Recently Mentioned Books

And of course Brad has a new book out Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century .

That is from Janet Afary’s quite interesting The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911, Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, & the Origins of Feminism .

That is from the new and very useful book Jozef Pilsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland , by Joshua D. Zimmerman.  Here is Wikipedia on the Polish-Soviet War .

Tom Mustill, How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication .  Will the greatest achievement of AI be allowing us to speak with whales?

And Sean Carroll, The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion .

There is also Stephen M. Stigler, Casanova’s Lottery: The History of a Revolutionary Game of Chance .

Alan S. Blinder, A Monetary Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021 .  A very good introduction to these topics from a mainstream point of view.

Lucy Worsley, Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman .  Fun and easy to read, plus the first set of photo has perhaps the greatest photo I ever have seen, with the caption: “Agatha’s brother Monty liked flirting, ‘talking slang’ and ‘getting into tempers’.  He disliked any kind of work.  In later life he behaved badly with firearms and became addicted to morphia.”

The author is Pekka Hämäläinen, and the subtitle is The Epic Contest for North America .  Rich with insight on ever page, might it be the best history of Native Americans?  At the very least, this is one of the two or three best non-fiction books this year.  How is this for an excellent opening sentence:

His forthcoming book is the lovely Our America: A Photographic History .  So what should I ask?

He is author of a 1995 book called The Economics of International Payments Unions and Clearing Houses . He has a doctorate of philosophy and economics from Oxford University, an undergraduate econ degree from Yale, and has been a Marshall Scholar . Welcome.

1. New book by Natasha Lance Rogoff, Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia .

And he has a new book coming, namely An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville . So what should I ask him?

The author is the excellent Andrea Wulf and the subtitle is The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self .  The focus is on the German group of thinkers who worked together in or near Jena, including the Schlegels, Novalis, Schiller, Goethe and Schelling, with a later cameo from Hegel.  This is one of my favorite books of the year, but note it focuses mostly on their personal stories and not so much on their ideas.  Perfect for me, but not the ideal introduction for every reader.  And their...

Strongly recommended to all those who care about such things, you can order here .

You can pre-order it here , due out November 8.  And currently former Thiel fellow Vitalik Buterin is attempting to pull off The Merge, congratulations and let us hope this works out!

Field is one of the world’s greatest economic historians, and the title is The Economic Consequences of U.S. Mobilization for The Second World War .  I am just starting to read it, here is some of the early material:

That is the new forthcoming book by Garett Jones (and his wisdom), I am very much looking forward to reading/rereading the final version of this one!  (See the link for my blurb based on a pre-pub reading.)  Here is the Amazon summary:

The title has attracted a lot of attention and controversy, it is Don’t be a Feminist: Essays on Genuine Justice , description here .  Bryan writes a letter to his daughter, telling her not to be a feminist.

Now on Amazon for pre-order , due out April 18, 2023.

Annie Duke, Quit .  A defense of quitting, which is often necessary to reallocate resources properly.

Daniel B. Klein and Jason Briggeman, Hume, Smith, Burke, Geijer, Menger, d’Argenson .

Kevin Erdmann, Building from the Ground Up: Reclaiming the American Housing Boom , and

W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change .  A very good book outlining status and signaling arguments for explaining how culture works and changes.  My main gripe is that it doesn’t seem at all aware of Simler and Hanson, and Robin Hanson more generally and for that matter my own What Price Fame? (among other writings).  So while I like the content, on the grounds of both scholarships and originality I have to gi...

S Encel, Equality and Authority: a Study of Class, Status and Power in Australia .  Might this be the best explanatory book on Australia ever?  Explains the odd mix of egalitarianism, individualism, plus bureaucratic authoritarianism that characterizes the Aussies.  There should of course be many more books like this, books attempting to explain countries to us.  From 1970 but still highly relevant.