OK. The Grattan Institute with all its funding is producing, as it always does, a reading list for the PM. To show the power of blogging I thought we’d do the same here. I wrote “Opposition leader” above just to offer cheap differentiation from Grattan. But whether it’s for Bill Shorten or anyone else, please let us know below what books should be read with any spare time you get over Christmas. I’ve just finished Tim Colebatch’s Dick Hamer and am ploughing into something which comes some way to total heaviosity, Ray Monk’s bio of Ludwig Wittgenstein. But it’s a couple of decades old. Then again, while I was thinking of new books to recommend, feel free to recommend old ones too.
Anyway, what would you recommend people read this summer?
Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy by Peter Mair
Definitely this Fukuyama double-act:
http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Political-Order-Prehuman-Revolution/dp/0374533229/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415747205&sr=8-2&keywords=fukuyama
http://www.amazon.com/Political-Order-Decay-Industrial-Globalization/dp/0374227357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415747205&sr=8-1&keywords=fukuyama
Spectacular stuff.
I read some of Fukuyama’s essay “The End of History” the other day. I usually find him pretty interesting. But I was surprised at how dated (shallow) it was.
The Monk biography is good, even if he does foolishly disbelieve (against the evidence IMO) that Wittgenstein liked rough play and his guilt over that mattered to his actions.
If you haven’t already done so do try the Skidelsky bio of Keynes – simply the finest biography I’ve ever read, plus an education in macroeconomics, international finance and the decline and fall of the British Empire too. It should definitely be on Shorten’s reading list.
Yes, Skidelsky on Keynes is something – though Brad Delong has his objections.
My view is that the ALP doesn’t need to read books on policy ideas. There are plenty of policy ideas around. The ALP desperately needs to read a book – or even better, a few short and pointed essays, with accompanying summaries and checklists – about how to run a productive government which can sell and implement ideas in the Australian context.
Sadly, I don’t think such a book exists. And I’m not the right person to write one (though I’d be happy to ghost-write and edit one).
And sorry to be selfish, but what I’d really like for Christmas is your view of Monk on Wittgenstein, which I am tempted to buy. The suggestion is that for nongs like me, Monk is the only non-tortuous way to understand what Wittgenstein was on about.
Ahh. Thanks, DD, for both recommendations.
Nick,
just get him to read your posts!
http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9780849398155?redirected=true&v=A75X6&selectCurrency=AUD&gclid=CNDmiquv9sECFVgjvQodTlAAhg
You just won the interwebs daily award. I hereby order clubtroppo to award an imaginary car!
Rooter or the Merc?
And where should the finalists be flown (first class) for the final?