Category: Books

Our book forum starts this coming Wednesday, make sure you’ve read at least chapter one by then.  You can buy the book here.

There’s lots of piling on in this one.  Fifteen years ago I predicted to Jim Buchanan that Gray would end up a Catholic; I stand by that claim, as he doesn’t have anywhere else to go.  The final step is when you challenge whether man is any better than nature at all, and that’s what happened in his previous book Straw Dogs.  I’ve long enjoyed Gray’s anti-utopianism, his ability to challenge conventional views, and his willingness to change his mind, but this review does score some telling points.

It’s just out.  This is the best popular book explaining the benefits of international trade.  Imagine Bastiat for 2008, or a Cajun updating of Henry George’s Protection or Free Trade.  Sadly it is expensive but I’d sooner give a student this book than say Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson.

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Tim Harford’s The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World.  Alex and I will be starting our Book Forum soon, along with some prestigious guest reviewers, and Tim’s book will start appearing in book stores this Tuesday.  Tim is one of the world’s best popular writers on economics, and we only select those books that we feel will yield maximally interesting book forums.

1. India, by Michael Wood.  This book looks ordinary but it is a wonderful (selective) history which captures the magic of India.  Recommended to both the beginner and the expert.

2. Las Benévolas, by Jonathan Littell, the Spanish-language edition of this famous French novel just came out (I don’t read French).  Here is the French edition.  Here are some of the raves.  Here is a critical review.  I loved the first twenty pages and was bored by the next thirty.  We’ll see how far I get in this Spanish-language edition of almost 1000 pages.  My current best guess is that a WWII-themed novel of this kind simply can’t be that original.  The French love it, perhaps, because an American-born writer wrote it in the French language.

3. Angus Maddison, Contours of the World Economy, 1-2030 AD.  This is a good summary of knowledge about economic growth, by a premier empirical economist.  But, as I am already familiar with the basic literature, I couldn’t find any reason to keep on reading.

4. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, by Eric Weiner.  This book is well-written, witty, and deserving of its current bestseller status.  At first I thought it was just fluff, but its applied, anecdotal, and travel-based approach gives one of the better windows on happiness across cultures.  His particular observations are astute, especially on Switzerland and Thailand; in the latter case, referring to sex, he writes that something which cannot be shoved under the rug is now regarded as a piece of furniture.

5. Virginia Postrel on Ron Paul, no spam bots please.

Here is my review of Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets.  I found this a difficult review to write.  The book is very interesting and Venkatesh is one of the world’s best and leading social scientists (and I don’t say that lightly).  Still, I thought his book was…how can I put it….somewhat evil, if I may call upon that old-fashioned concept.  The book required him to work with, and often encourage, a vicious gang leader for up to six years.  For instance:

J.T., the gang leader at the
center of the story, and of Mr. Venkatesh’s research, becomes wrapped
up in the idea of having his own biographer. Eventually it became his
obsession that Mr. Venkatesh record the details of his life, including
the shakedowns. In part, this was J.T.’s narcissism, and in part he
needed the motivation of an observer. Most of all, J.T. seemed to enjoy
having an audience: "I realized that he had come to rely on my
presence; he liked the attention, and the validation," Mr. Venkatesh
reports. None of J.T.’s underlings were qualified for the role of
courtier, but the highly intelligent and nonjudgmental Mr. Venkatesh
was perfect.

Here is my conclusion:

When it comes to understanding
the world, biography is truly the underappreciated method in the social
sciences. The life of the individual reveals what is otherwise hidden
in abstract numbers or faceless questionnaires. Mr. Venkatesh is to be
applauded for his path-breaking work and his compelling exposition.
He’s lucky that he didn’t have to pay a high price, but by the end of
the story the reader is wondering whether someone else might have, due
to Mr. Venkatesh’s unintended encouragement of J.T. Yes, evil really
can be attractive, and the biographical achievement here is splendid,
but when I return to the thought of encouraging and feeding the ego of
a gang leader for six years running, I can’t bring myself to be
attracted to this book.

I would recommend that you read Gang Leader for a Day, but ultimately I could not shy away from writing a negative review.  Let me know what you think.

I’ve discarded lots of unfinished books on this trip, but two have stood out for their excellence:

1. The Past, by Alan Pauls.  I don’t usually like drug-fueled tales of unhealthy sexual obsession, but I’ll make an exception for this one.  This Argentine novel has received rave reviews across Europe, but still does not seem to have a U.S. publisher; the Amazon link is to a UK edition.  It’s uneven, but it has a higher number of memorable scenes than almost any other contemporary novel.

