Category Archives: Economics
Jeevan Vasagar – The Surge – The Race Against the Most Destructive Force in Nature
The one with the comedy dog The Surge is a trenchant analysis of the destructive power of water, a clarion call for recognising imminent dangers, and a panoramic narrative of human catastrophe and hubris. Some passages present as a cross … Continue reading
Dr Geoff Andrews – Radicals: The Working Classes and the Making of Modern Britain
Whither the Labour movement? One is struck by the heroic energy and fortitude of the working classes – working long and arduous hours, they found time and resources to educate themselves, to organise trades unions, to make brass bands and … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Andrews, Books, Communism, Geoff, Haigh, Radicals, Tim, Working Class
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Alwyn Turner – A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars
Don’t mention the war! Alwyn Turner is our finest cultural and social historian. His focus is typically on the lived experience of the people, rather than the Sunday papers’ idea of culture or the minutiae of the Westminster Village. He … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Alwyn, BritIN, Nation, ShellShocked, Turner
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Steve Richards – Tony Blair: The Prime Minsters Series
He was not arrogant enough! Tony Blair is one of the defining politicians of post-war Britain, but he failed to transform the country on the same scale as, say, Margaret Thatcher. For his enemies he was a warmonger and a … Continue reading
John Cassidy – Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World
Capitalism and government go hand in hand – one feeding the other Some people think of economic history as a trifle dry, but how can you resist a book that includes quotes like these: “The love of money (as a … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History
Tagged Capitalism, Economics
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Steve Richards – The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success And Failure From Butler to Corbyn
Steve Richards – Atlantic Books – £10.99 Steve Richards’ last book was an entertaining and penetrating discussion of the last ten Prime Ministers (or at any rate, the last ten at the time of publication – we’ve had a couple … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Prime Minister, Richards, Steve, The
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Nick Wallis – The Great Post Office Scandal: The fight to expose a multimillion pound IT disaster which put innocent people in jail
Nick Wallis – Bath Publishing – £25 It is the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history. Hundreds of innocent people prosecuted, ruined, often imprisoned – their lives destroyed. And hundreds more dismissed from their jobs and their livelihoods, … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Books, Hiagh, Jail, Nick, Podcast, Post Office, postoffice, Scandal, Tim, Wallace
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Nicholas Wapshott – Samuelson Friedman: The Battle Over the Free Market
Nicholas Wapshott – W. w. Norton – £22.95 Not many academic economists are household names. But when I was young, Milton Friedman was. The high-priest of Monetarism and intellectual descendant of Friedrich Hayek, his theories were much admired by right-wing … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
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Helen Lewis – Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights
Helen Lewis – Jonathan Cape £13.59 Well-behaved women don’t make history, and we need to be a bit grown up about our approach to feminism. That is the starting point of the new book from Helen Lewis. Lewis is a … Continue reading
Mike Isaac – Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber
Mike Isaac – Norton: £19.99 It is not unusual in Silicon Valley for head office to lay on dinner for the employees. The cost is nugatory in these fabulously money-rich tech companies and it encourages people to work past quitting … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics
Tagged Android, Apple, Cab, iPhone, Mike Isaac, Taxi, Uber
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Robert Kuttner – Can Democracy Survive Globalisation?
John Maynard Keynes said, “Above all, let finance be primarily national.” Keynes understood the dangers of unfettered finance, and if he’d had his way the Bretton Woods system of international controls would have been still stronger. In his new book, … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Brexit, Democracy, Euarope, Globalisation, Grexit, politics, Trump
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Jamie Cawley – Beliefs And The World They Created
It goes without saying that there is a difference in kind between what you “believe” and what I “know to be true”. Whether it is the True Religion (be it Judaism, Christianity or Islam), Dawkinsite scientific certainty or the Demonstrable Facts of … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics, Religion
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George Cooper – Money, Blood and Revolution
Who would you turn to if the discipline of economics was in a crisis and you were looking for a solution: Mr Spock or Captain Kirk? Mr Spock would work through the existing data with methodical rigour and implacable logic, … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, Economics
Tagged Blood, Cooper, Economics, George, Money, Revolution
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Humaira Shahid – Devotion and Defiance
Humaira Shahid might have had a gilded life, and no-one would have blamed her. She was born into the privileged classes of Pakistan, enjoyed a happy and liberal childhood, and married well into a newspaper dynasty. The important men in … Continue reading
Nicholas Wapshott – Keynes Hayek – The Clash That Defined Modern Economics
Can government action fix a broken economy? Eighty years ago John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek arrived at diametrically opposed conclusions. Far from being a dry and technical academic argument, it was then and is now the central division within … Continue reading
Posted in Biography, Cultural History, Economics, History, Politics
Tagged Economics
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