Recently Mentioned Books

It's now out and my review copy has arrived; the authors are Yoram Bauman and illustrator Grady Klein.  It is the next step in economics education.  You can buy it here .

The author is John North and the subtitle is An Illustrated History of Astronomy and Cosmology .  Excerpt:

There is a recent eBook (selling for only $4.00), consisting of a dialogue between myself and Grandin, mostly on autism and talented autistics but not just.  For instance we also talk about our favorite TV shows, including a discussion of Lost , and there is a segment on science fiction and the future of humanity.  I try to draw her out on autism, cognitive anthromorphizing, and attitudes toward religion, but she is reluctant to offer her opinions on that important topic.  I would describe the e...

3. Grandin tends to brusquely classify autistic children into different groups.  She will speak of "the nerds who will do just fine" (see the eBook linked to below) as opposed to the "severely autistic," who require that someone take control of their lives and pound a bit of the autism out of them.  There's a great deal of diversity among autistics, and autistic outcomes, but I don't see that as the most useful way of expressing those differences.   Autism diagnoses are often unstable at young a...

6. Kent Annan, Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle: Living Fully, Loving Dangerously .  What is it like to be a Christian missionary in Haiti?  This is a surprisingly insightful and moving book, one of the best Haiti books but of general interest as well.  Most of all, it's about the author's struggle with himself.  Chris Blattman likes it too, here is his review .

5. Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel .  The premise — an alternative literary version of Homer's story — sounds contrived but I was surprised at how good and how moving this was.  Here is one good review of the book .

4. Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains .

3. Steven C.A. Pincus, 1688: The First Modern Revolution .  A clearly written, well-argued book, which on top of everything else is better than most books on the Industrial Revolution, hardly its main area of focus.  The main point is that the Glorious Revolution was more radical than is commonly portrayed and it represented the culmination of a struggle between two very different kinds of modernizing forces in England.  Chapter 12 — "Revolution in Political Economy" — is a gem.  This is a very ...

2. Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless .  It's odd that such a splendid author is read so little in this country.  Beware, though — this one lies in the territory somewhere between Ulysses and Finnegans Wake . It is very powerful for those inclined in this direction and now I can see why his name in mentioned in connection with a Nobel Prize.

1. R.W. Johnson, South Africa's Brave New World .  In the U.S. there is only the Kindle edition, but I ordered a British edition through the library.  This is a comprehensive political history of the country since the fall of apartheid; I thought I wouldn't finish it but I did.

The subtitle is Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System and the author is (?) Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

For the pointer I thank Lawrence Rothfield, author of this excellent book .

Here is my previous post on Menand's new book .

Anyway, that's the proposal in the new Louis Menand book, The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University .

I also recommend the new book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea , by Barbara Demick.  Excerpt:

This is a very interesting book about the ideologies behind North Korea.  The author is B.R. Myers and the subtitle is How North Koreans See Themselves — and Why it Matters .  Excerpt:

There is another new book on the Industrial Revolution, namely Robert C. Allen's The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective .  It's all about how the British had high wages and cheap energy, a kind of Heckscher-Ohlin approach to why we're not eating mud cakes.  It's good enough on its own terms, but it's a) question-begging in parts, and b) startling what a small role ideas play in the basic story.  Indirectly, this book is proof that Mokyr's contribution is an important one.

The subtitle is An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850 and the author is Joel Mokyr.  This is now the most comprehensive and indeed the currently definitive history of the British Industrial Revolution.  Here is a short excerpt:

Some of you may recall the third and fourth sentences in my book Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World's Cultures (now on Kindle by the way):

9. Best Haitian rara collection : That's the noisy. discordant music they play leading up to Carnival. This would be my pick.  Overall it's a vibrant genre.

7. The most comprehensive historic collection : Alan Lomax in Haiti , 9 CDs, of highly varying quality but always interesting.

3. The best Haitian collection : the Konbit! CD .  The voodoo-linked Rhythms of Rapture is quite good, as is the more acoustic Haitian Troubadours .

1. The best song to start with : Buy Wyclef Jean's Welcome to Haiti .  "Ou Marye" (track 8) is my single favorite song these days, sadly I cannot find it on YouTube but you can download it.  Start there. This one also has strong Haitian influence.  This is a kind of Haitian rap , with a good video.  Here's a super-fun mix of ragga and compas , with Buju Banton and T-Vice.

All this is from the truly excellent new book Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly , by Michael D. Gordin.  Here is one very accurate review of the book .

It's still a book I mostly disagree with.  You can buy the book here ; too bad it isn't on Kindle yet.  Reviews are here .