by Alan Ebenstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001
A solid and serviceable, if somewhat dry, introduction to Hayek’s life and work.
An intellectual biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest economists.
In 1944, Friedrich Hayek, then at the London School of Economics, published The Road to Serfdom, which warned of the political consequences (i.e., totalitarianism) of central economic planning. Surprisingly (given the Keynesian climate of the day) it became a runaway bestseller in Britain and a solid success in the US, and it greatly strengthened the efforts of the free-market left wing of what would become a resurgent—and, in the 1980s, triumphant—conservatism on both sides of the Atlantic. In this first full biography of Hayek, Ebenstein concentrates on the development of Hayek’s ideas and on the ups and downs of his intellectual reputation. Born into a noble Austrian family in 1899 (he dropped the “von” upon becoming a British subject), Hayek studied economics at the University of Vienna and came under the influence of Ludwig von Mises, the hyper-rationalist libertarian theorist who led the anti-Marxist “Austrian school” of economics. Hayek made his mark with technical work on the business cycle and on the role of market prices. He left Austria in the 1930s to teach in Britain, and after the war founded the influential Mont Pelerin Society to foster cooperation between classical liberals from a variety of fields. From 1950 he taught at the University of Chicago, returning to Europe in 1962. His later works, particularly The Constitution of Liberty and Law, concentrated on social and political theory and on the role of law in providing the predictability that economic agents need to make reasonable decisions. He received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974.
A solid and serviceable, if somewhat dry, introduction to Hayek’s life and work.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-23344-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2001
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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