Book Hints
A selective mention of books received
High unemployment, high interest rates, and recessionary pressures continue to dominate the domestic picture. In The Crisis in Economic Theory (New York: Basic Books, 1981, 226 pp., $19.50), edited by Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol, 12 leading scholars explore alternative theories in an attempt to construct a credible reflection of today's economic reality. One chapter, by Israel M. Kirzner, is devoted to examining the "Austrian" perspective.
Also of interest regarding the current economic and political situation is Stephen Breyer's Regulation and Its Reform (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982, 472 pp., $25); Breyer was instrumental in airline deregulation and contributed to a chapter on that subject in the Reason Foundation's Instead of Regulation. And in a little essay published by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Monopoly in Money and Inflation (London, 1981, 68 pp., available through Transatlantic Arts, $5.95 paper), H. Geoffrey Brennan and James Buchanan consider the implications of the government money monopoly for the economy generally. Though focusing on British unemployment and inflation, F.A. Hayek's essay, 1980s Unemployment and the Unions (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1980, 64 pp., available through Transatlantic Arts, $5.95 paper), provides further insight into the economic ills currently troubling us.
If the reader finds the arguments of all these economic treatises obscure, Maurice Levi's Economics Deciphered: A Layman's Survival Guide (New York: Basic Books, 1981, 306 pp., $13.95) may come in handy. Witty, as well as informative, the book is intended to give the bewildered noneconomist sufficient knowledge of economics to understand the important economic issues of today.
Another interpretation for the layman is provided in The New Tax Law and You (New York: New American Library, 1981, 180 pp., $2.50 paper) by investment writer Jerome Tuccille, describing how the new tax law works and which investments have become extremely attractive because of it.
For gun owners (or would-be owners) The Rights of Gun Owners (Aurora, Ill.: Caroline House Publishers, 1981, 211 pp., $5.95 paper) presents a comprehensive reference of federal, as well as state and local, gun-control laws. The author, Alan Gottlieb, is chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and president of the Second Amendment Foundation. Researchers interested in firearms laws may also find Gottlieb's work, with its extensive provision of references, useful.
Mel Tappan looks at weapons from a different perspective in Tappan on Survival (Rogue River, Oreg.: Janus Press, 1981, 195 pp., $7.95 paper, distributed by Caroline House Publishers). Tappan gives clear guidelines for selecting weapons for self-protection. He also provides helpful hints for those concerned about surviving a future nuclear war or economic siege, outlining basic procedures for storing food, setting up communication systems, and provisioning oneself with essential books, tools, medical paraphernalia, and shelter.
If one's interests are more in the past than the future, Herbert Storing provides a scholarly examination of anti-Federalist writings in What the Anti-Federalists Were For (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981, 111 pp., $4.95 paper). The work is Storing's introduction to his three-volume collection of all the anti-Federalist writings in their original form.
Another book of scholarly interest is a beautiful reproduction by LibertyClassics of the complete text of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Indianapolis, 1981, 2 vols., 1080 pp., $11 paper), by Adam Smith. It includes a lengthy introduction that places Smith's economics in a wider social-science perspective.