Civilization: The West and the Rest By Niall Ferguson Penguin Press, 2011, 402 pp., $35.00 Niall Ferguson is the bane of much of the academic world. His crimes are many. Whereas most academics toil in anonymity, glacially plopping out inscrutable, esoteric articles for little-read academic journals, Ferguson is a supernova. He has joint appointments at Harvard’s department of history...
Over at the Federal Education Policy Hitory website, I have posted a review of Paul Manna, Collision Course: Federal Education Policy Meets State and Local Realities (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011). I think highly of the book, noting: “In Collision Course, Manna, a professor at William & Mary, has judiciously considered the evidence to date on NCLB and its...
This book arrived in spring 2010, and from the moment I saw it I knew I had to read and review it. A decade ago I was Diane’s research assistant and she served on my dissertation committee. I learned much from her, and I long have admired her intellect and intensity, and that she made it to the top...
From producer to distributor to retailer to consumer—usually, that’s how it works in America. Three different sets of hands are placed on alcoholic beverages before they reach the consumer. But, this hoary old way of doing things is being eroded at the edges. The Enterprise Blog has posted my quick take on this matter—-“Let It Flow: Chipping Away at...
The recent riots in London have been an appalling spectacle. The last thing a nation in the grips of an economic downtrn needs is to have to spend extra wealth on policing and repairing damage. And the human cost is all the more nauseating. Reeves, a family furniture business some 150 years old, was torched. An old woman was...