2. The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, by Alvaro Mutis.  Imagine a Colombian version of 1001 Nights and Don Quixote, in novella form.  This is 700 pp. of sheer delight, and it also indicates we are just starting to figure out which Latin American works of fiction will prove of lasting importance.  This is one of them, and another superb translation from Edith Grossman.

If I read two works of fiction this good in 2008, I will be grateful.

Paulo Coelho, Isabel Allende, Stephen King, Anne Rice, other vampire stories, Paulo Coelho, The Secret, Emotional Intelligence, Isabel Allende, and Paulo Coelho.  You don’t see Dan Brown or Lord of the Rings nearly as much as you used to.  Did I mention Paulo Coelho?

Here is Bruce Bartlett´s new book, here is an overview.  Incendiary, etc.  The positive suggestion is that the Republicans should, and will need to, start courting black voters, and that greater electoral competition in this manner will help the courted parties.  The main theoretical question is when the statute of limitations runs out for holding the background of a party against that party.  I don’t have a clear view on that question, although for individual candidates I think that the time horizon should be quite long.

Addendum: Here is a Matt-Bruce exchange.  Perhaps I posted this link without enough explanation.  What I find so interesting is why Bartlett remains a Republican, or from the synopsis seems to.  After all, he has come close to endorsing Hillary.  Whether you like that or not, it is a big step for someone from his market-oriented background.  Does he stay a Republican because he thinks Republicans are better on race issues?  I haven’t read the book, but I thought there were many interesting issues going on in this new work of his.  I am sorry to have given rise to an exchange with nasty comments.  They’ve been deleted.  I might add I believe there is plenty of racism all around; the interesting positive question is why it takes one form (more open) in Republican circles and another very different form in Democratic circles.  Wage and other data show that discrimination is not especially concentrated in Republican areas, I hope to post more on that topic soon.

This might be the best written tedious fantasy book that I have come across for a while.

That’s from an Amazon review of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, which is in fact the best written tedious fantasy book that I have come across for a while.  Recommended.

1. Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium, by Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O’Rourke.  A definitive economic history of many things, including globalization and trade.  It is nicely balanced, though a bit boring to actually read.

2. The Sourcebook of Contemporary Architecture, by Alex Sanchez Vidiella.  I loved this book, which is mostly photos.  It is amazing how many first-rate buildings the world has put up since 2000.  Can any other seven year period in world history compare?  Japan is underrepresented in this volume, and they don’t even resort to Dubai.  Spain and America take the lead.

3. Daniil Kharms, Today I Wrote Nothing: The Selected Writings of Daniil Kharms.  The best collection of the Russian absurdist, offered up in many short bits; recommended, he is an underread writer outside of Russia.

4. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher.  How the Amish came to forgive the guy who shot ten of their children.  A sleeper book, it has turned up on some of the odder "best of" lists for the year.

5. Vernon Smith, Rationality in Economics: Constructivist and Ecological Forms.  This is Vernon’s big picture book, covering Hayek, the extended liberal order, and how experimental economics makes it all fit together.  A capstone to an amazing career, next will come his autobiography.

Being-at-home, Heidegger says, is not the "primordial phenomenon."  "Not-being-at-home" is more fundamental.  To be not-at-home may mean to be at hotel. 

That is from Wayne Koestenbaum’s recent Hotel Theory, which is possibly the funniest book I have read, with the caveat that a satire of queered Heidegger theory, combined with a fictional story of Lana Turner and Liberace, may not be your thing.  I also loved The Queen’s Throat; Koestenbaum is one of the most original writers working today.  Here are reviews of the book.

Here is one review of Bryan Caplan from the Amazon.co.uk site:

The reality is a book written for the university educated and the class of society who never have to fear unemployment. The university style of writing makes it difficult to understand what he is going on about, since you have to keep looking up a dictionary. It is also rather boring, which makes it difficult to hold your concentration. The basic theme of the book is that economists think that the ordinary voter is irrational when it comes to politics and voting. The economist argues that because the economy keeps getting stronger; they are always right, and the public always wrong. Trade protectionism, mass immigration of cheap labour, downsizing which causes mass unemployment are all supported by the economist and not supported by the voter.

Here are his other reviews, he likes Sidney Bechet but doesn’t say whether or not he votes.  Thanks to Bryan for the pointer.