Recently Mentioned Books

2. Edmund White, The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading .  An exquisitely written book, yet his reading narrative leaves me cold (too much an insider? not eccentric enough?).  I found the chapter on his husband and their relationship extraordinarily compelling.  A highly intelligent book, at the very least.

1. Rob Reich, Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How it Can Do Better .  A sustained argument that current manifestations of philanthropy are not very egalitarian or necessarily realizing democratic ideals.  My views stand “to the right” of this book, but for some of you it will serve as a very good articulation of why philanthropy might be making you nervous.

Due out March 1, pre-order here .

I am doing a Conversations with Tyler with her, here is her home page .  She is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland and has a new book coming out: Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Out World .  Here is part of the Amazon summary:

I will be doing a Conversation with him.  Bruno is the author of Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of the New World Order , published earlier in the United Kingdom but just now in the United States.  It is one of the essential reads of the last few years and was last year a tied favorite for my “Book of the Year.”

Defininitely recommended, as is Michael’s latest book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence .

3. Holly Case, The Age of Questions .  Starting in the early nineteenth century, an “age of questions” began, including the Jewish question, the German question, the Bullion question, and many others: “The essence of the age of questions was the practical accommodation of physical reality to the attitude of interrelation that the age engendered.”  Books on abstract themes are often difficult to pull off, but this one expanded my thinking and historical understanding.

2. John Foot, Archipelago: Italy Since 1945 .  There should be more books like this, namely giving you a smart overview of the recent history of an important country.  This one is especially strong on the nature of Italian corruption, the importance of connections in Italy, changes in the Italian education system, and the origins of the Northern League.

1. David Foenkinos, Charlotte: A Novel .  A holocaust escape story, written in a kind of blank verse, this book was a bestseller in many countries but mostly ignored in the United States.  Original, recommended, and a quick but compelling read.

6. Amazon page for the forthcoming Brad DeLong book , self-recommending.

But today I’d like to focus upon Yonas, in Ethiopia, rather than the content of the book. All of my share of the income from the book goes to him and his family, I get nothing.  So if you order Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals , you are very directly contributing to economic development and human betterment and the multiplication of possibilities.  And perhaps you are also expressing some faith in the quality of my judgment as to who w...

That is a new and truly excellent book by W.J. Rorabaugh .  It is a perfect 116 pp. of text and a model for what many other books should be.

Here is the Amazon link , you can pre-order for October 16.  Here is the Kindle link .  I will get you the Barnes and Noble link as soon as it is available.  The Stripe Press people have done a fantastic job with the cover and also with the production more generally, my commendations to them!

That is from Nancy Isenberg’s excellent Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr .  I also learned that Burr was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and that late in his life Burr spent time with Bentham, was intrigued by the Panopticon idea, and he may have influenced Bentham on suffrage

Charles Silver and David A. Hyman, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care .  I find most books on this topic too painful to read, including this one, but it does appear to be comprehensive and the new go-to coverage on this topic.

5. Paula Fredriksen, When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation .  Yet another good social and intellectual history of the early, formative period of Christianity.

4. François Cusset , How the World Swung to the Right:Fifty Years of Counterrevolutions .  Full of generalizations and unsupported claims, but still a better guide to reality than most of what you will find from the other big think books.  An attempt at fresh thought, in pocket-sized form.

3. Devin Fergus, Land of the Fee: Hidden Costs and the Decline of the American Middle Class .  Not a balanced treatment, but a fact-rich and handy starting point for reading about this topic.  You won’t learn how many of those fees are efficiency-based, but you will go around asking the question more.

2. George Magnus, Red Flags: Why Xi’s China Is In Jeopardy .  The case for pessimism, based on all possible reasons.  Worth reading, but who knows?

1. Annie Lowrey, Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World .  A very good book, one of the hot books of the year, and much deeper and broader and balanced than the subtitle might imply.

That is from the quite good Britain’s War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War , by David Edgerton.

By the way, I have been enjoying my read of Robert L. Luddy’s Entrepreneurial Life: The Path from Startup to Market Leader .  Luddy is founder of Thales Academy, and the final chapter of his memoir covers his thoughts and praxis on education.

That is from Laura Seay at The Washington Post , drawing on work from the new Envy in Politics , by Gwyneth H. McClendon.  I have just ordered that book.

This is all from the very useful and readable book Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy , by James C. Mohr.

That is from David Edgerton, The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth Century .  Here are my previous posts on the book and on other work by Edgerton.