Recently Mentioned Books
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2. Intellectual property rights of many kinds should be weaker, as Alex discusses in his Launching the Innovation Renaissance . That is one way to “tax” some forms of capital. But do not expect the main action here to be found in easy-to-reproduce forms of capital, rather look to the more durable rents.
Michael Huemer, The Problem of Political Authority: An Examination of the Right to Coerce and the Duty to Obey .
Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood, Becoming Right: How Campuses shape Young Conservatives .
By the way, here is Diamond’s forthcoming book (Dec.31) The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies?
That is from Daniel Tudor’s very good book, Korea: The Impossible Country .
Jane Jacobs. Spencer McCallum . Donald Lavoie’s National Economic Planning: What is Left? . David Friedman on Iceland , and Joseph Peden on medieval Ireland . Proudhon, and the Eric Frank Russell version of left anarchism, as found in The Great Explosion . Auberon Herbert and Gustav de Molinari. Kropotkin on mutual aid. Proudhon and also Chomsky . Karl Hess and Kirkpatrick Sale. And don’t forget Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country .
Jane Jacobs. Spencer McCallum . Donald Lavoie’s National Economic Planning: What is Left? . David Friedman on Iceland , and Joseph Peden on medieval Ireland . Proudhon, and the Eric Frank Russell version of left anarchism, as found in The Great Explosion . Auberon Herbert and Gustav de Molinari. Kropotkin on mutual aid. Proudhon and also Chomsky . Karl Hess and Kirkpatrick Sale. And don’t forget Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country .
Jane Jacobs. Spencer McCallum . Donald Lavoie’s National Economic Planning: What is Left? . David Friedman on Iceland , and Joseph Peden on medieval Ireland . Proudhon, and the Eric Frank Russell version of left anarchism, as found in The Great Explosion . Auberon Herbert and Gustav de Molinari. Kropotkin on mutual aid. Proudhon and also Chomsky . Karl Hess and Kirkpatrick Sale. And don’t forget Red Sun: Travels in Naxalite Country .
The author is Ian Morris and the subtitle is How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations . I don’t like the subtitle of this book, which I feel should include the word “energy.” While a number of topics are covered, the core parts of the book concern the importance of energy sources for early economic development.
Imagine a Norwegian Proust, albeit more concrete and with less repetition. The Amazon link is here , and you will notice that all nine Amazon reviews give it five stars. Here is a James Wood review from The New Yorker . Here is Wikipedia on the author . Here is a good blog review . Note this is only one out of six volumes, from Norway.
7. Non-fiction author : Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow is splendid. Tom Segev could be a runner-up.
6. Philosopher : Joseph Raz, especially his The Morality of Freedom .
5. Fiction author : I very much admire and enjoy David Grossman’s To The End of the Land .
3. Actress : Natalie Portman is excellent in Closer .
1. Film : A rich and rapidly improving genre. My favorites are Lebanon or Waltz with Bashir , with a sentimental nod to Yana’s Friends , which isn’t great but I saw it on my second date with Natasha.
1. Film : A rich and rapidly improving genre. My favorites are Lebanon or Waltz with Bashir , with a sentimental nod to Yana’s Friends , which isn’t great but I saw it on my second date with Natasha.
1. Film : A rich and rapidly improving genre. My favorites are Lebanon or Waltz with Bashir , with a sentimental nod to Yana’s Friends , which isn’t great but I saw it on my second date with Natasha.
I have not yet seen a copy of Erik Angner, A Course in Behavioral Economics , but perhaps it is of interest.
5. Benoit Peeters, Derrida: A Biography . An excellent book, though I find it hard to care. Easier than reading Derrida, and the author doesn’t make the mistake of trying to tell you what Derrida is all about.
4. Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds: A Novel . Everyone else loved it, though for me it was too impressionistic. Call it my fault.
3. Bee Wilson, Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat . The first 61% of this book, as measured by Kindle, is fascinating and superbly original. The rest is a well-done retread of other intelligent popular food books. That is for me a high ratio of excellent to good.
2. Bernard Bailyn, The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675 . It is stunningly good, not just “stunningly good for a 90-year-old .”
1. Rwanda, Inc ., by Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond. The positive story on that country, though I don’t buy it, given that the broader region still is not close to peace. Governance problems will do them in.
That is from Daniel Tudor, Korea: The Impossible Country , which is quite a good overview of the place.
I would add this: I am grateful for Jefferson’s contributions to this country in the form of the Declaration and also the Louisiana Purchase, to cite the two biggest. But as a thinker I find him decidedly mediocre, other than that the Declaration is truly stirring in parts and of course of major historical importance. (That said, I don’t think it was obvious ex ante that independence was a good idea, so even there Jefferson may be open to criticism.) Reading the rest is a chore and for me the...