Douglas Irwin - Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade, Free Trade Under Fire
Both books are excellent, the first provides an historical overview of the pre and post Adam Smith debate about the foundations for mercantilism (protectionism) and free trade. Irwin traces much of the thought back to classical works of philosophy.
David Landes The The Unbound Prometheus: Technical Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to Present
Wealth and the Poverty of Nations was an outstanding read (must for economic historians). This book is tougher going but worth it as Landes goes into significant detail. If time is an issue, I would recommend Mokyr.
Joel Mokyr The Levers of Riches
I loved reading this book - Mokyr does a wonderful job, well let me quote from this Amazon review:
"Mokyr has demonstrated, yet again, that he is one the best economic historians around. His book is a treasure trove of facts and insights about technological progress often overlooked in other accounts. Further, his argument that economics might do well to adopt the methodology of evolutionary biology instead of the standard application of Newtonian physics is cogent and convincing."--Howard Bodenhorn, St. Lawrence Univ.
"Joel Mokyr is a first-rate scholar who has read a wide body of literature. The book is very well written, lively and engaging. It is closely reasoned and well executed"--Nathan Rosenberg, Stanford University
"Joel Mokyr likes telling his story and he tells it well; his book makes for good reading and rereading, and this in itself sets him apart from many of his fellow economic historians."--The New York Times Book Review
According to Joel Mokyr, economic growth is the result of four distinct processes: Investment (increases in the capital stock), Commercial Expansion, Scale or Size Effects, and Increase in the Stock of Human Knowledge (which includes technological progress proper as well as changes in institutions). Throughout his brilliant book, he correlates technological creativity with economic progress throughout classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and then into the later 19th century.
Eric Rauchway Blessed Among Nations
Thomas Sowell A Conflict of Visions
Sowell at his best. This analysis of the constrained and unconstrained visions is clear and direct. He relies heavily on Adam Smith and William Godwin for illustration.
Adam Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Lectures on Jurisprudence, Wealth of Nations, Essays on Philosophical Subjects
This reading is a delight. I was invited to a Liberty Fund colloquia on Smith in July, 2009.
Laird Bergad - The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States
Fiction
Michael Gruber Tropic of Night
Gruber's first novel. I really enjoyed The Book of Air and Shadows, this one not so much. I will try his newest book The Forgery of Venus.
David Liss A Conspiracy of Paper
I am pleasantly surprised - I could not finish The Coffee Trader and his latest The Whiskey Rebel received negative reviews, but this is wonderful. I have the sequel - A Spectacle of Corruption on order.
John Sanford - Rules of Prey
Sanford's first Lucas Davenport and I am so glad I got to read the beginning.
Daniel Simmons Drood
Wow, talk about an unreliable narrator. A very intense exploration of . . . addiction, obsession, jealousy and . . . Charles Dickens. Excellent historical fiction - made me realize how little I know about this period, Dickens and Dicken's fiction. Very long, but worth it. I have - The Terror, on my reading list.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Confidence in Free Markets
The LA Times reported that the general attitude toward markets and government intervention may be changing:
"We're at a hinge point," said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who helped craft President Clinton's market-friendly agenda during the 1990s. "The strong presumption in favor of markets, which has dominated public policy since the late 1970s, has een thrown very much into question."
The author of the article, goes on to observe:
Now, to a degree not seen in years, politicians and outside experts are looking with favor at more, not less, government involvement in the economy.
This article confirms a trend that I have seen in my interactions with students, fellow faculty and my circle of friends.
Kling, in a review of what he calls a must read book Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being points out one possibility for this procedural utility. Kling summarizes this idea in his post and Frey's book is now on my reading list.
"We're at a hinge point," said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who helped craft President Clinton's market-friendly agenda during the 1990s. "The strong presumption in favor of markets, which has dominated public policy since the late 1970s, has een thrown very much into question."
The author of the article, goes on to observe:
Now, to a degree not seen in years, politicians and outside experts are looking with favor at more, not less, government involvement in the economy.
This article confirms a trend that I have seen in my interactions with students, fellow faculty and my circle of friends.
Kling, in a review of what he calls a must read book Happiness and Economics: How the Economy and Institutions Affect Human Well-Being points out one possibility for this procedural utility. Kling summarizes this idea in his post and Frey's book is now on my reading list.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Reading Russia
On the topic of reading, the following sources (short and long) are informative of Russia today and very reflective of what we are studying:
The Economist - Smoke and mirrors
The BBC - The Putin Project
The New York Times - Now Comes the Tough Part
Two books that I am currently reading may well be of interest for your summer reading list. These are for the generalist, if you are a history teacher I suspect that none of this will be new, although the presentation is provocative.
The first is Niall Ferguson's - The War of the World
Part 1 of the book deals with Stalin's USSR and extends and explains in depth the extent of the cultural, economic and legal impact of the command system on Russian society. Much of these deals with the period of WW II, although Ferguson does an excellent job of providing an historical context.
As you know, Ferguson is controversial and the reviews of this book were mixed, I suspect based upon ideological considerations. Part of a negative review from The New Yorker:
Ferguson's eight-hundred-page reevaluation of the Second World War presents itself as a grand theory about ethnic conflict, the end of empire, and the postwar triumph of the East. The exact contours of the theory, however, remain unclear. Ferguson argues that the central story of the twentieth century is "the descent of the West," but he never really clarifies what "the West" means - Russia sometimes qualifies, sometimes not, depending upon what point Ferguson is trying to make. Ferguson is a skilled storyteller, and he offers many striking reflections on the bloodiest years of the past century, including a compelling analysis of appeasement.
Jan Winik's - The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 takes an interesting and in the end very enlightening view of this critical period. Winik organizes his book with alternating chapters on The United States, France and Russia. The result is a set of connections that the general reader may never have made and a perspective that the historian may find useful.
The Economist - Smoke and mirrors
The BBC - The Putin Project
The New York Times - Now Comes the Tough Part
Two books that I am currently reading may well be of interest for your summer reading list. These are for the generalist, if you are a history teacher I suspect that none of this will be new, although the presentation is provocative.
The first is Niall Ferguson's - The War of the World
Part 1 of the book deals with Stalin's USSR and extends and explains in depth the extent of the cultural, economic and legal impact of the command system on Russian society. Much of these deals with the period of WW II, although Ferguson does an excellent job of providing an historical context.
As you know, Ferguson is controversial and the reviews of this book were mixed, I suspect based upon ideological considerations. Part of a negative review from The New Yorker:
Ferguson's eight-hundred-page reevaluation of the Second World War presents itself as a grand theory about ethnic conflict, the end of empire, and the postwar triumph of the East. The exact contours of the theory, however, remain unclear. Ferguson argues that the central story of the twentieth century is "the descent of the West," but he never really clarifies what "the West" means - Russia sometimes qualifies, sometimes not, depending upon what point Ferguson is trying to make. Ferguson is a skilled storyteller, and he offers many striking reflections on the bloodiest years of the past century, including a compelling analysis of appeasement.
Jan Winik's - The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800 takes an interesting and in the end very enlightening view of this critical period. Winik organizes his book with alternating chapters on The United States, France and Russia. The result is a set of connections that the general reader may never have made and a perspective that the historian may find useful.
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