2008 Woodie Awards
Summer reading
Stephen Zill
Issue date: 6/16/08 Section: Features
Now that summer break is just a week away (whew!), many of you are probably planning to spend a great deal of your soon-to-be free time at the beach. But what would the beach be without a bag full of books? Empty. Well, at least in the figurative sense. So, with many publications coming out with their summer reading recommendations, I figured I might as well offer a few of my own.
First, a confession: I do not own a copy of the publication that probably established economics as an autonomous subject of inquiry: Adam Smith's magnificent doorstop of a book, "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." The title alone is as long as the entirety of some other books. Instead, I rely on satirist P.J. O'Rourke's "On the Wealth of Nations," which does a pretty good job of distilling Smith's main points in just 220 pages. If you want to learn a bit more about Smith - and his contemporaries - check out Mark Blaug's "Great Economists Before Keynes." This is a great resource for name-dropping at your next economics-themed party.
For a more in-depth look at some of the important figures in economic history, there is also Robert Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" - a true classic. This is one that should be in the collection of any econ major and is written in an easily readable manner.
If you're a beginner who'd like to read a book about the fundamentals of economics sans the graphs, equations and jargon, do yourself a favor and get Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics." There are those who stand steadfastly by Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" as an intro read, but I prefer Sowell's simple approach over Hazlitt's simplistic.
Now, I know the name Milton Friedman is anathema to most liberals, but like it or not, Friedman is easily one of the best and most important economists of the 20th century. Almost anything he has written is worth a look, but here I will recommend "Capitalism and Freedom" and "Free to Choose." The latter, which Friedman wrote with his wife, is Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite book (I had him autograph my copy).
First, a confession: I do not own a copy of the publication that probably established economics as an autonomous subject of inquiry: Adam Smith's magnificent doorstop of a book, "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." The title alone is as long as the entirety of some other books. Instead, I rely on satirist P.J. O'Rourke's "On the Wealth of Nations," which does a pretty good job of distilling Smith's main points in just 220 pages. If you want to learn a bit more about Smith - and his contemporaries - check out Mark Blaug's "Great Economists Before Keynes." This is a great resource for name-dropping at your next economics-themed party.
For a more in-depth look at some of the important figures in economic history, there is also Robert Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" - a true classic. This is one that should be in the collection of any econ major and is written in an easily readable manner.
If you're a beginner who'd like to read a book about the fundamentals of economics sans the graphs, equations and jargon, do yourself a favor and get Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics." There are those who stand steadfastly by Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson" as an intro read, but I prefer Sowell's simple approach over Hazlitt's simplistic.
Now, I know the name Milton Friedman is anathema to most liberals, but like it or not, Friedman is easily one of the best and most important economists of the 20th century. Almost anything he has written is worth a look, but here I will recommend "Capitalism and Freedom" and "Free to Choose." The latter, which Friedman wrote with his wife, is Arnold Schwarzenegger's favorite book (I had him autograph my copy).
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