Recently Mentioned Books

2. Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914-1945 .  One of the classics, readable and comprehensive and one of the best places to start.  One thing I learned from this pile of books is how hard some of those leaders worked to have the mid-level bureaucracy on their side.  The centralization often occurred at higher levels, for instance Mussolini had 72 cabinet meetings in 1933, but only 4 in 1936.  The Italian Fascist party, by the way, was disproportionately Jewish, at least pre-1938.

1. Lucy Hughes-Hallett, The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War .  A vivid and entertaining look at a major European fascist who remains neglected by Americans (I don’t even think this book has a U.S. edition).  I was surprised how readable this book was, given its length and subject matter.  The words “rollicking” and “psychopath” come to mind.  He was nonetheless one of the most influential European writers of his time.

They have a new book out, namely Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? It is to the point, clear, uses economic reasoning very well, and serves up the information you actually want to learn.  It is a look at some major public health organizations, specifically the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Gavi Alliance, the WHO, and the World Bank, and how they operate, from a public choice point of view.  It’s hard to think of many books I’ve looked at over the last year or ...

Gray, a renowned cultural and historical pessimist, also offers a critique of those thinkers who promote mass feline genocide, so at this point you may be wondering why he titled his book Straw Dogs .  Here is the review .  Here is Abigail Tucker’s very good cat book, The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World .

Gray, a renowned cultural and historical pessimist, also offers a critique of those thinkers who promote mass feline genocide, so at this point you may be wondering why he titled his book Straw Dogs .  Here is the review .  Here is Abigail Tucker’s very good cat book, The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over the World .

The author is Joshua Kurlantzick and the subtitle is America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA , here is one excerpt from a book I read through to the end:

Authored by John Curtis Perry , this is a good one-volume introduction to the history of Singapore, with the most interesting section being the one on the Japanese wartime occupation.  Here is one excerpt:

Recommended, pre-order it here .

You can order the book here , here is the Rosa Brooks WSJ review .

That is the new and truly excellent biography of Paul Samuelson , by Roger E. Backhouse, volume I alone, which covers only up to 1948, is over 700 pp.  So far I find it gripping, here is one bit:

The authors are Dalton Conley and Jason Fletcher, and the subtitle is What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals About Ourselves, Our History and the Future .

By Vlad Tarko, order your copy here .  Here are two excerpts:

I very much recommend the book, which you can purchase here .  Interviews are so often so much better than just letting everyone be a blowhard, and Ogden did a great job.

6. Gary Taubes, The Case Against Sugar .  My intuitions agree with this argument, plus jelly donuts don’t taste that good anyway.

5. Aurelian Craiutu, Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes .  A much-needed perspective these days, from a very thoughtful scholar.

4. Kevin Vallier, Liberal Politics and Public Faith: Beyond Separation , “…public reason liberalism, properly understood, realizes foundational liberal values while according religion a prominent and powerful role in public life.  I claim that, in theory and practice, public reason liberalism is far friendlier to religion in public life than both its proponents and opponents believe.”  There is a Straussian reading of this book too.

3. Mark R. Patterson, Google, Yelp, LIBOR, and the Control of Information .  Data fraud, data fraud, data fraud, welcome to 2016 yes you should be reading more books on this topic.

2. Sheelah Kolhatkar, Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street .  I cannot vouch for the contents and allegations, which focus on Steven A. Cohen and his hedge fund career, but this is a highly engaging and better researched than usual look at the legal case against him.

1. Ousmane Oumar Kane, Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa .  This excellent book clarified many aspects of West African and also Nigerian history for me, most of all how it connects to the earlier North African civilizations.

I should note that on this topic I have been very much influenced by my colleague David Levy and also his work with Sandra J. Peart, see for instance their newly arrived book Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy .

Do read (or listen to) the whole thing .  Jhumpa’s last two books are excellent and highly underrated, both were written in Italian (!) and then translated.  One is on writing and reading in a foreign language , the other is on book covers .

Do read (or listen to) the whole thing .  Jhumpa’s last two books are excellent and highly underrated, both were written in Italian (!) and then translated.  One is on writing and reading in a foreign language , the other is on book covers .

Mozart, Don Giovanni , conducted by Teodor Currentzis.  I never thought I would be swept off my feet by an original instruments performance of this opera, but there you go. From Gramophone :

Rêve d’un Enfant, works by Franck, Ravel, and Ysaÿe , by Sophie Rosa and Benjamin Powell, the Franck is especially fine.

Franz Liszt, Transcendental Etudes , by Danil Trifonov.  Probably the most widely and best reviewed release of the last year, here is some background information on the etudes .