This book’s full title is Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World. His telling of the first farmers etc. is like a telling a just so story. It is a story that has not been verified. This is my only negative comment. I found the book interesting reading. An example is how much land the cattle and sheep stations cover and how much land Gina Rinehart owns.
Aaron Retica writes an interesting review at the New York Times. Unfortunately, this review is now behind a pay wall. Carmen Margiotta on Earth.org gives us a review of this book. Also, I found a review on Kirkus Reviews. There is also a good review on Coot’s Reviews. I also read a review by Eric Liebetrau at the Boston Globe.
Simon Winchester is interviewed at the Kinokuniya Book Store about this book. The author is interviewed at the Gibson’s Bookstore. On C-Span Simon Winchester starts his talk 2 minutes in. Simon Winchester talks on TED.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Friday, September 2, 2022
The Journey of Humanity by Oded Galor
This book’s full title is The Journey of Humanity; the Origins of Wealth and Inequality. I found this book to be very interesting. I realize that there are criticisms of Oded Galor theories. The criticisms are interesting, but so is the book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it worthwhile to read.
According to Oded Galor, there was a rapid eruption of change in the past 2 centuries. The change did not happen equally across the globe. Some areas saw the change and in other areas, change is just happening recently. We went from stagnation to growth. It was a huge transition.
During the Malthusian epoch, there was technological innovation, but it leads to a bigger population, but the individuals of that population were not better off. Eventually, technological progress reaches a critical threshold. Eventually, human capital formation triggers a reduction in fertility and growth is freed from the counterbalancing effect of population growth. He calls this a phase transition.
Steven Poole on the Guardian reviews this book. His criticism of the book is quite interesting. James Kwak of the Washington Post reviews this book. Simon Kuper at the New Statesman reviews this book.
There is a public online speech at Brown University by Oded Galor. Q & A. starts around 1 hour into the video. Economist Oded Galor joins Penguin Books UK to answer some Big Questions on diversity, equality, and the future of humanity. This video is around 12 minutes in length. Oded Galor is interviewed on Growth Chat. This video is around 40 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
According to Oded Galor, there was a rapid eruption of change in the past 2 centuries. The change did not happen equally across the globe. Some areas saw the change and in other areas, change is just happening recently. We went from stagnation to growth. It was a huge transition.
During the Malthusian epoch, there was technological innovation, but it leads to a bigger population, but the individuals of that population were not better off. Eventually, technological progress reaches a critical threshold. Eventually, human capital formation triggers a reduction in fertility and growth is freed from the counterbalancing effect of population growth. He calls this a phase transition.
Steven Poole on the Guardian reviews this book. His criticism of the book is quite interesting. James Kwak of the Washington Post reviews this book. Simon Kuper at the New Statesman reviews this book.
There is a public online speech at Brown University by Oded Galor. Q & A. starts around 1 hour into the video. Economist Oded Galor joins Penguin Books UK to answer some Big Questions on diversity, equality, and the future of humanity. This video is around 12 minutes in length. Oded Galor is interviewed on Growth Chat. This video is around 40 minutes long.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer
This book’s full title is Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade. However, it should be called Medieval World of Eurasia. She includes Europe, Middle East, India, China, Korea, and Japan. South East Asia is missing as its America and Africa. She has her own site here.
However, I did like the book as it covered a lot of history of the medieval world. I liked that it covered India a lot, because a lot of history books tend to just skip over India. The parts of world mostly covered in this book, give a good history of those areas which seem to be her area of expertise.
I certainly appreciated all the maps she included. There was at least one map in each chapter and all the places mentioned were on these maps. Too many history books do not include maps and this is a big mistake as far as I am concerned. Some include maps but do not show on the map all the places that they mention. This is frustrating.
What I did not like is that she says the old canard about Greenland being called Greenland to make it attractive, but it was just sand. However, people who have investigated it looking at soil samples say that where the colony was situated was covered in trees when the Vikings landed. She also gives a very shallow coverage of North America and completely ignores South America.
I must admit there are some very good (and very long) reviews on Good Reads. There is a short, interesting review by Christine at Our Curious Home. This is a link to a PDF of an essay by J. M. Roberts at Open Journals.
Dr. Harry Bleatter, interviews author, historian, and professor Susan Wise Bauer at The King's College in New York City . This is part of The King's College Distinguished Visitor Series and it is just a snippet of the interview and it the whole does not seem available for the public. I cannot find anything on this author and history on video. There is also a short interview with Susan Wise Bauer at the San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
However, I did like the book as it covered a lot of history of the medieval world. I liked that it covered India a lot, because a lot of history books tend to just skip over India. The parts of world mostly covered in this book, give a good history of those areas which seem to be her area of expertise.
I certainly appreciated all the maps she included. There was at least one map in each chapter and all the places mentioned were on these maps. Too many history books do not include maps and this is a big mistake as far as I am concerned. Some include maps but do not show on the map all the places that they mention. This is frustrating.
What I did not like is that she says the old canard about Greenland being called Greenland to make it attractive, but it was just sand. However, people who have investigated it looking at soil samples say that where the colony was situated was covered in trees when the Vikings landed. She also gives a very shallow coverage of North America and completely ignores South America.
I must admit there are some very good (and very long) reviews on Good Reads. There is a short, interesting review by Christine at Our Curious Home. This is a link to a PDF of an essay by J. M. Roberts at Open Journals.
Dr. Harry Bleatter, interviews author, historian, and professor Susan Wise Bauer at The King's College in New York City . This is part of The King's College Distinguished Visitor Series and it is just a snippet of the interview and it the whole does not seem available for the public. I cannot find anything on this author and history on video. There is also a short interview with Susan Wise Bauer at the San Diego Comic-Con 2018.
An index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk . The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.
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