ECON 2456 Critical Book Review Project
Updated: 2012-03-17

Critical book reviews are due in class on April 5, 2012. (If you are unable to submit hard copy, then you may submit your review in PDF format via email.) If you aren't reviewing one of the books below, then you should already have emailed me to get approval for the book you would like to review. Plan to bring a rough draft of your review to class on March 29th.

General Guidelines

Your review should be as long as it needs to be, but no longer. For those who need a hard limit, your review should be no longer than 2500 words. (A reasonable minimum is 1000 words, but brevity is rarely a problem in student writing.) Make your first draft as long as it takes to write down everything you want to say; if it doesn't get shorter as you revise, you're probably doing something wrong.

Please use at least 11 point font. Either leave wide margins (the standard LaTeX article class is perfect) or double-space your lines.

I don't care what citation format you use, but pick one and stick to it. (Chicago is a safe choice.) I do care very much that you cite your sources.

If you've never written a critical book review, this handout from UNC is a good starting point. This recent review of Blue-Collar Blues is a good example, though I would like you evaluate your books in a bit more depth and with more reference to outside sources.

Suggested Books for Critical Review

Books that are strongly emphasized are ones I recommend highly. This doesn't mean that the other books aren't equally good, but I haven't read all of them cover-to-cover. Some of these books (the ones with "(eds.)") are edited collections of papers, which could be used in writing a more traditional research paper if you prefer to do so.

Measurement

• Kotlikoff, Generational Accounting: Knowing Who Pays, and When, for What We Spend
• Stiglitz, Sen, and Fitoussi, Mismeasuring Our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up
• Wisor, Measuring Global Poverty: Toward a Pro-Poor Approach

Growth

• Clark, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
• de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
• McCloskey, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World
• Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

Global Poverty (Development)

• Banerjee and Duflo, Poor Economics
• Collins et al., Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day
• Easterly, The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
• Karlan and Appel, More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty
• Sachs, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
• Yunus, Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism

US (Western) Poverty

• Currie, The Invisible Safety Net: Protecting the Nation's Poor Children and Families
• Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
• Hays, Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform
• Howard, The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy
• Kenworthy, Progress for the Poor
• Harrington, The Other America: Poverty in the United States
• Harrington, The New American Poverty
• Murray, Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980
• Piven and Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (2nd edition)
• Venkatesh, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor

Inequality

• Barr, The Welfare State As Piggy Bank: Information, Risk, Uncertainty, and the Role of the State
• Blau and Duncan, The American Occupational Structure
• Fireside et al. (eds.), The Wealth Inequality Reader
• Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class
• Hacker, The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream
• Henry (ed.), Race, Poverty, and Domestic Policy (on reserve at library)
• Lipset and Bendix, Social Mobility in Inudstrial Society
• McQuaig and Brooks, Billionaires' Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality
• Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
• Wilkinson and Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

Human Capital

• Arrow, Bowles, and Durlauf (eds.), Meritocracy and Economic Inequality
• Bowles and Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America
• Bowles, Gintis, and Groves (eds.), Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success
• Heckman and Krueger, Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?
• Goldin and Katz, The Race between Education and Technology
• Herrnstein and Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Human Rights

• Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
• Kristof and Wudunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
• Sen, Development as Freedom

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