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Written by Booksmith
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Saturday, 22 December 2007 |
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Clues for the Clueless: Dogbert's Big Book of Manners (£5.69 + postage)
"Lots of things have changed in the millions of years since etiquette was invented. Microwave ovens, for example. And so it seemed like a good time to update the rules of etiquette. Of course, you could buy some other book on etiquette, and in it you might find such useful titbits as what kind of uniiform the upstairs servants should wear, or the proper way to address the Pope when you meet him in person. But if you want practical information - like what to do after you sneeze in your hand - then you have to buy this book. It's the only book that speaks to you as the unwashed heathen that you know you are. Thanks. And I'm not just saying that."
Buy it here, from the ASI bookstore.
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Written by Booksmith
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Friday, 14 December 2007 |
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 I'm pleased to see that Ross Clark's witty exposee of the ridiculous rules and regulations we live by – How to Label a Goat – has gone into a well-deserved second edition printing.
Buy it here, from the ASI bookshop.
On a more worthy front, though, this week I'm recommending William Wilberforce, the new biography of the great anti-slavery campaigner, written by former Conservative leader (and fellow Yorkshireman) William Hague MP. It documents well the parliamentary tribulations he had to go to, which of course the author understands, being in the business himself. Wilberforce's campaign really was the work of a lifetime.
Click here to order it.
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Written by Booksmith
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Saturday, 08 December 2007 |
 If you need a stocking-filler, look no further than Model turned Tory Leader's Wife turned Novelist Sandra Howard. Well, not her personally, but her new novel Ursula's Story (usually £12.99, our price £9.74+P&P). Ursula's ex-husband is all over the tabloids as he marries a government minister. Her young children are excited at they meet half the cabinet. But what effect does it all really have on them, and can she get them through it? |
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Written by Tom Clougherty
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Monday, 26 November 2007 |
I have just finished reading Simon Jenkins' Thatcher & Sons,
and would thoroughly recommend it to readers of this blog. As a history
of the Thatcher and Post-Thatcher era it is fascinating: the writing is
superb and – for a political book – it's a real page-turner.
The book's strength lies in its political analysis. Jenkins identifies
not one, but two distinct Thatcher revolutions – one good, one bad –
both of which have been enthusiastically carried on by her successors,
Major, Blair, and Brown.
The first revolution is the one usually associated with the Iron Lady –
the liberation of the economy from the unions and the post-war
socialist consensus. This revolution saved Britain from being the "sick
man of Europe" and made the continued economic growth and prosperity
that followed possible.
But it was accompanied by a 'second revolution', which was altogether
more malign, consisting of the massive centralisation of power in
Whitehall, the destruction of local government, and the rapid
proliferation of quangos, regulations, and targets. As the first
revolution runs out of steam, the second continues to gain pace. As
Jenkins says, our everyday lives are now dictated by central government
to an extent that would be unthinkable in most other countries – even
'left-wing' ones.
The solution, Jenkins argues, lies in a 'third revolution' – the
massive decentralisation of power to local government, to the counties
and cities (and subordinate boroughs and parishes) to which people feel
a sense of allegiance. As 'bonfires of controls' were lit across the
country, the death of the quango would be upon us.
Compelling stuff. I've long been a keen localist, and Thatcher &
Sons leaves me more convinced than ever. You can buy it here, from the
ASI bookshop.
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Written by Booksmith
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Saturday, 24 November 2007 |
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 You need to read this book - even though it hurts. The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008 by Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham (£5.99 + postage) is, sadly, even bigger than the last edition - because there's even more waste. £101bn of it in fact. That's enough of your pennies to stretch to the moon and back. Five times. How can a government possibly spend £280,000 on a conference on value for money in the public services? Or £100,000 in assessing whether £400,000 spent on modern art in hospitals was a good buy? Buy it here from the ASI bookshop. |
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Written by Booksmith
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Wednesday, 24 October 2007 |
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My book choice this week is The Road to Southend Pier - One man's
struggle against the surveillance society by Ross Clark (£6.49). A
chance encounter with a talking lamp-post got Ross Clark thinking:
could he get from London to Southend without Big Brother knowing where
he had gone? In this entertaining account of his attempt to dodge
Britain’s 4.2 million CCTV cameras and other forms of surveillance,
Ross Clark lays bare the astonishing amount of data which is kept on us
by the state. Find out more and buy it here .
