Recently Mentioned Books

4. John Durant, The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health .  A useful overview of its topic, with an influence from Art DeVany, but you will not find recipes for either “grubs” nor “worms” here.

3. Clare Jacobson, New Museums in China .  Good text but mostly a picture book, I loved this one.  Stunning architecture, no art, full of lessons in multiple areas, think of it as a Straussian picture book with beauty on its side too.

2. Damien Ma and William Adams, In Line Behind a Billion People: How Scarcity Will Define China’s Ascent in the Next Decade .  How often does a book have both a good title and subtitle these days?  The authors are more pessimistic about China long-term than I am, but nonetheless this is a very interesting take on The Middle Kingdom.

That is Daniel Alpert’s book and the subtitle is Overcoming the Greatest Challenge to the Global Economy .  I found this a fun and interesting read and I agreed with more of it than I thought I would.  I’ve stressed numerous times that some of the dilemmas of our current day can be understood through nineteenth century parallels and also through the writings of the classical economists.  So why not pull Thomas Chalmers and Malthus out of the closet and worry about a general glut of goods and ser...

That is the new book by Frank Dikötter, the subtitle is A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957 , and it is a prequel to his earlier Mao’s Great Famine .  His books are superb documents of the tyrannical age he studies.  Here is one excerpt:

You can pre-order the book here .

Recommended, and you can pre-order the book here .  Here is my earlier post, “ The culture of guns, the culture of alcohol .”

There is an entire chapter in Average is Over suggesting that trade effects on U.S. wages, in the negative direction, are stronger than many economists think, through factor price arbitrage, and that the topic deserves further investigation.  But it turns out my discussion did not go far enough in the direction of attributing observed wage changes to trade, and because of this paper, and because of Autor, Dorn, and Hanson, I hereby revise my views accordingly.

That is from Arthur Herman , reviewing Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control .

As I argue in Average is Over , marketing — in the broad sense of that term — is a growth sector for the future.  You might recall that three years ago he was charging only $15 per pencil .

All of those estimates are from a very interesting book by Vaclav Smil and Kazuhiko Kobayashi, Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts .

4. Paul Krugman is right , the Girardian Orphan Black is a very good TV show.  And here is Krugman on Tobin and tapering .

You can buy the book on Amazon here .  On Barnes and Noble here .  On Indiebound.org here .  And from Penguin here .  The Diane Coyle review is here .

Here are some of Cardiff Garcia’s thoughts on my own new book, Average is Over :

1) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O Hirschman , by Jeremy Adelman 2) The Undercover Economist Strikes Back , by Tim Harford 3) Giving Kids a Fair Chance , by James Heckman 4) How Asia Works , by Joe Studwell 5) America’s Assembly Line , by David Nye

1) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O Hirschman , by Jeremy Adelman 2) The Undercover Economist Strikes Back , by Tim Harford 3) Giving Kids a Fair Chance , by James Heckman 4) How Asia Works , by Joe Studwell 5) America’s Assembly Line , by David Nye

1) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O Hirschman , by Jeremy Adelman 2) The Undercover Economist Strikes Back , by Tim Harford 3) Giving Kids a Fair Chance , by James Heckman 4) How Asia Works , by Joe Studwell 5) America’s Assembly Line , by David Nye

1) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O Hirschman , by Jeremy Adelman 2) The Undercover Economist Strikes Back , by Tim Harford 3) Giving Kids a Fair Chance , by James Heckman 4) How Asia Works , by Joe Studwell 5) America’s Assembly Line , by David Nye

1) Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O Hirschman , by Jeremy Adelman 2) The Undercover Economist Strikes Back , by Tim Harford 3) Giving Kids a Fair Chance , by James Heckman 4) How Asia Works , by Joe Studwell 5) America’s Assembly Line , by David Nye

That is the new book by Noel Maurer and the subtitle is The Rise and Fall of U.S. Intervention to Protect American Property Overseas, 1893-2013 .  This is an excellent book and somehow the title, while descriptively accurate, does not do justice to its interest and contents.

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  On Barnes and Noble here .  On Indiebound.org here .  And from Penguin here .  It is due out this Thursday.

6. Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials .  I had never read this trilogy before, thinking it was a “fun but not essential” story for teens.  In reality it is as close as we moderns are going to get to Milton, Blake, and Dante.  For me it is one of the better literary creations of the last twenty years.

5. The Divine Comedy , by Dante and Clive James.  This really is a co-authored work.  It is the most beautiful poetic treatment of Dante in the English language, yet I fear it is no longer Dante.  I would prefer it if the book were simply marketed as Clive James.  In fact I fear it will displace “the real Dante” in my memories.  I am conflicted, and may not finish it for this reason, besides I already know how it ends.  Some of you will love this, however.

4. The Silent Wife: A Novel , by A.S.A. Harrison. Fun, a good short plane read, you toy with the idea that the guy really does deserve to die.

3. Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries .  I’ve read 200 pages of this 800 pp. novel and am not sure whether I should continue.  It is set in 19th century Otago, New Zealand, it focuses on the obscure criminal activities of some migrant derelicts (and elites), and it has superb writing and plot.  It could be one of the books of the year.  But do I care?  Perhaps this FT review nails it .