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Joel Mokyr: The Enlightened Economy

This morning The Wall Street Journal ran a very positive review of Joel Mokyr's "The Enlightened Economy", a wedding of economics and intellectual history that examines the "Industrial Enlightenment" of 17th century Britain. Reviewer Trevor Butterworth applauds Mokyr's book for its "densely packed but gratifyingly lucid prose" in explaining Britain's economic exceptionalism: a product of rapid technological development prodded and manipulated by a host of classical liberal ideas.

“It is impossible to do justice," Butterworth concludes, "to the subtlety and detail of "The Enlightened Economy"; it is the product of a lifetime of research and thought, and stands as a landmark work of history; but more to the point, its perceptive examination of the birth of economic prosperity holds many arresting insights for our fraught economic times, where freedom is increasingly associated with government regulation and politicians appear all too-willing to accommodate new varieties of rent seeking.” Both as an innovative work of intellectual history and a relevant work of economic criticism, Moky'rs "Enlightened Economy" is a must-read for anyone interested in the roots of industrial capitalism, as well as the future of modern economics.

No More Normal?

In 2013 a new edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will be published, and the American Psychiatric Association has already begun to prepare it.  A number of mental health professionals are warning that the expanded diagnoses are leading to a world in which almost no one is considered normal.  A number of scientists have cited ADHD as one of the illnesses whose definition was broadened in the most recent DSM 4, and subsequently became seen as an epidemic, especially in the United States.  They argue that this kind of shift in opinion could repeat with some of the revisions in the DSM 5.

 

Christopher Lane’s Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness looks at this very issue, and explains its root in the 1970s.  While the DSM 2 (published in 1968) included just under two hundred disorders, the 1980 DSM 3 jumped in size to five hundred pages and added one hundred and twelve disorders.  Lane investigates the ways in which these many conditions became disorders, revealing many flaws in the system, including susceptibility to corporations and a lack of research behind some of these diagnoses.  He also examines the response to these changes that occurs in pop culture, including the film Garden State and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.  Lane’s book offers a glimpse into the past for those interested in understanding what is going on today in this new revision of the DSM.

Tuesday Studio: Looking at Degas and Picasso

This summer the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is presenting the exhibition Picasso Looks at Degas.  The Clark’s website is filled with information about each aspect of the show.  They also have the checklist of works and an opportunity to download parts or all of the audio tour.  If you are looking for more blog reading, the staff at the Clark have begun a blog for the exhibition, which is an excellent complement to the catalogue, available from Yale University Press.

After you are done learning all about Picasso and Degas, you may have an idea about whose art you most like.  But which of the artists are you most like?  You can find out on the Clark’s site, where they have a “Picasso or Degas?” quiz.  If you’ve found yourself artistically inspired, you can also create your own Picasso style face.  Among the wealth of events being held at The Clark for the exhibition are showings of Spanish films, as well as the documentaries Picasso: Magic, Sex & Death, The Mystery of Picasso, and Degas and the Dance: The Man Behind the Easel, which of course you could watch in your own home if you can’t make it to the Clark.

 

Update:  This morning Richard Kendall, one of the exhibition's curators, was featured in the Wall Street Journal discussing the exhibition and his and others' studies of Picasso and Degas.  In describing the new perspectives and ideas proposed by the exhibition, he said that he "'like[s] the idea of exhiition as an argument, which puts forth new research and asks you to think again about this art,'" something that is certainly achieved by Picasso Looks at Degas.

Bloggingheads: McWhorter and Thompson discuss Buck's Acting White

Last Monday the video blog discussion site bloggingheads.tv posted a dialogue on Stuart Buck's most recent book, "Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation". Featured in the discussion are Richard Thompson Ford of Slate and John McWhorter of The New Republic, both of whom wrote extensive reviews on "Acting White" when the book was published this past spring. In this video dialogue, Thompson and McWhorter discuss the the relationship between racial identity, public school desegregation, and the legacies of the Civil Rights movement.

The True Cost of Sustainability

Saleem H. Ali, author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future, asks this simple question in his preface: “Would the world be a better place if human societies were somehow able to curb their desires for material goods?” and proceeds to offer his own perspective.

He argues that lowering consumption will probably not have a prominent effect in conservation of resources, but rather a new approach is needed. The text is divided into three sections: first, the origins, varieties and development of wealth; second, dependency and ecological damage as a consequence of this wealth; and finally, a solution that reconciles the need for consumption with a conservation effort.

What about the applicability of conservation here in the United States? Most people would say that their participation in various “green living” and “sustainability” movements are motivated by good intentions. But with a changing global society, are these good intentions good enough? Are they effecting the kind of good we want?

Robert Paarlberg’s piece “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers,” which appeared in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy, would argue no. With the subtitle, “Stop obsessing about arugula. Your ‘sustainable’ mantra -- organic, local, and slow -- is no recipe for saving the world's hungry millions,” he also questions whether or not the current sustainability system is working. And though Paarlberg centers more on food consumption, whereas Ali focuses more on natural resources, both Paarlberg and Ali raise the same main issue – how do we balance the current needs of humans with the future needs of the earth?

Going to England?

Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, recommends Berkshire from the Pevsner Architectural Guides in his weekly column, “The Best of Brit Lit,” for The Daily Beast. Check out the whole series for more books on architecture throughout the British Isles.

The Tussles over Thrift

This past Sunday “The Way We Live Now,” a regular feature in the New York Times Magazine, covered the effects of the increase in Americans’ inclination towards thrift in these recent years: specifically the cycle of deleveraging, which is a contraction of credit as individuals begin to spend and borrow less.

