Recently Mentioned Books

There is also a new Deirdre McCloksey festschrift, Humanism Challenges Materialism in Economics and Economic History , edited by Roderick Floyd, Santhi Hejeebu, and David Mitch.  It appears to be a very fine tribute.

5. Joseph J. Ellis, The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 .  Ellis is consistently excellent as an author, and this book is best on tying the intellectual evolution of the Founding Fathers to the troubles of the Articles of Confederation period.

4. Peter Leary, Unapproved Routes, Histories of the Irish Border, 1922-1972 .  Soon there may be one again, so I decided to read up on the background, a tale of Derry being severed from Donegal.  This informative, easily grasped book also has a chapter on the fisheries border, a sign of the imaginativeness of the author.

3. The Maisky Diaries: The Wartime Revelations of Stalin’s Ambassador in London , edited by Gabriel Gorodetsky.  Paul Kennedy called it the greatest political diary of the twentieth century.  One of the best windows on the coming and arrival of the Second World War, and I don’t usually like reading the diary form.  It’s also a very good look into how such an impressive person could be Stalin’s ambassador.  By the way, why is the hardcover about a quarter of the price of the paperback?

2. Noo Saro-Wiwa, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria .  More or less a travelogue, but also one of the best introductions for thinking about Nigeria, and it does stress the different regions of the country.  Both informative and entertaining.

1. Jean-Yves Camus and Nicholas Lebourg, Far-Right Politics in Europe .  A very good and extremely current introduction to exactly what the title promises, with plenty on earlier historical roots.

The review very well captures the spirit and content of the book.  Here is Barnes&Noble , here is Amazon .  Here are signed first editions , here is Apple .

That is the new and excellent book by Jonathan Buchsbaum , offering the first comprehensive history of the debates over free trade and the “cultural exception,” as it has been called.  It is thorough, readable, and goes well beyond the other sources on this topic.

And again, here is David Wolpe’s most recent book David: The Divided Heart , which was the centerpiece for the first part of the discussion.

Yes, the survey of “works of reaction” will continue, at what speed I am not sure.  I picked up Julius Evola , in particular his Revolt Against the Modern World , because of a recent NYT article claiming Evola’s influence over Steve Bannon.  I don’t consider the cited evidence for a connection as anything other than tenuous, but still the book was only a click away and Evola was a well-known Italian fascist and I’ve been reading in that area anyway (read in areas clusters!).  I read about 70-80 ...

I had heard and read so much about Dugin but had never read him.  The subtitle is Introduction to Neo-Eurasianism , and here were a few of my takeaway points:

That is the 1936 book by British fascist Oswald Mosley , and it is arguably the clearest first-person introduction to the topic for an Anglo reader, serving up less gobbledygook than most of the Continental sources.  Mosley actually makes arguments for his point of view, and thinks through what possible objections might be, which is not the case with say Marinetti.  Beyond the basics, here are a few points I gleaned from my read:

Also new and notable is Andrew Lo, Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought .

Ilde Rizzo and Ruth Towse, editors, The Artful Economist: A New Look at Cultural Economics .

Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer, Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are .

Gary Saul Morson, Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn From the Humanities , and

That is from her 2003 book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Parents Are (Still) Going Broke , with Amelia Warren Tyagi.  Here is the WSJ link to the full passage , Friedmanesque throughout.  The more general underlying point is that the “rent is too damn high crowd” ought to be somewhat more sympathetic to vouchers than is often currently the case.

And I have been enjoying my ongoing browse of Robert E. Lerner, Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life .

Andrzej Franaszek, Milosz: A Biography . Long, thorough, but readable treatment, focusing on more on his poetry than the political writings.

7. Giorgio Bassani, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis .  This beautiful short novel (also a movie) is especially good on anti-Semitism in Italy, how youth process political collapse in their countries, and how events can outrace your expectations and leave you in a haze.

6. I’ve also been reading plenty of Benedetto Croce , including his history of Naples and History, its Theory and Practice .  He is oddly boring and non-concrete, but was a consistent opponent of the Italian fascist regime, except for the first two years of Mussolini’s rule (he later claimed that was for tactical reasons).  In any case, the reader learns that the opposing side doesn’t always have a good ability to articulate why bad events are happening.  I can recommend Fabio Fernando Rizi’s ve...

6. I’ve also been reading plenty of Benedetto Croce , including his history of Naples and History, its Theory and Practice .  He is oddly boring and non-concrete, but was a consistent opponent of the Italian fascist regime, except for the first two years of Mussolini’s rule (he later claimed that was for tactical reasons).  In any case, the reader learns that the opposing side doesn’t always have a good ability to articulate why bad events are happening.  I can recommend Fabio Fernando Rizi’s ve...

5. Alexander de Grand, Italian Fascism: Its Origin and Development .  Highly focused and to the point, also has an A+ quality annotated bibliography.  It considers regions of Italy, demographic issues, looks at the arts, and for such a short book gives the reader a remarkably broad and multi-faceted perspective.  Overall this book emphasizes how deeply rooted fascism was in so many other Italian institutions and ways of life.

4. R.J.B. Bosworth, Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship .  I’ve only read parts of this one, but it seems to be the best detailed historical account of a non-Nazi fascist regime.  If you wish to know, for instance, how and why the Italian fascists reformed Italian public holidays, this is your go-to source.

3. Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism .  Along with Payne, one of the core books to read, stronger on analysis while Payne has more historical detail.  He is especially clear on how the fascists built up and refined their political coalitions over time, and the conflicting roles of party and nation in the history of fascism.