1. Arvind Panagariya, India: The Emerging Giant. Why didn't this book get more attention? It's by far the best treatment of the economics of contemporary India.
2. Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, by Morris Dickstein. I put it down. I care about the topic but so much of the content is going through the motions rather than framing the argument around the author's original insights.
3. To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise, by Bethany Moreton. It sounds like one of those whiny books on Wal-Mart. But I found it insightful throughout and also well-written; the main point is that Wal-Mart can be understood as driven by a Christian service ethos. Parts of it serve as a good economic history of the South and of chain stores and big box stores.
4. Ben Casnocha summarizing The Time Paradox.
5. Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist. Sometimes Baker hits the spot, but this one didn't hold my interest. Poets might like it.
In the pile is Robert Service's Trotsky, which is self-recommending. On DVD, I very much enjoyed watching Tyson, which is chockful of social science in narrative form.
I also find Arvind P’s book the best so far on India’s emergence – much better than the other Arvind’s book, Arvind Subramanian (“India’s Turn”), which is more Rodrik-an in spirit. Arvind P’s book was favorably reviewed in several newspapers when it was published Tyler.
Upon reading this book, I realized how prescient Milton Friedman was concerning India when he commented on Mahanobolis’ (and Nehru’s) plans for the Indian economy (although I do believe Panagariya neglects one fundamental aspect of what Friedman said). A shame that Friedman was not heard at that time (50s), it would have saved India from yet 3 decades of stagnation!
Pranab Bardhan (U of Berkeley), who offers yet another interpretation of India’s (and China’s) economy, will also publish a book in early 2010 (Princeton University Press: Awakening Giants, Feet of Clay: Assessing the Economic Rise of China and India).
Re: the Wal-Mart book. It’s interesting to note that in Wal-Mart’s early days, Sam Walton used to make buying trips to New York City’s garment district, where he would look for bargains in apparel. Though Walton was a Christian from Arkansas, and the apparel wholesalers were almost exclusively Jews from Syria and Europe, the two sides absolutely adored each other.
Comments on this entry are closed.