Strong but Seemingly Unedited Research

books:

	• False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World Alan Beattie Riverhead Hardcover, 2009 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Strong but Seemingly Unedited Research

This book has some strong points including an abundance of research tidbits. And in a way, that's False Economy's greatest weakness. I was left with the impression that the author found thousands of interesting little tidbits and felt compelled to include every single one.

The author, Alan Beattie, employs a tactic I call "shotgun research." Rather than identifying only those facts which best supported his argument and presenting them in a compelling manner, Beattie just blasts everything he could find at you. At points the book became nearly unreadable.

As an example, he includes a chapter in support of DC voting rights. In a span of two paragraphs he mentions physical trade in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, MS Windows, financial market trading in Singapore (and even more but I think you get the point). When he finally announced his conclusion at the end of the chapter it felt like it came out of the blue. I had forgotten he was arguing for DC voting rights about ten pages earlier.

Strong arguments don't need to be sniper-like, one shot one kill. They should have some focus though! Somewhere in Beattie's book are a number of great arguments. If someone ever edits it down to those arguments I think it'd be a great read. Until then, it's doomed to three-stardom in my opinion.

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Interesting at times

The book opens with late 2001. What if Argentina and United States had traded places? Over the course of less than a century, why did the trajectories of two countries differ so much? This immediately piqued my interest. The continued narrative was compelling, but not quite as riveting as I hoped. The remainder of the chapters fell in to a similar pattern. They started out with a punch, but then seemed to drop it to meander around some ho-hum economic history. The contents are all fairly well written and interesting, but not as good as would be expected from the initial 'hits'.

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A book to open your mind

Have you ever wondered why the United States has been more economically successful than Argentina, when they were in just about the same position a century ago? Has it ever occurred to you that countries which import food are really importing water or land?

Me neither. But that's what I loved about this book --it brings up notions that had really never occurred to me, and explores them in a thorough and satisfying way. It looks at history -- and at current issues, too -- in very different ways.

This isn't a witty book, or one with lots of interesting characters. At one point, Beattie assures us that "an economist's idea of paradise (pitiful but true) is one governed by the law of one price, where the prices of similar goods in different markets converge such that inefficiencies are driven out of the system."

Yes, that is in fact pitiful.

But given that you're not looking for thrills and you don't mind a helping of math with your history, this is a fascinating book. It looks into political corruption, natural resources, religion, and why pandas are so useless. Along the way, Beattie reveals a collection of counter-productive patterns and behaviors that turn up in failing nations and civilizations around the world, and proposes that we might be able to learn from their mistakes and not do the same thing ourselves.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

An important book for turbulent times-an accessible and engaging economic history of the world, by a leading economic writer.

Alan Beattie has long been intrigued by the fates of different countries, economies, and societies-why some fail and some succeed. Here, he weaves together elements of economics, history, politics, and human stories, revealing that societies, economies, and countries usually make concrete choices that determine their destinies. He opens up larger questions about these choices, and why countries make them or are driven to make them, and what those decisions can mean for the future of our global economy.

Economic history involves forcing together disciplines that fall naturally in different directions. But Beattie has written a lively and lucid book that successfully marries the two subjects and illustrates their interdependence. In doing so, he addresses such illuminating queries as: Why are oil and diamonds more trouble than they are worth? Why did Argentina fail and the United States succeed? Why doesn't Africa grow cocaine?

False Economy explains how human beings have shaped their own fates, however unknowingly, and the conditions of the countries they call home. And though it is history, it does not end with the present day. Beattie shows how decisions that are being made now-which have either absorbed or failed to absorb the lessons from economic history-will determine what happens in the future. What does economic history teach us about the present economic unrest? Who will succeed and why? And who will fail? These are questions that we cannot afford to leave unasked . . . or unanswered.

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