Category: Books
Explaining the United States to German graduate students
I'll be teaching a class at the Freie Universität this summer on this topic, in the North American Studies department. I am wondering what I should have them read. So far I am considering:
1. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America.
2. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, by Paul Fussell.
3. The American Religion, by Harold Bloom.
4. John Gunther, Inside U.S.A.; a longstanding favorite of mine.
5. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey.
6. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, by Seymour Martin Lipset.
7. Peter Baldwin, The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How American and Europe are Alike. I disagree with the premise of this book but nonetheless it may shake them out of their dogmatic slumbers.
8. Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America.
Albion's Seed is an excellent book but it is too long. What have I forgotten? Should I have more on Mormons?
Strengthening the public option
Benoit Maison writes to me:
I am the developer of the free iPhone app pic2shop that is the subject of the release. It lets you scan the barcode of a book and check availability in public libraries near you.
Book review cliches
Here is a list of them, via Graham Farmelo and others on Twitter. Here is one example of many of the cliches in action:
Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog is a science fiction tour de force: it is at once a rollicking comedy, a fully realized fantasy, and a highly readable yet nuanced page-turner. Willis' deceptively simple prose follows a group of futuristic time-travellers as they attempt to recover "the Bishop's bird stump" for their patroness, Lady Schrapnell, and get embroiled in a riveting adventure in the process. The sweeping story dips into the Victorian era, Medieval Britain, and World War II in a haunting yet timely look at the consequences of tampering with the fabric of history.
By the way, it should be "Willis's." And I am a fan of her scintillating, unputdownable work.
“Alternatively, thoughts on Margaret Atwood or Arundhati Roy.”
That was a reader request. My thoughts are simple:
I am a fan of Atwood's Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, both of which are well constructed and compelling on virtually every page. Many of her other books seem meritorious to me (The Blind Assassin, Robber's Bride), but I don't enjoy finishing them and my attention ends up wandering. The failing may be mine. I don't think I would find her non-fiction book on debt very interesting but I haven't tried it.
Roy's The God of Small Things impressed me as I was reading it, but since then it has vanished from my mind. Her musings on economics, or for that matter politics, are under-informed to say the least. I view her as a "one hit wonder" and I am not even sure the one hit stands up. I admire Atwood's humanity and universality and scope of vision, even when I think her work is failing to connect; I don't have a similar response to Roy.
Review copies waiting in my pile
1. Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, by Stuart Buck.
2. Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creation Destruction, by Thomas McCraw, new in paperback. I loved this book, you can Google back to my previous reviews.
3. Anthony de Jasay, Political Philosophy, Clearly: Essays on Freedom and Fairness, Property and Equalities. This one is a Liberty Fund edition.
4. The Great Reset: How New Ways of Working and Living Drive Post-Crash Prosperity, by Richard Florida.
5. 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown, by Simon Johnson; a public choice analysis of the unholy alliance between finance and politics.
6. Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades, by Jonathan Phillips.
There are others, too. All of these appear to have merits.
*The Future History of the Arctic*
I loved this book, which is written by Charles Emmerson. Here is one short bit:
Despite the prominence of the colors of Norway on Svalbard — and the firm insistence from any government representative that Svalbard is an integral part of the kingdom of Norway — there are reminders that the archipelago is both something more and something less than that. Russians and Ukrainians live here, some in Longyearbyen, though most are at the Russian settlement at Barentsburg. The girls at the supermarket checkout counter speak Thai. Somewhere in town is an Iranian who came here six years ago and, under the terms of the Spitsbergen Treaty, was able to settle here. If he were to return south to the Norwegian mainland, he would almost definitely be forced to leave the country, his asylum claims having been refused. Import duties are nonexistent on Svalbard: Cuban cigars cost less in Longyearbyen, at 78 degrees North, than they do in Oslo, three hours' flight to the south.
Here is Wikipedia on Svalbard.
This book covers why and how Greenland might become independent, what kind of presence in the Arctic Canada can realistically expect to have, the changing historical fortunes of Vladivostock, what the Law of the Sea really means, and why Norway manages its fossil fuel revenues so well, among other matters. The Future History of the Arctic has fun and useful information on just about every page.
*A Brief History of Liberty*
That is the new book by David Schmidtz and Jason Brennan. It is ideal for anyone looking for a broad overview of human history from a classical liberal point of view. Self-recommending, as they say. Buy it here. Here are Schmidtz and Brennan on CatoUnbound.
