Recently Mentioned Books
Showing 25 of 6797 mentions, ordered by most recent.
You’ll find it here , ungated. Ilya’s book, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter , argues we pay a heavy price for democratic ignorance . In this symposium, a variety of academics dissent from his argument. Thomas Christiano’s piece for instance is entitled “Voter Ignorance is Not Necessarily a Problem,” here is one bit:
I do know that Philip Hamburger’s book Is Administrative Law Unlawful? occasioned some critical reviews . I certainly don’t think the title frames the argument properly and by no means do I agree with everything he said. But these days, the notion that the regulatory state could prove dangerous to individual liberties, and not just to economic growth, needs to be taken more seriously, and he has written the “go to” book on that topic.
Todd G. Buchholz, The Price of Prosperity: Why Rich Nations Fail and How to Renew Them . This one I haven’t pawed through yet.
Dennis Hale, The Jury in America: Triumph and Decline . Appears to be a quite good survey and overview, from the beginning of the republic up through the present day.
Aileen M. Kelly, The Discovery of Chance: The Life and Thought of Alexander Herzen . A “fully-rounded” study of a thinker who is not read enough by Anglo-Americans.
Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong, Concrete Economics: The Hamiltonian Approach to Economic Growth and Policy ; “And so America needs another redesign — and it needs it right now.” My browse impressions are all positive, although perhaps I see larger roles for spontaneous order, and luck, in any new Hamiltonian redesign.
Thomas Rid, Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History . Lots on Timothy Leary and the Whole Earth Catalog, among other topics, my browse of it was interesting.
She wrote the classic book The Printing Press as an Agent of Change , still worth reading. Here is the NYT obituary . The Washington Post obituary introduced me to another side of her life:
Yuval Levin, The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism .
Timothy P. Hubbard and Harry J. Paarsch, Auctions , from The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series.
That is the subtitle, the proper title of David Lough’s new book is No More Champagne . I had not known the extent of the story here, namely that Churchill had appalling standards for money management and exercised extremely poor judgment over most of his adult life. Here is one bit from the opening:
3. Martin Gurri and Scott Adams as early understanders of the Trump phenomenon. And using “The Apprentice” to teach a managerial economics class .
6. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance . I’m surprised this novel doesn’t attract more ongoing attention, even if some of the final plot choices seem a bit strange or forced. It is a brilliant critique of utopianism, socialism, Romanticism, and also philanthropy. I kept on thinking Arnold Kling should read it. In any case it is a marvelous story, a good read, and chock full of social science. You’ll find one controversial reading of the story here (jstor), a panoply of speculative h...
5. Joshua Gans, The Disruption Dilemma . A very good introduction to the game theory and institutions of “disruptive innovation,” the book also dispels many myths about that concept.
4. L. Jon Wertheim and Sam Sommers, This is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn from the T-Shirt Cannon . I enjoyed this book and found it reasonably analytical. There is a “home court” advantage even during hockey fights, and having sex before a big game doesn’t seem to diminish performance.
3. Albert Camus, The Stranger . Worth a reread, especially if you grew up with something other than the Matthew Ward translation. Surprisingly current in its orientation and interests.
2. Ted Gioia, How to Listen to Jazz . Delivers what the title promises, in short, readable form; this book is good for either the jazz lover or the beginner. I am a big fan of pretty much anything Ted Gioia does, and this book has not broken the streak. By the way, here is Gioia on Ortega y Gasset and his continuing relevance .
1. Jonathan Bate, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life . Fun, lots of sex for a serious book, and it makes you appreciate the diversity of human beings.
4. Excellent Tom Wainwright piece on how economists would approach the problem of addictive drugs . His forthcoming book Narconomics looks very good, I put in my pre-order.
Fawaz A. Gerges, ISIS: A History .
Charles R. Lister, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency .
Daniel Oppenheimer, Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century .
Peter Conti-Brown, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve .
Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage, Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe .
That is the new and excellent book by Caroline Freund ; the subtitle is The Rise of Emerging-market Tycoons and Their Mega Firms . It looks at the rise of billionaires in emerging markets, offers a new data base on how they earned their wealth, and takes a generally “pro-billionaire” stance, at least relative to many other sources.