Recently Mentioned Books

The best start is our blogroll and then try Mankiw’s Principles book if you need the background and don’t mind the length.  More generally, here is Greg’s recommended reading list , though I don’t like Heilbroner’s book.  I also recommend Arnold Kling’s on-line text , my own In Praise of Commercial Culture , but best of all is having an office next door to Alex, Bryan, and Robin.  For mathematical approaches, see the Ph.d. textbook by Hal Varian , Eric Rasmusen’s Games and Signalling , Milton Fr...

The best start is our blogroll and then try Mankiw’s Principles book if you need the background and don’t mind the length.  More generally, here is Greg’s recommended reading list , though I don’t like Heilbroner’s book.  I also recommend Arnold Kling’s on-line text , my own In Praise of Commercial Culture , but best of all is having an office next door to Alex, Bryan, and Robin.  For mathematical approaches, see the Ph.d. textbook by Hal Varian , Eric Rasmusen’s Games and Signalling , Milton Fr...

The best start is our blogroll and then try Mankiw’s Principles book if you need the background and don’t mind the length.  More generally, here is Greg’s recommended reading list , though I don’t like Heilbroner’s book.  I also recommend Arnold Kling’s on-line text , my own In Praise of Commercial Culture , but best of all is having an office next door to Alex, Bryan, and Robin.  For mathematical approaches, see the Ph.d. textbook by Hal Varian , Eric Rasmusen’s Games and Signalling , Milton Fr...

Here is an interview with Robert Epstein , recommended.  His new book, The Case Against Adolescence , argues that teenagers should be treated much more like adults.

See Rorty’s readable Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature ; to some this is warmed-over Quine mixed with Continental gobbledy-gook but you can think that and still value the book. This book (only $200!) has a wonderful essay on the importance of Rorty for economists and economic method.

See Rorty’s readable Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature ; to some this is warmed-over Quine mixed with Continental gobbledy-gook but you can think that and still value the book. This book (only $200!) has a wonderful essay on the importance of Rorty for economists and economic method.

5. Hermann Broch, Die Schlafwandler ( The Sleepwalkers ).  Broch remains one of the most underrated authors of the 20th century, this may be his masterpiece but start with his shorter Death of Virgil .

5. Hermann Broch, Die Schlafwandler ( The Sleepwalkers ).  Broch remains one of the most underrated authors of the 20th century, this may be his masterpiece but start with his shorter Death of Virgil .

4. Brink Lindsey, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America’s Politics and Culture , on how America became so libertarian, reviewed here by George Will.

3. Trevor Corson, The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket .  The first few chapters are an excellent overview and history of sushi, after that the book is a lame account of a bunch of losers taking a sushi course.

2. Janos Kornai, By Force of Thought: Irregular Memoirs of an Intellectual Journey .  Charming memoirs of one of the major economists from the Communist bloc.  An intellectual autobiography, an account of how and why human beings change their minds, and an explanation of why he was more creative in Hungary than with the mainstream at Harvard.

1. Liza Mundy, Everything is Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women, and the World .  Excellent stories, even-handed, and surprisingly philosophical.  How can you not read a good book on this topic?

Here is more information .  And if you are interested in Alzheimer’s, John Bayley’s Elegy for Iris is one of my favorite books.

That is from Paul Collier’s very worthwhile The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It .

That is from Johan van Overtveldt’s The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business .  I enjoyed this book very much.  Instead of stopping at Friedman, Coase and Director, it also offers a comprehensive treatment of such neglected figures as Herbert Davenport, Laurence Laughlin, H. Gregg Lewis, Albert Rees, Theodore Yntema, and Jim Lorie, in each case noting their roles in the broader story.

By the way, Seth’s The Shangri-La Diet is now out in paperback.

The first disc of this BBC-produced nature series blew me away, buy it here .  Amazon calls it "quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced," and no it doesn’t matter that the narrative is at a fourth-grade level and fails to mention the Hotelling rule or the tragedy of the commons.

Here is the full interview with Frank , mostly on his teaching philosophy and his excellent new book, The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas .  My blurb for the book was:

Now this was not Sraffa’s argument, but Sraffa’s argument was far more complicated and also worse.  It relied on aggregation theorems which simply didn’t stick, and Mark Blaug tore it apart .

4. In 1960 he published the neo-Ricardian cult tract The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities .  Sadly this book is almost entirely misleading.  It tries to resurrect the Ricardian idea that costs alone determine price (or perhaps I should say it cryptically hints at that idea without actually defending any real propositions at all).

7. Soprano : Kirsten Flagstad, anything by Wagner .

6. Pianist : Leif Ove Andsnes is remarkably consistent and tasteful.  HÃ¥kon Austbø is a strong and underrated runner-up, I love his Messiaen on Naxos .

5. Novels : Knut Hamsun was a fascist, still Hunger holds the reader’s attention.  My favorite is Sigrid Undset ; Kristin Lavransdatter is long but a must-read.  Ole Rolvaag’s tales of the American frontier often have interesting property rights themes.

5. Novels : Knut Hamsun was a fascist, still Hunger holds the reader’s attention.  My favorite is Sigrid Undset ; Kristin Lavransdatter is long but a must-read.  Ole Rolvaag’s tales of the American frontier often have interesting property rights themes.

4. Playwright : Almost everything by Ibsen is superb, and yes it does repay a rereading.  Too many smart people had A Doll’s House forced on them in high school and then take him for granted.  His fantasy piece Peer Gynt is one of the most imaginative literary creations, period.