volumes of My Struggle .

That is from William Wilson in American Affairs , hat tip goes to Garett Jones and Rogue WPA Staff .  Here is Jason Kuznicki’s new book , which I have not yet seen.

Here is an adaptation from the book on the history of barbed wire .  Here is another BBC adaptation on why electricity did not change manufacturing more quickly.  You can pre-order the book here .

The Kindle edition at least you can pre-order.

Ideology and the Evolution of Vital Economic Institutions: Guilds, The Gold Standard and Modern International Cooperation . (with Charles Hickson). Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. This book is an attempt to summarize and extend Thompson’s work on institutions, growth collapses, and globalization. The book is exploding with ideas. Some of them you will find convincing. Others you might find crazy. However, the book will make you think. You won’t get these types of arguments or this type of thin...

You can pre-order here .  Here is the book’s home page .

6. New major study of the Bank of England coming out .

David Osborne, Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Education System , covers how charter schools are transforming the American educational landscape.

Jack Schneider, Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality .  Under a true value added measure, the schools in Somerville, Massachusetts turn out to be quite good, even though their raw test scores are not impressive.

4. Henry A. Kissinger, A World Restored: Europe After Napoleon: The Politics of Conservatism in a Revolutionary Age .  Published in 1964, before Kissinger became Kissinger, although he is a war criminal this volume shows the quality of his thought: “…an equilibrium based on considerations of power is the most difficult of all to establish, particularly in a revolutionary period following a long peace.  Lulled by the memory of stability, states tend to seek security in activity and to mistake imp...

3. Michael D. Barr, The Ruling Elite of Singapore: Networks of Power and Influence .  From 2013, but all the more relevant today.  Barr’s coverage is insufficiently appreciative of good results, but nonetheless offers an invaluable “how things really work” guide to Singaporean government, most of all on where accountability lies and where it does not.  There is guesswork involved, but this book offers plenty of details and analysis you won’t get elsewhere.

2. Johnny Rogan, Byrds: Requiem for the Timeless: Volume 2: The Lives of Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Kevin Kelley, Gram Parsons, Clarence White and Skip Battin .  Full of amazing and loving detail, this volume covers the less famous of the Byrds, and why their careers did not go further; whether in business or the arts, we spend too much time studying the winners.  Here are my earlier remarks on Rogan’s earlier editions as an extended essay on management theory and career advice.

1. Daphne Hampson, Kierkegaard: Exposition and Technique .  Dense but carefully argued and consistently insightful, perhaps the best introduction to its subject matter.  It is especially strong on how Kierkegaard’s Lutheranism informed his critique of Hegel, his supernaturalism, and his strong opposition to complacency.