The Book of Vices

Mises Review 2, No. 4 (Winter 1996)

HIDDEN ORDER: THE ECONOMICS OF EVERYDAY LIFE
David Friedman
Harper Business, 1996, xi + 340 pgs.

This book starts to derail around Chapter 15. Before then, the work provides a largely sound elementary account of economic principles. Our author writes from a neoclassical, rather than an Austrian perspective; and Austrian readers will find it revealing to compare Friedman’s approach with their own. But of this more later. 

Tea for One

Mises Review 2, No. 4 (Winter 1996)

A PROPENSITY TO SELF-SUBVERSION
Albert D. Hirschman
Harvard University Press, 1995, viii + 262 pgs.

Albert Hirschman is hard to pin down. No sooner does he offer a theory than he thinks of a qualification to it. He has achieved great fame for his portrayal of “exit” and “voice” as competing forces; but in the present work he tells us they can act together. How does one review someone with a “propensity to self- subversion”?

The Other Side of Lachmann

Mises Review 2, No. 4 (Winter 1996)

EXPECTATIONS AND THE MEANING OF INSTITUTIONS: ESSAYS IN ECONOMICS
Ludwig Lachmann
Edited by Don Lavoie
Routledge, 1994, viii + 331 pgs

Kempianism in Cyberspace

Mises Review 2, No. 4 (Winter 1996)

WHAT COMES NEXT: THE END OF BIG GOVERNMENT AND THE NEW PARADIGM
James P. Pinkerton
Hyperion, 1995, xi + 404 pgs.

At times in this strange book, Mr. Pinkerton sounds like an advocate of the free market; fortunately, he really is not. “Fortunately,” because our author has an anti-Midas Touch. Whatever he touches he leaves in confusion. Far better to have him on the other side.

Between Freedom and Socialism

Mises Review 3, No. 4 (Winter 1997)

DYNAMICS OF THE MIXED ECONOMY: TOWARD A THEORY OF INTERVENTIONISM
Sanford Ikeda
Routledge, 1997, xiv + 296 pgs.

Crank versus Crank

Mises Review 3, No.4 (Winter 1997)

WITHOUT A PRAYER
John W. Robbins
The Trinity Foundation, 1997, xvii + 399 pgs.

What Tower? What Babel?

Mises Review 3, No. 4 ( Winter 1997)

CULTIVATING HUMANITY
Martha C. Nussbaum
Harvard University Press, 1997, 338 pgs.

Island of Sanity

Mises Review 3, No. 4 (Winter 1997)

LITERATURE LOST
John M. Ellis
Yale University Press, 1997, x + 262 pgs.

Like Martha Nussbaum, whose Cultivating Humanity is addressed above, John M. Ellis is concerned with multiculturalism. His excellent book, taken together with her less than excellent one, enables readers to gain a firm grasp on the new style of education.

Central Planning for Self-Esteem

 Mises Review 3, No. 4 (Winter 1997)

ANTIDISCRIMINATION LAW AND SOCIAL EQUALITY
Andrew Koppelman
Yale University Press, 1996, x + 276 pgs.

Andrew Koppelman is clearly a writer of considerable intelligence, and exceptionally well-read in political philosophy, ethics, and law. But he puts his talent in the service of a bizarre idea.

The U.S. as Savior

Mises Review 3, No. 4 (Winter 1997)

FREEDOM BETRAYED
Michael A. Ledeen
AEI Press, 1996, viii + 167 pgs.

Freedom Betrayed is a spirited polemic in support of a contradictory thesis. We need less government, and so we must sponsor a worldwide Democratic Revolution (capitals courtesy of our author) that rests on a massive increase in the power of the state.