1. A Culture of Improvement: Technology and the Western Millennium, by Robert Friedel. A very good treatment of the history of Western technology, although it is not accessible reading for most non-specialists.
2. Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney. The lower your social discount rate, the more you should worry about (growth-reducing) storms, and the less you should worry about one-time adjustments, such as moving islanders to a mainland. In other words, you should worry about storms.
3. Art Out of Time: Unknown Comics Visionaries, 1900-1969, by Dan Nadel. Some of the best evidence that comic books are valuable art.
4. Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne. On this rereading, I am obsessed by the notion that it is actually Uncle Toby who is Tristram’s biological father. In any case this book has held up very well.
5. Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, by Alex von Tunzelmann. Yet another high quality book on modern Indian history, here the theme is the departure of the British, the establishment of modern India, and of course partition.
#4: Have you seen Michael Winterbottom’s crazy attempt at an adaptation “A Cock and Bull Story”?
david…there’s a section on that in ‘discover you inner economist’
My interest in India is longstanding, but much strengthened by my two visits there in the last few years…
Tyler,
per numer one, specialists in what?
I asked my wife (a professor of English and a HUGE fan of Tristram Shandy) about number 4. Her response:
“No way. Uncle Toby has a groin injury, so sex with T’s mum is out. Plus, T documents his actual moment of conception, and his parents were having sex. The guy is on crack.”
Another book to add to the list: On A Hill They Call Capital, 8 guys pull off a revolution against the federal government based on, among other things, grievances with the Patriot Act. How can you go wrong with that premise?
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