Recently Mentioned Books

2. Mises is underrated .  His 1922 book Socialism is still the best and also historically most important critique of socialism, ever.  His earlier articles about the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism are among the most important economics articles, ever.  Those are already some pretty important contributions, and yet he is often talked of as a crank, perhaps because in part some of his followers were indeed cranks.

1. Peter Bauer is underrated .  He was a brilliant development economist who wrote seminal early and detailed books on the rubber sector and also networks of West African trade .  He also recognized the importance of the informal sector early on.  He then moved into a more polemic mode, writing books on market-oriented development strategies and very critical of foreign aid.  I believe at the time he was largely correct about foreign aid, though I would recognize also that since then the quality...

5. Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, Revolution & Dictatorship , is an interesting take on why (some) authoritarian regimes have proven so durable: “As this book has shown, revolutionary assaults on powerful domestic and foreign interests often trigger a reactive sequence that, over time, lays a foundation for authoritarian durability.  Early radicalism generates violent and often regime-threatening counterrevolutionary conflict.  Regimes that survive these conflicts tend to develop a cohesive elit...

4. Orlando Figes, The Story of Russia .  A decent introduction for those who are not so well-informed.

3. Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920 and ‘the miracle on the Vistula. ‘  And Adam Zamoyski, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe .  These are obvious reads at the moment.

3. Norman Davies, White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920 and ‘the miracle on the Vistula. ‘  And Adam Zamoyski, Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe .  These are obvious reads at the moment.

2. Helen DeWitt, The English Understand Wool .  Fiction, about 66 pp., excellent, I read it as a modern re-do of Rousseau’s Emile but I doubt if anyone else sees it that way.

1. Yoram Hazony, Conservatism: A Rediscovery .  An intriguing if unconvincing book.  Imagine the United States of America but without the natural rights and liberty emphasis in its background.  Does Hazony favor a kind of Christian Israel for us?  Nonetheless easy to read and a point of view that deserves at least one book.  I am pleased that Hazony is a fan of John Selden .

You can pre-order here .

You can order it here .  Upon my reread, one striking feature of the dialogues is how much Goethe was obsessed with discussing and evaluating talent:

A very good conversation.  And I am happy to recommend Walter’s new book The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People .

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...