Recently Mentioned Books
Showing 25 of 6684 mentions, ordered by most recent.
From the classics, there is Plato's Republic (a critique of tyranny in my view), Robert Michels Political Parties , Tocqueville's Democracy in America (politics as culture), and various Vilfredo Pareto essays, I am no longer sure which volume they are collected in (edited by Finer?). The Federalist Papers are impressive, but are they impressive to read?
8. For understanding the U.S. system, I very much like David Stockman's The Triumph of Politics ; oddly the paperback is priced at four times the hardcover.
4. For "pro-government public choice," see Amihai Glazer and Lawrence Rothenberg, Why Government Succeeds and Why it Fails . Also see my piece, with Glazer (an underrated public choice economist), "Rent-Seeking Promotes the Provision of Public Goods" (gated).
3. Bryan Caplan, The Myth of the Rational Voter . On the democratic side of the equation. Anthony Downs is still worth reading as well, though it needs a cheaper edition than $75. Also read Daniel Klein on The People's Romance .
3. Bryan Caplan, The Myth of the Rational Voter . On the democratic side of the equation. Anthony Downs is still worth reading as well, though it needs a cheaper edition than $75. Also read Daniel Klein on The People's Romance .
2. Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations . The best applied explanation of the logic of concentrated benefits, diffuse costs.
1. Dennis Mueller, Public Choice III . The best survey of the field, though this is an academic rather than a popular book. On voting theory — an overrated area in my view – try Peter Ordeshook .
1. Dennis Mueller, Public Choice III . The best survey of the field, though this is an academic rather than a popular book. On voting theory — an overrated area in my view – try Peter Ordeshook .
That's the title and it's by me, the Amazon link is here , Barnes&Noble here . That's an eBook only, about 15,000 words, and it costs $4.00. If you wish, think of it as a "Kindle single."
4. Jean-Christopher Valtat, Aurorarama . Think French steam punk, Inuit characters, a strange dark ship hovering over an ice-locked retro-futuristic town, and a plot which might have come from an incoherent Japanese anime movie. So far I like it and it's also my favorite book cover in some time:
3. Wallace Stegner, The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail . An excellent book, based on a blockbuster combination of writer and topic.
2. Adam Feinstein, A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers . A lengthy and informative treatment of how thought on autism evolved, and most of all a tale of how badly science can misfire, even "these days." I am not sure how much the portraits of researchers are intended as positive, but overall I take away from this book the message that many of them are arrogant and also partially incompetent. It is possible that this is a better book (and for different reasons) than the author...
1. John B. Thompson, Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century . By an order of magnitude, this is the best book on the economics of contemporary publishing. It covers the UK scene as well.
There has been so much talk lately about ethics and economists and now there is a whole new book out it, the new and useful The Economist's Oath: On the Need for and Content of Professional Economic Ethics , by George F. DeMartino. I was intrigued and surprised by the p.24 chart about where economists (as defined by title, not Ph.d.) work in the federal government, not counting the Federal Reserve System.
The author is Daniel Treisman and the subtitle is Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev . Is this the first non-fiction book to be making my "Best of 2011" list? Most of all, it argues persuasively that, rather than botching the transition away from communism, the Russians/Soviets did a remarkably good job, relative to what could have been expected. It's also the best all-round book-length treatment of what the subtitle indicates and it is readable as well. Excerpt:
A while ago I wrote a review essay on biography and economics . Here's a challenge: if economics is so powerful, and MI is so persuasive, try writing a biography of a person, using economic tools, and see how much of that person's life you can explain. It is a humbling and instructive experience and you can read my attempt here .
That is from the new and quite good book by James Rodger Fleming . If you are wondering, Windisch-Feistritz is now in Slovenia and it is known as Slovenska Bistrica . It looks like this .
That is the new book by Paul W. Glimcher , of NYU, Center for Neuroeconomics. This book is especially strong on how valuation takes place in the mind. At times the book feels as if one has stepped into an alternate universe , in which the subjectivist Mengerian Austrians are now doing neuroeconomics instead…
Foucault is important, and he deserves to be read, but I am not sure he will be much read fifty years from now. I also view "engaging with him" as a much overdone and much overrated exercise, carried in large part by the less salubrious tendencies in Continental and U.S. humanities scholarly discourse. It is better to simply work on the topics he cared about, using his books as a reminder to consider some different angles.
Foucault is interesting, but use him with caution. Most of his books have not held up very well as history, even if he succeeded in drawing people's attention to some neglected factors. On top of that, his theoretical framework is incoherent. Try reading The Archaeology of Knowledge . I find The Order of Things to be an insightful but skewed account of the seventeenth century; detailed objections aside, it goes astray by assuming, implicitly, explicitly or otherwise, that structural categori...
That is from an essay by AmÃlcar Challú, from the new and excellent book Living Standards in Latin American History: Height, Welfare, and Development, 1750-2000 , edited by Ricardo D. Salvadore, John H. Coatsworth, and AmÃlcar Challú.
That's Eduardo Porter's new book , a behavioral economics treatment of how prices are set. Recommended. I'll be at the book party tonight, look for me if you'll be there too.
1. Reissue of David Levy's The Economic Ideas of Ordinary People , on Amazon here .
But I can browse one. William H. Patterson's Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Learning Curve 1907-1948 , would appear to be definitive. The very thick volume one — over six hundred pages with notes – stops at 1948. It is very well written and engaging and connects Heinlein to broader American history. There is plenty on Heinlein and free love, Heinlein and H.G. Wells, Heinlein in the Navy, Heinlein and Missouri, and many other topics.
Shamus Rahman Khan, Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School .