My review of the new edition of van Gogh’s letters
I read these new volumes in December. There are six large books, two columns to a page, large pages, the whole thing weighs about thirty pounds. I can't recall taking on such a large reading project in such a short period of time, but I am very glad I spent a few weeks immersed in the world of Vincent van Gogh. I was impressed by how smart van Gogh was, what an intellectual omnivore he was, and how well he could compose a letter and pour forth a lot of information very rapidly. The illustrations and footnotes in the volumes are stunning. You'll find the review here. Excerpt:
The collected letters of great creative minds can often be read as lengthy case studies in the dissimulation and the control of one's personal image to others. This is the case with van Gogh, whose writing also shows how such interpretive attempts break down. Some of his letters are practical documents containing very little information, a series of bland platitudes to cajole, influence, and perhaps even mislead their readers. Tone and content contrast strikingly, from one recipient to the next. He himself stated–if only in passing–that there is a lot wrong or exaggerated in his letters, "without my always [sic] being aware of it" (December 23, 1881).
When van Gogh writes to his parents, he sounds like a normal son who is keen to reassure Mom and Dad that everything is OK; with his sister Willemien, he is loving, doting, and domestic, and it feels that he is trying not to remind her of his chaotic life, rather than trying to conceal it. He describes to her the prospect of sharing a room with Gauguin (July 31, 1888), calling him "a very spirited painter." "We'd live together for the sake of economy and for each other's company." A few months later (October 8 and 29), he writes to Theo that Gauguin needs to eat, walk in the countryside with him (Vincent), and "have a screw once in a while": "He and I plan to go to the brothels a lot, but only to study them." The entire Gauguin story is a highlight of the volumes, and in those letters to Gauguin, not to mention to other artists, van Gogh is prickly, difficult, and condescending, playing the role of rival to the hilt.
As for his letters to Theo, these are so full of life that it's easy for the reader to assume that his brother is getting the "real Vincent." But is he? Through much of this period, Theo is supporting van Gogh, either by sending him money, by selling his art (or trying to), or both. Writing to Theo, the artist comes across as whining, manipulative, and in careful control of the flow of information. It's a kind of faux frankness, maybe not untrue but designed to portray a mind in creative ferment and to fit a certain stereotype. There is often first a thanks for money received, a blizzard of reports about what van Gogh is doing and painting, and then at the end a suggestion that even more painting, activity, and creative ferment might be possible if only Theo would do everything to support him. Time and again, the reader wonders just how much van Gogh and his brother trust each other. In the letter of August 14, 1879, for instance, he complains that Theo has advised him to give up his quest to be an artist. "And, joking apart, I honestly think it would be better if the relationship between us were more trusting on both sides," van Gogh suggests, before apologizing for the possibility that so much of the family sorrow and discord have been caused by him. These look and sound like letters to his brother, but in essence we are reading fund-raising proposals.
You have to register to read the whole review but it doesn't take long. www.bookforum.com, by the way, is one of my all-time favorite web sites.
Assorted links about influential books
1. Peter Suderman's "most influential" book list.
4. Michael Martin's book list.
5. Niklas Blanchard's book list.
If you've tried this, and I missed you, my apologies — please leave the link in the comments.
*The Big Short*, by Michael Lewis
The big fear of the 1980s mortgage bond investor was that he would be repaid too quickly, not that he would fail to be repaid at all.
That's one good sentence from the book, which you can order here. There is an excerpt from the book, on Michael Burry, here. Here is a Felix Salmon review of the book. In terms of policy, Lewis attaches great weight to the fact that the major investment banks became publicly-traded companies rather than partnerships. I liked the stories and much of the inside scoop, but it didn't have the giddy fun of Liar's Poker or Moneyball nor did it have the analysis of some other books.
*Slapped by the Invisible Hand*
That's the new Gary Gorton book and the subtitle is The Panic of 2007. It brings together Gorton's writings on the crisis in one convenient place but it serves up a fascinating afterword in which he asks how people will view this crisis one hundred years from now.
We've already covered Gorton's writings here. As I've already mentioned, for anyone interested in the crisis, or in banking and finance more generally, this is absolutely essential reading. I also take his analysis to suggest (here this is my gloss, not his words) that there is no way to avoid crises since "bank run-like phenomena" can pop up in many different ways in any economy with significant liquidity transformation.
Books which have influenced me most
Chris, a loyal MR reader, asks:
I'd like to see you list the top 10 books which have influenced your view of the world.
I'll go with the "gut list," rather than the "I've thought about this for a long time list." I'll also stress that books are by no means the only source of influence. The books are in no intended order, although the list came out in a broadly chronological stream:
1. Plato, Dialogues. I read these very early in life and they taught me about trying to think philosophically and also about meta-rationality.
2. The Incredible Bread Machine, by Susan Love Brown, et.al. This was the first book I ever read on economics and it got me excited about the topic.
3. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, by Ayn Rand. This got me excited about the idea that production is what matters and that producers must have the freedom and incentives to operate.
