Infant and child mortality has fallen precipitously in the last few centuries, and life expectancy has increased dramatically. We have made a lot of progress in the protection of public health, but we are still wasting staggering amounts of life that gets snuffed out early by disease and war. Consider diarrhea, which is an inconvenience […]
Infant and child mortality has fallen precipitously in the last few centuries, and life expectancy has increased dramatically. We have made a lot of progress in the protection of public health, but we are still wasting staggering amounts of life that gets snuffed out early by disease and war. Consider diarrhea, which is an inconvenience […]
I Read Things: African History for Young Readers
There’s a little “community library” a few blocks away from our house in front of a closed convenience store. We’ve made a few deposits and quite a few withdrawals, and it seems like there’s always something interesting (and always a lot of stuff that isn’t so interesting, like pulp-worthy harlequin romance). One of my more […]
I Read Things: African History for Young Readers
There’s a little “community library” a few blocks away from our house in front of a closed convenience store. We’ve made a few deposits and quite a few withdrawals, and it seems like there’s always something interesting (and always a lot of stuff that isn’t so interesting, like pulp-worthy harlequin romance). One of my more […]
I Read Things: Niall Ferguson to Narnia
Niall Ferguson, Civilization. I think this is the first Ferguson book I’ve read. He writes beautifully and comprehensively. In the book I’m writing with Deirdre McCloskey—it’s based on McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues, Bourgeois Dignity, and Bourgeois Equality—we criticize some of Ferguson’s claims about his “killer apps,” but the book is a pretty solid survey of […]
I Watch Things: Movie Night With the Kids
In no particular order, over the last few months. Father Goose. One of my wife’s family’s all-time favorites. I haven’t watched it in years. The kids thought it hilarious, and it’s a very, very good movie. Cary Grant delivers an excellent performance as a crusty and bitter drunkard suddenly surrounded by a very prim and […]
I Read Things: Thomas Sowell Edition
Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite economists and intellectuals, and here are some of my favorite books in his oeuvre. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. I first read this at the suggestion of my colleague Mark McMahon at Rhodes College, and beginning in 2007-08 I started assigning it in my […]
I Read Things: Thomas Sowell Edition
Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite economists and intellectuals, and here are some of my favorite books in his oeuvre. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. I first read this at the suggestion of my colleague Mark McMahon at Rhodes College, and beginning in 2007-08 I started assigning it in my […]
Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite economists and intellectuals, and here are some of my favorite books in his oeuvre. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. I first read this at the suggestion of my colleague Mark McMahon at Rhodes College, and beginning in 2007-08 I started assigning it in my […]