New Books in Economics

The British Marxist economist Maurice Dobb is now largely forgotten. That’s too bad for a number of reasons. He was a brilliant thinker who wrote some of the most insightful analyses of the development and workings of capitalism around. You can still read his work and profit. He was the intellectual godfather of several notable British Marxist historians of the “New Left” of the 1960s and 1970s: Rodney Hilton, Christopher Hill, E.P. Thompson, among others. And, perhaps most importantly, his life gives us a window into a forgotten time, one in which a economists took communism seriously and fellows at Cambridge could earnestly believe in a bright communist future. This, I think, is a time we must not forget. Thanks to Timothy Shenk‘s well-researched, readable biography Maurice Dobb: Political Economist (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2013), we won’t have to. Shenk tells Dobb’s tale in all its tortured complexity. A member of the establishment and an anti-establishmentarian. A dyed-in-the-wool Marxist and a deadly serious empirically-oriented economist. A supporter of the Soviet Union and a critic of Soviet power. Listen in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

The cultural and material history of what is fashionable or “trendy” can be particularly revealing about the time period under study. The most recent work that underscores this point is Jennifer Anderson‘s Mahogany: The Cost of Luxury in Early America (Harvard University Press, 2012).  Anderson traces the popularity of mahogany wood in the mid eighteenth century from its use in England–a matter of necessity due to wood shortages–to its elective use in the American colonies among elite classes as a measure of cultural and social refinement. Unlike ephemeral goods like sugar and tobacco (which were purchased by elites but consumed and discarded shortly thereafter) mahogany was something solid, something lasting, something passed down to subsequent generations. Social engagements revolved around mahogany. Elites coveted the intricate and ornate furnishings, which because of mahogany’s incredible density, could only be crafted with mahogany. Even the middling classes would indulge in purchasing a mahogany piece, if the financial possibility presented itself. To be sure, this book offers much more than a dissection of the social and cultural worlds of Early America. Anderson tells the darker, often hidden story, of human and environmental exploitation. Following mahogany from the slave hands that felled the trees in the West Indies to the polished products decorating the posh estates of the wealthiest colonists offers a unique insight into a dynamic range of historical characters. By doing so, Professor Anderson deftly blends the social story with the environmental history and the history of capitalism. Jennifer L. Anderson is Associate Professor of History at State University of New York, Stony Brook. Her current research focuses on reinterpreting the human and environmental history of Long Island within the broader Atlantic context. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Aswin Punthamabekar‘s From Bombay to Bollywood: The Making of a Global Media Industry (New York University Press, 2013) offers a deeply researched and richly theorized look at the evolution of the world’s largest film industry over the past few decades. Combining ethnographic research with close textual analyses of Bollywood films, Punthamabekar shows how the media industry’s growth has been complexly intertwined with India’s emerging place in the global economy. The book offers a nuanced look at globalization, bringing to light the tensions and productivities that emerge when a highly powerful, historically localized industry enters the world of multinational capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Pedro Oliveira provides a fascinating glimpse into his transition from academia into consultancy, with a guide for those like minded to boot. People-Centered Innovation: Becoming a Practitioner in Innovation Research (Biblio Publishing, 2013) chronicles Oliveira’s journey from his work as a clinical psychologist in Portugal, to becoming an anthropologist in the UK, and moving into the world of business and innovation. Written for a general audience, this book is a mix of case studies, theory for practitioners, and autobiographical information that shows how to apply work in the social sciences to the problems facing businesses today. This is a great read for anyone interested in psychology and anthropology, as well as how business and innovation is changing due to the influence of the humanistic sciences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Kevin Kerrane‘s Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting (CreateSpace, 2013) represents the first major study of the history and practice of professional baseball scouting.  Based on Kerrane’s ethnographic research with the Philadelphia Phillies during the 1981 season, the book provides an inside look at one of sports’ least understood professions and most unusual subcultures. Originally released in 1984, the book became a cult favorite among baseball analysts and historians, eventually finding a place on Sports Illustrated‘s list of the top 100 sports books of all time.  For the past decade the book has been notoriously hard to find, with copies selling for up to $50 on eBay.  It is now widely available in rerelease from Baseball Prospectus, the leading voice in progressive, contemporary baseball research. In addition to the original text, the rerelease features a new introduction and an extended epilogue updating the book for the 2010s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Melissa Aronczyk, assistant professor and author of Branding the Nation, studies how national identity is packaged and sold. She traces the rise of nation branding, the transnational promotional class behind it, and case studies from Canada to Poland. Conversations explore competitiveness metrics, citizen mobilization as brand ambassadors, and the tensions between differentiation and standardization in global marketing of nations.

Philip Mirowski, the Carl Koch Chair of Economics at Notre Dame, dives into his book, highlighting how neoliberalism adapted after the financial crisis. He critiques economists for their denial of necessary reforms. Mirowski distinguishes between neoliberalism and neoclassical economics, framing it within a 'thought collective.' He contrasts Milton Friedman’s public engagement with George Stigler’s elite strategies. Additionally, he discusses market responses to crises and hints at his upcoming project on the history of the economics Nobel.

While it has become typical to see Filipina/o migrants working in nursing or domestic work in the United States, many are surprised to see Filipina/os doing the same work in Hong Kong, Israel, and Dubai. Indeed, Filipina/o workers are ubiquitous around the globe, and may be the world’s first truly global labor force. In Robyn Rodriguez‘s new book, Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World (University of Minnesota Press, 2010),Rodriguez explores labor brokerage as a global capitalist strategy wherein the Philippine state mobilizes its citizens and sends them abroad to work for employers throughout the world while generating profit from the remittances that migrants send back to their families and loved ones remaining in the Philippines. Rodriguez traces this trend in Filipina/o overseas workers, which has become one of the largest labor export systems in the world. Ultimately, she questions how and why citizens from the Philippines have come to be the most globalized workforce on the planet, and argues that the reason for this lies in the emergence of the Philippine state as a labor brokerage state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

Life insurance! The very word sends shivers of excitement down the spine. OK, maybe not . . . but Sharon Murphy‘s book on the development of the life insurance industry in the United States from its infancy in the early republic through its breakthrough as a mass industry during the Civil War might make you change your mind. Deeply researched but also deeply entertaining (really!), Investing in Life: Insurance in Antebellum America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010; paperback, 2013) describes how the early pioneers of the insurance industry figured out how to sniff out frauds, figure mortality tables, market themselves to a suspicious population, and tap into middle class hopes and anxieties — especially middle-class Americans reticence about thinking about death (their death, at least). Investing in Life will change what you think about the history of business in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics

George Brock approached his book about newspapers and journalism in the digital age unwilling to write another gloom-and-doom narrative about the death or decline of the industry. When he studied the historical development of journalism and current trends, he found the industry is what is always has been: volatile, evolving, and vital to society’s well being. Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age (Kogan Page, 2013) is an important look at the industrial, economic, and pragmatic realities of a shifting industry. Using modern case studies, including the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Great Britain’s News of the World, as well as historical research and recent data, Brock examines where journalism was, is and will be. Brock, head of City University London’s prestigious graduate school of journalism, has produced a work that transcends academia without sacrificing methodology or theory. “Because journalism lives on the frontier between democratic purposes and the commercial market,” Brock writes, “it is constantly being reorganized and renegotiated.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics