The
Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die by Niell Ferguson
This
small, short volume will be of interest to thoughtful people on both sides of
the political divide. Concisely and clearly, Ferguson (a Cambridge and Harvard
trained historian) lays bare the trends that are causing our society to degenerate.
They include income inequality. The degeneration of the rule of laws into the
rule of lawyer, the sclerotic growth of bureaucracy that makes it very difficult
to get things done from bringing a drug to market to starting a small business.
The collapse of the civic institutions necessary for a free people. The undermining
of democracy. And much more, all packed into 153 pages. I think this book will
scare you, but I rate it a must-read.
An
Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi
This
book was recommended to me by my friend George. It’s available free on line,
but I bought a copy. Not expensive and you can easily read in an evening. The
author lays out diagrams of all the arguments that, while they may sound good,
are meaningless to the topic under discussion. For example, appeal to irrelevant
authority, such as having a lawyer argue that a medical treatment is
effective/ineffective, when his expertise is not in medicine. We see more of
these fallacious arguments in today’s political discourse, from both sides,
than we see valid arguments. I highly recommend this short book.
If
Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home by Lucy Worsley
My
wife and I listened to the entertaining but informative book on CD in the car.
Note that it is highly focused on Britain, but there are American references as
well. Worsley covers a wide variety of topics, from sex and VD, to food, waste
disposal, clothing, servants, the use of various rooms through the ages, how homes
evolved and changed and much more. Read it for entertainment, but you won’t be
able to help learning a great deal.
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