4. Friedrich A. Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order. The market as a discovery procedure and why socialist calculation will not succeed. (By the way, I'll toss a chiding tsk-tsk the way of Wolfers and Thoma.)
5. John Maynard Keynes: The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Keynes is one of the greatest thinkers of economics and there are new ideas on virtually every page.
6. John Stuart Mill, Autobiography. This got me thinking about how one's ideas change, and should change, over the course of a lifetime. Plus Mill is a brilliant thinker and writer more generally.
7. Willard van Orman Quine, Word and Object. This is actually a book about how to arrive at a deeper understanding than the one you already have, although I suspect few people read it that way.
8. Reasons and Persons, by Derek Parfit. This convinced me that a strictly individualistic approach to ethics will not in general succeed and introduced me to new ways of reasoning and new ways to plumb for depth.
9. Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae. I don't think the ideas in this book have influenced me very much, but reading it was, for whatever reason, the impetus to start writing about the economics of culture and also to give a broader focus to what I write. Alex, by the way, was the one who recommended it to me.
10. Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past. This is still the best book on interiority.
I'd also like to mention the two books by Fischer Black, although a) I cannot easily elevate one over the other, and b) I capped the list at ten. La Rochefoucauld's Maxims also deserves honorary mention, on self-deception and related issues. Plus there is Shakespeare — also for thinking with depth – although I cannot point to a single book above the others. Harold Bloom's The Western Canon comes to mind as well.
I would encourage other bloggers to offer similar lists.
What I’ve been reading
1. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg, by Dubravka Ugresic. These interrelated stories, which concern the aging of women, are so far my favorite fiction of the year. This was from a Bookslut recommendation; here is one review.
2. Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card. Not as good as Ender's Game and the trilogy, but still worth reading if you have an interest in the series.
3. Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Some parts of this story are very good, but overall I felt manipulated by the author and I was glad when it was over. I prefer Henning Mankell.
4. Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time. This new translation is a big improvement on the old and thus a chance to rediscover a classic of Russian literature.
5. The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You've Been Told About Genetics, Talent, and IQ is Wrong, by David Shenk. There's nothing new in here, plus not everybody can be a genius.
My favorite short stories
In the "Request for Requests," yc asks:
Your favorite short stories (or collections)
Most of the twentieth century greats, such as Cheever and Barthelme, don't much stick with me. I am a huge fan of Alice Munro and have read most or all of her work (the last collection is good but somewhat below average.) She is consistently interesting about human nature and its foibles; maybe start here.
From the classics I'll pick Kafka's "A Country Doctor" and lots by Melville. Borges is a special favorite, especially Ficciones. Joyce's short stories I admire but don't much enjoy. I like Poe's "The Gold-Bug" and Hemingway's "Kilimanjaro" For Chekhov I prefer the mid-length fiction, though this may be a problem of translation. Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad" might count as a novella. From Henry James, I would recommend many of the shorter works including "Turn of the Screw" and "The Beast in the Garden." Isaac Babel. Some Shirley Jackson. Mark Twain. There is much in science fiction and arguably the genre is at its strongest in this medium.
That's a very incomplete answer, but it's what comes to mind right away.
*Country Driving*
The author is Peter Hessler and the subtitle is A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. It is the account of the author's driving journeys throuh the Middle Kingdom. Here is one bit:
…Chinese drivers haven't grasped the subtleties of headlight use. Most people keep their lights off until it's pitch-dark, and then they flip on the brights. Almost nobody uses headlights in rain, fog, snow, or twilight conditions — in fact, this is one of the few acts guaranteed to annoy a Chinese driver. They don't mind if you tailgate, or pass on the right, or drive on the sidewalk. You can back down a highway entrance ramp without anybody batting an eyelash. But if you switch on your lights during a rainstorm, approaching drivers will invariably flash their brights in annoyance.
I found this to be an excellent travel memoir, a very good book on transportation economics, a wonderful book on China, and most of all a first-rate study of the adjustments and changing norms which accompany rapid economic development. I also found it to be a very funny book and, for whatever reason, I don't find most books funny.
Here is another bit on China:
Often I passed billboards dedicated to the planned-birth policy, whose catchphrases ranged from tautology ("Daughters Also Count as Descendants") to unsolicited advice ("Marry Late and Have Children Late") to outright lies ("Having a Son or a Daughter Is Exactly the Same"). As I drove west, the messages became bigger, until barren hillsides were covered with slogans, as if words had swelled to fill the empty steppes, "Everybody Work to Make the Green Mountain Greener" — this in forty-foot-tall characters across an Inner Mongolian mountain that was neither green nor the site of a single working person.
Recommended.