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Recently Read |
Have you ever noticed how after a while business websites can begin to seem mind-numbingly similar? In an effort to pique your interest, let you get to know me a little bit better, and perhaps even to stimulate your thoughts in new directions, here are several books that I recently read and found worthwhile.
On Water, Nature, and Society . . .Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent DroughtWorkman tells the story of the Kalahari Bushmen's struggle to retain access to their reserve in the face of Botswana's edict to leave. He draws lessons from the Bushmen's traditional approach to water sharing for current times. Workman, James G. Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming Age of Permanent Drought. New York: Walker Publishing Company, 2009.UnquenchableGlennon discusses water resource challenges around the U.S. He advocates for a number of things, including use of water markets in the context of state and federal oversight to protect public good while promoting better uses of the resource. Glennon, Robert. Unquenchable. Island Press / Shearwater Books, 2009.Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or SucceedDiamond evaluates what is known of several historical and contemporary societies attempting to discover characteristics that lead them either to collapse or to thrive. Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin, 2005.1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before ColumbusMann presents recent research into civilizations in the Americas prior to the arrival of the Europeans. In addition to upturning ideas many of us learned in high school about native American societies, he argues that these societies engineered the natural environments they lived in to an unexpected extent. Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Vintage, 2006.Of Money and Economics . . .Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic TheologyA criticism of the prevalent idea that unfettered profit-seeking motivated by self-interest will necessarily produce the best economic outcomes. Foley argues that self-interested profit-seeking must be restrained in the interests of the greater good of society as a whole. Foley, Duncan K. Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.The Ascent of MoneyThis book is a short history of the development of the banking and credit systems, beginning prior to the Renaissance. It is helpful for those of us who are not professional financial gurus. Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money. Penguin, 2009.On Political Philosophy . . .Justice, What's the Right Thing to Do?A very approachable review of various political philosophies, with a review of utilitarianism, libertarianism, markets and morals, Kant, Rawls, and Aristotle. Sandel explores what is the basis for a just society and various answers to the question. Sandel, Michael J. Justice, What's the Right Thing to Do? : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. |
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