Recently Mentioned Books

The key here is the subtitle The Making of the Chicago Monetary Tradition, 1927-1960 .  Have you wondered about the oft-underrated macroeconomics of Frank Knight, Jacob Viner, Lloyd Mints, Paul Douglas, Clark Warburton, and many more?  By no means did monetarism start with Milton Friedman, and this is the new go-to book on the topic.

Of course most of the rest of the book covers the rather different directions that we taken.  You can buy it here .

The author is Aditya Balasubramanian and the subtitle is Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India .  Amartya Sen’s blurb says the following:

Edited by Cynthia L. Haven, self-recommending, buy it here .

You can pre-order it here , I picked up my copy in London at Daunt.

The author is Jacob Mikanowski and the subtitle is An Intimate History of a Divided Land .  Might this be the best overall book on how Eastern Europe ended up so different (but not entirely different) from Western Europe?  I’ll be doing a CWT with him later this fall (hold your suggestions for now, and I’ll hold further commentary as well), but though I would flag this book for you in the meantime.  I hope it gets some good publicity as the release date is approaching.

Interesting throughout, this one will make the year’s “best of non-fiction” list.  You can buy it here .

Recommended.  And the new edition (much revised) of Peter’s Animal Liberation is now out.

I enjoyed his new book How Westminster Works…And Why It Doesn’t .

Recommended, interesting throughout.  And here is Seth’s new book The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams .

Patrick Mackie, Mozart in Motion: His Work and his World in Pieces is a good introduction to what the title promises.

Kelly Smith offers his account of Prenda micro-schools in his A Fire to Be Kindled: How a Generation of Empowered Learners Can Lead Meaningful Lives and Move Humanity Forward .

And also Angus Deaton, Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality .

There is Markus K. Brunnermeier and Ricardo Reis, A Crash Course on Crises: Macroeconomic Concepts for Run-ups, Collapses, and Recoveries .

Norman Lebrecht, Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in One Hundred Pieces .  A good introduction to Ludwig van, even if some parts do rush by too quickly.  Also a good introduction for how to think about different recorded versions of the same piece.

David Schleicher, In a Bad State: Responding to State and Local Budget Crises .  An important, unfortunately timely, and very intelligent book on how the federal government has responded to state and local insolvency in the past.  My main complaint is that at 171 pp. of text it is far too short.

Charles Horsnby, Kenya, A History since Independence is a very good long treatment of everything up to about 2010, conceptual too.

Bjorn Lomborg’s Best Things First delivers the expected dose of correct common sense.

The author is Richard N. Langlois, and the subtitle is The History of American Business Enterprise .  551 pp. of text.  I’ve taught Ph.D Industrial Organization for a good while now, and have always wanted a text that provides an overview and introduction to U.S. business history, with sophistication and good economics, and without being out of date.  This is that book, so I am happy indeed.

I am pleased to see Bryan Caplan reviewing the new Louis Perry book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution .  He opens with this:

By Philip A. Wallach, of the American Enterprise Institute.  Here is the book’s home page .  Here is a review of the book .  A very good book.  As I read Phil, he is suggesting that Congress is even a wee bit underrated .  You can buy it here .

The author is Daniel Rachel, and the subtitle is What if The Beatles Hadn’t Split Up? This is perfectly fine as a music book (for Beatle fans, it won’t convince the unconverted), but I couldn’t stop thinking of the Lucas critique.

I am very glad this book now exists, you can pre-order it here .

The author is Cihan Tuğal, and the subtitle is How the Arab Uprisings Brought Down Islamic Liberalism , though the book is more concretely a comparison across Egypt and Tunisia as well, with frequent remarks on Iran.  Here is one excerpt:

I am looking forward to reading the rest, you can buy it here .