The Last 10 Books (I added to my Wish List) - March 2026
As usual I’ve been adding books (and other things I won’t mention here) to my Wish List like it's the end of the world. As always, I blame a combination of YouTubers, Current Events, my Butterfly mind and updating my hardbacks to paperbacks. So, here they are:
Made in Manchester: A Peoples History of the City that Shaped the Modern World by Brian Groom
Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals by Matt Kennard
Hayek's Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right by Quinn Slobodian
Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century by Helen Carr
The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran by David Crist
Lenin: A Biography by Robert Service
Trotsky: A Biography by Robert Service
The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism by Clara E. Mattei
Escape From Capitalism: Economics is Political, and Other Liberating Truths by Clara E. Mattei
Liverpool: A Story of Britain by Sam Wetherell
A nice mix I think with the usual heavy emphasis on History. Zero idea when (or indeed IF) any of them will get purchased, but its highly likely I’ll be reading the book on Liverpool this year. I’m really looking forward to THAT one!
I would start the Hayek book scowling at the author's use of neoliberal, which is absolutely meaningless. Hayek was an actual, classical liberal -- he wouldn't embrace the label conservative even when his economic perspectives were inspiring the Goldwater/Reagan-esque conservatives who wanted to combine free markets with social conservatism.
ReplyDeleteMaybe its about the perversion - bastardisation - of his views by the so-called Neoliberals? I'll let you know if/when I get around to reading it [grin]
DeleteWell, that's the thing: what is a neoliberal? The term has no coherent definition as far as I can tell. Some people use it to refer to free market ideas, some people use it to refer to 'free market but with cronyism'....at least neoconservatism is fairly consistent with "aggressive foreign policy". To think some of us believed it was finally starting to die...
ReplyDeleteThe term seems to have a LONG history according to Wiki. Definitions tend to change over time depending on who uses them (and who criticises them). It does seem rather... vague though - all things to all people, but as the articles says, often used pejoratively. More of a political rather than an economic thing I think...
Delete