Books 6.0

*** White Man's Burden by William Easterly. I should start off by saying that it was rewarding to read a book written by someone who worked at MIT and actually wrote rather well. That's not to say that all of MIT's staff is bad writers, just that I go in with low expectations. In any case, the book was fairly easy to read and I mostly enjoyed the tone of it (a biting wit, some sarcasm and some self-deprecation), though at times I found it frustrating. In terms of content, I was rather disappointed. I thought it was nice as a rebuttal to Jeff Sachs, but still, it did not succeed in presenting a very compelling case. First off, I am bound to be disappointed by books on poverty that ignore the subtitle of Schumacher's book: Economics as if People Mattered. Though Easterly is able to give plenty of anecdotal evidence about his children, his favorite source is without question the work of other economists. He tries to intersperse case studies throughout to support his main thesis, but they seem more of an afterthought most of the time. In fact, in one chapter, he apologizes for not having more facts and figures from economists and concedes that he has to rely on anecdotal evidence. I am not sure why he perceives that as a bad thing. If those are the people who he wants to help, maybe he should be taking more from them, rather than less. He starts off the book by criticizing the aid business for not listening to the poorest people enough, though it seems that he listens to them only slightly more than the people he criticizes and certainly not enough to drive home his point. Furthermore, he likes to raise issues with his evidence that he expects his critics will raise and then argue the point. It seems like a good way to support his argument, except that there were many points where this was conspicuously absent and it seemed that he knew that he was relying on weak evidence or even trying (as Munkres likes to say) “proof by intimidation” where he makes his point forcefully enough that there is no need for argument. Nevertheless, the book has some useful ideas and some interesting suggestions. I found myself agreeing with Easterly more than I expected that I would. I think the book is an interesting read, but should absolutely be read with a bit of caution.

***** Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Well, I had already read this book, but it is one of my all-time favorites, so when I saw it lying around, I had to pick it up and read it again. The writing is impeccable and the story is tragic, humorous, dark, inspiring and brilliant all at the same time. I would strongly recommend this book as an interesting inspection of the war mentality in the 20th century. “Help him! Help him!”