Books of the year, 2010

The author of this book is Max Hastings.  Although this topic may seem like well-trodden ground, this is so far one of my favorite non-fiction books of the year.  Excerpt:

~ Frederic Sautet ~

Gellner's general view of the world of advanced liberal capitalism is by now familiar: it is a relatively open world in which science prospers, bringing both affluence and diminished moral certainty -- with Danegeld doing a good deal to secure social cohesion.

One of the notable arithmetical truths about the period of the Industrial Revolution is that it is quite possible (if not certain) that biological living standards in both urban and rural areas rose and yet average living standards declined.  This can happen if urban living conditions are significantly worse than rural ones, and the proportion of people living in cities is rising because of migration from the countryside to the towns.  It seems likely that the biological measures of living standards were especially sensitive to urbanization. 

The subtitle is An Economic History of Britain, 1700-1850 and the author is Joel Mokyr.  This is now the most comprehensive and indeed the currently definitive history of the British Industrial Revolution.  Here is a short excerpt:

|Peter Boettke| I had the great privilege of introducing Elinor Ostrom tonight.  She is a very special person and we were all very fortunate to have her join us tonight.  Here are my introductory remarks:

Everyone’s reading and writing about China these days, and the best book I’ve read on the subject is Peter Hessler’s Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.

|Peter Boettke|