This is a major change from the great increase in spending and borrowing during the years and even decades prior to the start of the recession.  Ronald T. Wilcox’s Whatever Happened to Thrift? Why Americans Don’t Save and What to Do About it responds to this trend, which saw borrowed money exceed household income by 36% in 2008, a number which has only dropped to 26% today, according to the Times Magazine. In the book, Wilcox searches for the root causes of Americans’ aversion to saving, and offers suggestions for promoting thrift amongst Americans.  Underlying these considerations is the idea that household savings is a national, not personal, concern.

One might wonder how what Wilcox addresses in his book plays a role in this deleveraging economy, and how the ideas of Wilcox and Roger Lowenstein, the author of the magazine piece, may or may not be compatible.  Writing for Forbes last year, Wilcox describes John Maynard Keynes’s “‘paradox of thrift,’” which suggests that while saving is economically prudent on an individual level, the economy is negatively affected when saving outweighs spending on a larger level.  However, Wilcox disagrees with the paradox’s relevance to the current recession.  Spending, he says, both by consumers and through government stimulus, would be unwise; the national household savings rate remains too low and must first be improved further.  Lowenstein, for his part, argues that government stimulus money would do little to change this current deleveraging cycle.  Despite the infrequency of these cycles, Lowenstein believes that they must run their course.  With time purchasing and spending will be reinvigorated, but in the meanwhile an influx of money from the government won’t necessarily do anything to encourage its arrival.

No matter what your views on this paradox, thrift, and this recession, Wilcox provides a clear and readable understanding of how thrift is viewed in the United States using a wide variety of approaches, and offers concrete suggestions for increasing saving in America.  If you are looking to understand more about American attitudes to finance and economics, both in the eyes of average consumers and in the minds of experts, Wilcox, in his examination of thrift, provides the ideal lens.

Tuesday Studio: The Legend Lives On

Today, Tutankhamun is perhaps one of the most well known out of the many ancient Egyptian pharaohs – artifacts from his tomb have been displayed throughout the world. Before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, though, archaeologists first came upon remains from his mummification and funeral.

Tutankhamun’s Funeral includes early 20^th century Egyptologist Herbert E. Winlock’s classic 1941 text, which provides a thorough analysis of these burial objects and their significance. The book is balanced by both recent color photographs and historical images and drawings, with an introduction and appendix by curator Dorothea Arnold to supplement these findings with more modern discoveries. You can also read an interview with Dorothea about this exhibit here. 

Although most of the attention on King Tut has been focused on his tomb, the artifacts from his funeral rites and burial process are just as fascinating and important to his legend. From now until September 6, 2010, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a collection of jars, bowls, linen, floral collars and various other accoutrements associated with the young king’s burial and mummification on display. An image gallery of some of these works of art is available here. 

Unearthing New York

Last week, workers excavating the future World Trade Center site made an astonishing discovery: the remains of an eighteenth-century wooden ship, presumably buried as landfill two hundred years ago. If you aren’t already familiar with the story, read the account from the New York Times here.

Has this left you wondering what else might be found under the sidewalks of New York?  You might want to dip into Anne-Marie Cantwell and Diana diZerega Wall’s Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City. Weaving an absorbing, panoramic narrative, Cantwell and Wall explore the buried remains of long-lost worlds: fashionable Washington Square and the notorious Five Points; Dutch and English colonists, and the Africans they enslaved; the Native Americans who occupied the land for eleven thousand years.

And if you are going to be in New York City this summer, consider taking along a copy of Wall and Cantwell’s Touring Gotham’s Archaeological Past: 8 Self-Guided Walking Tours through New York City.  Through these walking tours, you’ll learn about ancient Native American trading routes, sacred burial grounds, and seventeenth-century villages; and you’ll discover sites that reveal details of the lives of colonial farmers and merchants, enslaved Africans, Revolutionary War soldiers, and nineteenth-century hotel keepers, grocers, and housewives.

Celebrating New York City’s past and its present, these two books will intrigue anyone whose imagination has been piqued by the unearthing of this mysterious ship.

The Modern Age of Books

Books, often carriers of cultural history, also have a cultural history of their own. The book has played a different role in each culture and era. The Book in the Renaissance, by Andrew Pettegree, examines the first 150 years after the invention of print. As it were, books played more than just a role in pleasure, but were deeply interwoven with politics, religion and economics of the time as well. 

Nor was this a unique phenomenon, for even now, the importance of books is up for debate. There has been a lot of talk about how the digital age will affect the future of books and publishing, with the BBC News recently weighing in. Although it takes the stance that books in print may be faced with a grim future, others believe that the art of reading still has hope.

Criticisms about reading since the advent of the internet have also emerged, lamenting that the internet has ruined people’s attention spans. This has generated a movement called “slow reading”, one that values the idea of taking time and reading thoughtfully. The Guardian discusses how for the true “slow reader”, nothing can replace a real, bound book.

Interestingly enough, Pettegree’s first chapter talks about the book before print, during a time when we may be worrying about the book after print. After discussing the invention of the press, he moves on to talk about consolidation – how the book became a part of the culture. But that’s not all, for the next sections discuss conflict and the new world that evolved from books.

Print technology may be rendered obsolete in a matter of years, but books have survived even before the dawn of printing. The Book in the Renaissance offers up a unique history on an invention that some have often taken for granted.