Students of the dismal science will enjoy this well-written account of a clash of titans.
Broad-ranging dual biography of two diametrically opposed economists and their influence on current theory.
The author of a previous pairing of the intellectual forebears of his present subjects—John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek—Wapshott recounts the rise to prominence of Paul Samuelson (1915-2009) and his ideological counterpart, Milton Friedman (1912-2006). Both grew up under similar circumstances, the worldly children of Jewish immigrants, and both arrived at a nearly opposite view of economics, particularly as an instrument of politics. The two were well aware of each other when Newsweek hired both to write an alternating column on economics. Samuelson originally declined, having earned a substantial income from his textbook on economics, which remained a standard into the 1970s. Finally, he relented after being paid the modern equivalent of $98,600 for a mere 17 pieces. “Finding an articulate, young economist who would counter Samuelson’s viewpoint would not be easy,” writes Wapshott, but finally Newsweek brought Friedman on board. By then, Friedman had already laid out the bare bones of modern libertarianism, which holds that the free market regulates itself and government has little if any role in it, or indeed in daily life. Samuelson, meanwhile, was an exponent of the quantitative easing and other interventions that Keynes had brought to bear on the Depression. The two remained grudgingly admiring rivals for five decades. Though Samuelson considered Keynes the greatest economist in history, alongside Adam Smith and Léon Walras, Friedman remained convinced that “all attempts to temper the market, however well intended…were doomed because they hampered the efficient operation of capitalism, which, when left to its own devices, was sure to maximize the benefits to society.” Though Friedman’s libertarianism remains influential, particularly among conservatives, it is not unalloyed: He favored legalizing drugs and diminishing the military, for instance. Samuelson’s view was tested and found largely correct, though, with the Great Recession of 2008, when, as a British newspaper put it, “it was Samuelson’s prescriptions, rather than Friedman’s, that carried the day.”
Students of the dismal science will enjoy this well-written account of a clash of titans.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-393-28518-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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