Recently Mentioned Books

About An Economist Gets Lunch , you will find it here .

Our goal is to propose an alternative vision for what OWS should focus on.  You can buy the book here .

The author is Michael Huberman and the subtitle is International Trade and Labor Standards in History .  Here is the blurb from Leandro Prados de La Escosura:

The author is Michael Lind and the subtitle is An Economic History of the United States .  I am just beginning to browse my copy, here is one bit:

By Paul Seabright, Amazon link here , it arrived yesterday on my doorstep and is due out April 29.  The subtitle is How Conflict and Cooperation Have Shaped Men and Women from Prehistory to the Present .

The author is Ross Douthat and the subtitle is How We Became a Nation of Heretics .  It is a very good and very serious book arguing that America needs better religious thinking and practice, excerpt:

Can they not publish a “Director’s Cut” eBook? The Power Broker , by the way, is in my view one of the best non-fiction books ever, so read it if you don’t already know it.

You can order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .

5. India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy , by Ramachandra Guha.  Both informationally dense and conceptual, in a good way.

4. Free Market Fairness , by John Tomasi.  Here is Matt on the book : “Without being by any means a libertarian, I do think that people of a left-wing orientation sometimes give short shrift to the non-pecuniary aspects of economic freedom. Whether or not you buy that barber licensing rules are a big deal economically, the specter of the government throwing a person in jail for participating in an exchange of haircuts for money between consenting adults should bother liberally inclined people fo...

3. Lifeboat: A Novel , by Charlotte Rogan.  A genuinely gripping story of a bunch of people in a sinking lifeboat, facing the usual philosophical dilemmas.  Maybe that doesn’t sound thrilling, but I pressed on eagerly and read it to the end.

2.Robert J. Sampson, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect .  I’m still grappling with this book, which I find difficult to parse.  It’s a very detailed empirical study of the strength of neighborhood effects, with reference to Chicago.  I thought I would give the book its own post, but it is difficult to excerpt.  I don’t quite understand how he distinguishes neighborhood effects from selection effects, though I have read his discussion that selection effects are the...

1. Barb Stuckey, Taste: What You’re Missing: The Passionate Eater’s Guide to Why Good Food Tastes Good .  A very good and interesting look at how and why food tastes as it does, from a professional food developer.

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .  It is due out tomorrow.

Chris Mooney, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science — and Reality .

Ruchir Sharma, Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles .

Carl H. Nightingale, Segregation: A Global History of Divided Cities .

Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent , by Edward Luce.   Here is his recent essay , related to the book.

Jonathan Schlefer, The Assumptions Economists Make .

With Ning Wang, it is called How China Became Capitalist , due out later in April.

You can pre-order the book on Amazon here .  For Barnes & Noble here .  For Indiebound.org here .  It is due out April 12.

And my favorite reading of all is the unabridged Boswell’s Life of [Samuel] Johnson . It’s my favorite thing because it’s interesting and has no import or forward narrative momentum. So you’re interested and edified but it doesn’t keep you up at night.

That is the title of an erratic but interesting book by Jacob Lund Fisker, and the subtitle is A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence .  Think of it as a study in “least cost living,” his web site is here .