In this section you can read reviews of academic books covering the USA, and its continental neighbours, Canada and Mexico. Each weekend we publish two reviews, aiming to cover a wide range of books on all aspects of public policy and politics.
GalleryBook Review: The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information by Craig Robertson
In The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information, Craig Robertson presents a history of the storage and circulation of documents in early-twentieth-century US offices, showing how the filing cabinet reconfigured office architecture, working conditions and the very definition of information. Revealing the unspooling consequences of the adoption of the filing cabinet by US business, this enjoyable and well-presented book will particularly […]
GalleryBook Review: Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control by Matthew Crawford
In Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control, Matthew Crawford argues for driving as an activity that illustrates important features of a humanistic outlook worth preserving: the ability to exercise skill and judgment, to balance prudence and risk and, more broadly, to negotiate one’s individual freedom within the collaborative give-and-take of the road. While the book underplays the environmental […]
GalleryBook Review: Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment by Lucas Chancel
In Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment, Lucas Chancel demonstrates the role that economic inequality plays in maintaining social injustice and environmental unsustainability, exploring ways to better balance the reduction of socio-economic inequality and the strengthening of environmental protections. This is an accessible, relevant and thought-provoking analysis that uses well-presented facts and figure to unpack the intricate relationship between social […]
GalleryBook Review: How to Fight Inequality (and Why That Fight Needs You) by Ben Phillips
In How to Fight Inequality (and Why That Fight Needs You), international civil society activist Ben Phillips offers a new book that aims to empower readers to join the fight to bring an end to inequalities, showing how lessons from the past are key to building a more equitable future. Filled with powerful stories of change secured through the organising […]
GalleryBook Review: A Philosopher’s Economist: Hume and the Rise of Capitalism by Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind
In A Philosopher’s Economist: Hume and the Rise of Capitalism, Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind offer a new study that fills a gap in scholarship on David Hume, connecting his economic thought to his philosophy and showing the central place of Hume’s economics in his life and work. This is a well-researched and artfully written volume, finds Mark G. Spencer, that […]
GalleryBook Review: The Technology Takers: Leading Change in the Digital Era by Jens P. Flanding, Genevieve M. Grabman and Sheila Q. Cox
In The Technology Takers: Leading Change in the Digital Era, Jens P. Flanding, Genevieve M. Grabman and Sheila Q. Cox explore how organisations and managers can lead change and pursue strategic opportunities at a time when contemporary digital technologies place most firms in the position of being ‘technology takers’ that must use services on offer from the big technology companies. While […]
GalleryBook Review: Delivering Impact with Digital Resources: Planning Strategy in the Attention Economy by Simon Tanner
In Delivering Impact with Digital Resources: Planning Strategy in the Attention Economy, Simon Tanner offers a new guide to delivering and sustaining the impact of digital content, focusing particularly on the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector. While the book could further interrogate the value of impact and delve deeper into the complexities of the attention economy, this book charts […]
GalleryBook Review: Military Waste: The Unexpected Consequences of Permanent War Readiness by Joshua O. Reno
In Military Waste: The Unexpected Consequences of Permanent War Readiness, Joshua O. Reno offers a new ethnographic study of the long retired physical manifestations of the US military-industrial complex in order to unravel the impact of US military waste on the people and communities living outside of formal war zones. This book is an essential contribution to the larger global conversation […]
GalleryBook Review: Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism by Mariana Mazzucato
LSE MSc Environmental Policy and Regulation candidate, Flora Parkin, reviews Mariana Mazzucato’s new book, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, and questions whether it goes far enough to tackle the worsening global climate crisis.
This review was originally posted on the LSE International Development blog. If you are interested in this book, you can also watch a video of Mariana Mazzucato’s guest […]
GalleryBook Review: The Asset Economy by Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings
In The Asset Economy, Lisa Adkins, Melinda Cooper and Martijn Konings retell the story of neoliberalism through the lens of assets, showing how asset ownership and asset inflation have been driving forces behind inequality and new class divides. This book is a highly readable and timely intervention in the burgeoning debate on rentiership and will inspire future research in showing the […]
