The People's Economics

In this book Ronald B. Levinson responds to many of Karl Popper's criticisms of Plato in The Open Society and its Enemies.

This was supposedly a rebuttal to Snow's Two Cultures arguments. But it wasn't. It was mostly an attack on C. P. Snow himself, and then went on to...

How could the gulf between science and the arts be bridged

Rowling's bestselling series.

This book continues Kurzweil's ideas on how to live longer (rather than wishing for some future singularity) but it has got rather buried in the huge...

When compared to Fantastic Voyage the title shows the move away from what path we need to follow to live longer, and towards the idea of some...

Arthur Ransome tells the story of a former factory owner, known as Uncle. Following the revolution he the idea of common ownership, and put plenty of...

A chapter looking at Marx's shortcomings is followed by one looking at the work Alfred Marshal. Nasar doesn't do so explicitly, but one can't help...

We hear of how the British always claimed to be acting according to free-market principles, but that their military control meant that they could...

Businessmen are persuading the government to pass an act creating a Muffin Monopoly. Was Dickens more in favour of the free market than people think?

The hero has made his money in what was considered an honourable way — the spoils of war. (The British government would give 'prize money' to naval...

The top down nature of early societies meant that there was a class which carried on more or less as normal even if there was widespread famine.

Is it a myth that Adam Smith promoted selfishness?

Adam, Adam, Adam Smith,

John North describes the astronomical clock built at St. Alban's abbey. How did the abbey pay for such a feat of engineering? One important source of...

The author takes the right wing view that the rich — even the super rich — deserve the money they get. But he also suggests their offspring shouldn't...

’Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,

Chasing friendship for friendship's sake may well lead nowhere. Friendship arise when people are pursuing the same goal.

Lewis Carroll's rambling work, partly serving as a vehicle for some of his ideas about religion and society.

15-year-old Elena goes to stay with a relative of her teacher. Her host runs a B&B and when Elena she gets there she finds that she is expected...

Blyton's message here is that children need discipline to grow up into responsible adults and should be grateful for even the least communication...

Were the 1970s really comparable to a Zombie Apocalypse.

Hans Rosling tells of how one of his students said he wanted to punch the owners of a drug company in the face. Rosling responded that he was really...

I'm very suspicious of Malmgren's suggestion that one way to deal with the national debt is to increase the population

This book describes how solar power has the advantage that it's getting cheaper all the time. I can't help thinking that in a few years time people...