More beach reading
Doing a little pre-Fletcher reading doesn’t mean you need to lock yourself in the library. Some of the professors’ picks are beach-worthy! No matter where (or whether) you decide to read, here’s Part II of the professors’ suggestion list.
Michael Glennon offers an array of choices, from a variety of time periods and genres. Something for every reader! He lists:
1. Groupthink, by Irving Janus.
2. The Arrogance of Power, by J. William Fulbright
3. The Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand
4. Memoirs: 1925-1950, by George F. Kennan
5. West with the Night, by Beryl Markham
6. Age of Extremes, by Eric Hobsbawm
7. Imperium, by Robert Harris
I’m going to try to pick up West with the Night for my daughter — looks like her kind of book, and I might well borrow it back from her.
Donald Gonson not only makes suggestions but provides context for the choices: “I have two books that might be good for your summer reading list. One is The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century by Robert J. Shiller. The focus of corporate governance is increasingly about management of risk these days. Corporate failure to manage risk has not only put the existence of business institutions in jeopardy, but has threatened the entire global financial system! With his usual prescience — he wrote widely read and widely admired books about the dot.com and housing bubbles before they burst — Shiller looks at the challenge of managing risk in the modern world. Other books focus on the specific issues of the current market meltdowns, but this book is useful in that it provides a broader context for our current difficulties. (It also suggests extremely relevant reforms which could have mitigated our current crisis, if only….)
“The other book I recommend is Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. This is a fascinating look at the evolution of societies, politically and economically, from earliest days. In fact, the book could well have been subtitled “Early History as a Study in Political Economy,” although that would have been a surprise for two reasons: Diamond is an anthropologist, and the book is too much fun for such a sober title. It presents a great analysis of the rise of the rule of law and of the economic forces that shape the law (both very relevant to the study of corporate governance).”
The last picks for today come from Hurst Hannum. His first suggestion is Farhad Manjoo’s True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. His second suggestion is possibly the most intriguing of this year’s list. He chooses The Plague by Albert Camus. Certainly a book you can slip in your bag and that will engage you while you wait for your vacation flight.
The final selections, from professors whose last names start with I through Z, will appear next week. Stay tuned!