We're all doing these reading/writing-best-of-2025 posts (#1400983) now, so can't blame him.
But, like, if all the books you're featuring are different flavors of "CAPITALISM IS BROKEN AND EVIL OMG!" then
- Maybe branch out a little?
- Maybe remove the cognitive blinders the size of Jupiter you shoved before your eyes?
One of the books Authers has recommended, though definitely not read, is an arch-anticapitalist academic at Harvard.
Sven Beckert was all the rage with his Empire of Cotton back when I was at uni (summary: slavery made capitalism and the modern world, and only the American South-type of slavery for which cotton was crucial) -- he even gave a lecture for us at Oxford.
(I think...? I remember this lecture vividly, but don't recall his face, so maybe I have him confused with someone else?).
I was bored to bits.I was bored to bits.
My god, a ridiculous academic with a chip on his shoulder.
If he was unreasonable then, I can't imagine what a thirteen-hundred-page rant against capitalism (Capitalism: A Global History) will be like.
Then again, it's the kind of morbid, self-flagellating thing I kind of would be up for.
If the ~history and ~econ schtackers are keen, I'll give it my best shot -- report back, perhaps, in a chapter-by-chapter reading group. But y'alls gotta support me, OG territory patrons (@Undisciplined, @BlokchainB), because this is definitely on the verge of insanity. And it'll probs take six months at least.
Also, a pretty neat break from the Austrian-econ-freedom-capitalism books I read in Bitcoin all day, every day.
P.S., quick googling gives me The Guardian review, "a ceaseless flow of startling details." ugh. So it's gotta be GREEEEEEAT
Anyway, altogether pathetic. MSM peeps need to write better books.
archive: https://archive.md/WHwJV
I'm not familiar with this guy, although the name rings a bell, so I don't feel qualified to recommend that you read his work.
Here are some reasons I might consider doing so, though:
you drive a hard bargain, sir.
Yes, these are all good reasons. In my pre-SN days a few years ago I spent much time with Stephanie Kelton's book and articles specifically for those reasons, got plenty of written ammunition out of it.
It just occurred to me that another good reason is if the guy is just a great writer and it's a pleasure to read. That seems unlikely, but what do I know?
That I can't recall whatsoever.
2-3 months delivery via my usual outlets (21st century nonsense?!) so I'll see if I can get hold of it the traditional brick-and-mortar way. It is the kind of shit a left-wingy bookstore would carry
know your enemy, as they say. I would follow along with this.
He also has quite a list of fiction at the end there, including, apparently, a number of "Icealandic noirs." Some of these sounded kinda fun. Have you read The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir?
nope
don't understand the appeal of a) crime novels like Nordic noirs -- they're all the same one story, though I do like watching the TV shows -- b) novels at all. For reading, I like the real world
Is this a critique of capitalism like Marx? Or something much more in depth?
very Marx-inspired, if I remember correctly, but he's a historian and worked on "global history" (i.e., euphemism for non-European/white lens) a lot. So I imagine it'll be landowners/slave-owners/powerful men oppressing everyone
Ahh okay
Sharp and funny without trying too hard the skepticism feels earned, and the reluctant curiosity at the end keeps it balanced.
Some bad stuff happened in the past because humanity gonna humanity.
Ergo, capitalism bad.
I'm sure it's just gonna be like that.
Won't know until we try, eh
I like the version where "all things that I, from my comfy ivory tower in the abundant 21st century, dislike = capitalism."