Recently Mentioned Books

The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness , by Todd Rose.

The Age of Stagnation: Why Perpetual Growth is Unattainable and the Global Economy is in Peril , by Satyajit Das, and

You can order the book here , recommended.

Here is an excerpt from the now published Tonio Andrade book, The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History :

That is the new Robert Trivers memoir , I just ordered my copy, sure to be outstanding.

Rick Shenkman, Political Animals: How Our Stone-Age Brain Gets in the Way of Smart Politics .

Clement Fatovic, America’s Founding and the Struggle Over Economic Inequality .

Caroline Freund, assisted by Sarah Oliver. Rich People Poor Countries: The Rise of Emerging-Market Tycoons and their Mega Firms .

Steven Klepper, Experimental Capitalism: The Nanoeconomics of American High-Tech Industries .

Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making us Smarter ; both Robin and Bryan are fond of this one.

Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts .

To make it stranger yet, this book is Weizman’s response to Sheikh’s The Erasure Trilogy , which is structured as a tour of the ruins of the 1948 conflict.  That book is I believe from a Palestinian point of view, and described as a “visual poem.”  I just ordered it; note that Sheikh is the photographer for The Conflict Shoreline and thus listed as a co-author.

I feel the most guilt when eating the meat of intelligent animals raised under poor or tortured conditions.  I am not opposed to all meat-eating per se , but most meat-eating in today’s America does not meet satisfactory moral standards.  I still do it because I am not that good a person, at least not in this regard.  I am struck by the title of the forthcoming book by Frans de Waal: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Growth-Slowdown-Brink-Lindsey-ebook/dp/B0195OICJW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449784012&sr=8-1&keywords=understanding+economic+slowdown

9. Take a day trip by cab or bus into Johor Bahru , in neighboring Malaysia, a thirty minute trip if there are no delays.  The food there is even better and you will learn some political science.  Read this book for background on both countries.  Read Lee Kuan Yew.

Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy

4. Karthik Ramanna, Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology, and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy .  Here is one opening summary bit: “With the financialization of the U.S. economy, particularly since the 1990s, we see a growing impact of investment banks and asset-management firms in accounting rule-making.  These groups are more likely to propose rules that accelerate financial-statement recognition of anticipated economic gains — that is, fair-val...

3. Peter Turchin, Ultra Society: how 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth : “The central idea of this book is that it was competition between groups, usually taking the form of warfare, that transformed humanity from small-scale foraging bands and farming villages into huge societies with elaborate governance institutions and complex and highly productive economic life.”  Basically true, in my view,and this book argues for that position persuasively.

2. Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome .  I have only browsed this one, but it does appear to be one of the best and most readable overall histories of Rome.  I’m keeping it in the basement and someday I’ll go back to it.

1. Michael Denning, Noise Uprising: The Audiopolitics of a World Musical Revolution .  How recording began to revolutionize “world music” in the 1920s, a bit scattershot but still an interesting conceptual book about the history of music.

That is all from his new book Mysteries of the Mall and Other Essays , pp.188-192.

That is from Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed , an interesting read.

4. From Syria, I’ll again recommend Dabke: Sounds of the Syrian Houran and Omar Souleyman , both highly worthwhile.

3. The big box set of the year, which you might otherwise not think of buying, is Hulaland: The Golden Age of Hawaiian Music , excellent across all four discs and full of history.

2. Kamasi Washington’s The Epic was the jazz album I’ve enjoyed most.