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Written by Booksmith
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Thursday, 23 August 2007 |
David Hume: Prophet of the Counter-Revolution by Laurence L. Bongie and Donald W. Livingston
It is appropriate to have a book about David Hume on our
bookshelf, since he died this week (25 August, to be exact) back in
1776. A huge skeptic concerning any fanciful theories of philosophers
and (especially) theologians, Hume practiced a philosophy of common
sense. An ounce of evidence of our eyes and ears was worth more than a
pound of any theory. It could cut through the most convoluted arguments
and get us down to the basic principles by which we can understand
ourselves and the world.
And as the authors show, the same approach cuts through the most
fanciful political theories too, leaving us with an appreciation of the
natural, liberal social order – and the most profound skepticism of
those revolutionaries who would have us believe that the world of their
own creation could be so much better.
Buy it here , from the Adam Smith bookshop.
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Written by Booksmith
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Saturday, 04 August 2007 |
Milton Friedman, A Biography by Alan Ebenstein
Milton Friedman was one of the most important - and certainly one of
the most famous - economists of the second half of the twentieth
century. As Alan Greenspan noted, "There are very few people over the
generations who have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially
alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few
people."
Ebenstein's book chronicles Friedman's life and traces his development
as an economic theorist. With its combination of personal detail and
theoretical analysis, it offers a revealing look at the man regarded by
many as a hero of liberalism and free markets.
You can buy Alan Ebenstein's new biography here , from our online bookshop.
And while you're at it, why not take a look at Friedman's libertarian classic, Capitalism and Freedom .
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Written by Booksmith
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Friday, 27 July 2007 |
The Almanac of British Politics by Byron Criddle and Robert Waller
Thoroughly updated with the latest boundary changes, this is the
definitive guide to Britain's electoral map. Witty and informative
biographies of every MP, detailed demographic, economic and political
analysis of each seat, it's all here. As are all the stats like
youngest, oldest, and longest-serving MPs, majorities lists, and party
targets. No candidate or party manager can be without it: nor can you.
To take a look, click here .
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Written by Booksmith
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Thursday, 07 June 2007 |
Having looked at what friends of the Adam Smith Institute actually buy
on our online bookshop, I realise that you people out there are
actually more attracted by stuff like Banking Reforms and Monetary
Policy in the Peoples Republic of China - Is the Chinese Central
Banking System Ready for Joining the WTO? by Yong Guo (click here ), or Leveraging Competitive Advantage from the Euro by Rupert Cook (click here). Erudite bunch.
But I'd like to put a word in for something a little lighter: The Little Book of New Labour Bollocks
by Alistair Beaton. The name says it all. New Labour! New Britain! New
Bollocks! This witty onslaught on the culture of spin takes on the
spindoctors and reveals the bollocks behind the soundbites. You know
what they said, now find out what they meant.
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Written by Booksmith
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Thursday, 24 May 2007 |
Here's a book I have no hesitation in recommending. Between 1998 and
2006, entrepreneur Luke Johnson - who made his name with Pizza Express
- wrote a regular column as 'The Maverick' in The Sunday Telegraph. I
read them avidly at the time. Short, pithy, iconoclastic, they brought
a shrewd eye to focus on everything from how to succeed as a trophy
wife to why entrepreneurs, however rich, always go round switching the
lights off.
This book brings together 84 of those articles. Luke Johnson is not
just a good entrepreneur, but a first-class writer (it's in the blood -
his dad is the Spectator's Paul Johnson), and he has a huge breadth of
experience, being among other things Chairman of Channel 4.
That makes his book both informative and entertaining - a real insight
into the minds of entrepreneurs and the problems that business, people,
and politicians throw at them.
Visit the Adam Smith bookshop here, or browse the book here.
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