Books discussed at the ERG reading group

Date:AuthorTitle
December 2016Garett JonesHive Mind
November 2016Alex EpsteinThe Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
October 2016Nick LaneThe Vital Question
August 2016Joseph HenrichThe Secret of Our Success
July 2016Suzana Herculano-HouzelThe Human Advantage
June 2016DeSalle, PerkinsWelcome to the Microbiome
May 2016Leslie ValiantProbably Approximately Correct: Nature's Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex World
March 2016Joel KotkinThe New Class Conflict
February 2016Steven WeinbergTo Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science
January 2016Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair SmithThe Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
December 2015John Kounios and Mark BeemanThe Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain
November 2015David SkarbekThe Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System
October 2015Gregory HickokThe Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition
September 2015Ian MorrisWar!
July 2015John MicklethwaitThe Fourth Revolution
June 2015Ronald Coase and Ning WangHow China Became Capitalist
May 2015Nicholas WadeTroublesome Inheritance
April 2015William BernsteinMasters of the Word
March 2015Glenn GreenwaldNo Place to Hide
February 2015Nick BostromSuperintelligence
January 2015Max TegmarkOur Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
November 2014Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. HaberFragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit
September 2014Rodney StarkHow the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity
August 2014Michael Lewis,Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
June 2014Brian GreeneThe Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos
May 2014Mark S. WeinerThe Rule of the Clan: What An Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals About the Future of Individual Freedom
March 2014Jonah GoldbergLiberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change
February 2014Niall Ferguson,The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die
January 2014Nassim Nicholas TalebAntifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
December 2013James RickardsCurrency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis
November 2013Antonio DamasioSelf Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain
August 2013Azar GatWar in Human Civilization
July 2013Robin HansonAfter the Dreamtime (unpublished draft)
May 2013Francis FukuyamaThe Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
April 2013Jonathan HaidtThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
March 2013Daron AcemogluWhy Nations Fail
February 2013Daniel KahnemanThinking, Fast and Slow
November 2012Steven PinkerThe Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
September 2012Stephen Greenblatt The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
August 2012Charles MurrayComing Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010
July 2012Douglas W. AllenThe Institutional Revolution: Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World
June 2012Charles C. Mann1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
May 2012Matthew M. Hurley Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind
April 2012David DeutschThe Beginning of Infinity
February 2012Charles P. KindlebergerManias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
January 2012Brink LindseyThe Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture
December 2011Christopher RyanSex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
October 2011John B. TaylorGetting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis
September 2011E. T. JaynesProbability Theory: The Logic of Science (Vol 1)
July 2011Thomas MetzingerThe Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self
June 2011Matt RidleyThe Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
May 2011Dani KollinThe Unincorporated Man
April 2011Peter TurchinWar and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires
February 2011Elinor OstromUnderstanding Institutional Diversity
January 2011John McCroneGoing Inside: A Tour Round a Single Moment of Consciousness
(2 books discussed together):
December 2010Peter D. SchiffHow an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
Russell RobertsThe Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity
October 2010P. W. SingerWired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
(2 books discussed together):
July 2010Alex (Sandy) PentlandHonest Signals: How They Shape Our World
Keith JohnstoneImpro: Improvisation and the Theatre
June 2010Carl ZimmerMicrocosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life
May 2010Paul CollierThe Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
(2 books discussed together):
April 2010Tyler CowenCreate Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World
Daniel MontA Different Kind of Boy: A Father's Memoir on Raising a Gifted Child With Autism
March 2010Robert LaughlinA Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down
January 2010William J. BernsteinA Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
December 2009Keith E. StanovichWhat Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought
November 2009Malcolm GladwellOutliers: The Story of Success
October 2009Daniel KennefickTraveling at the Speed of Thought: Einstein and the Quest for Gravitational Waves
September 2009Gregory Cochran and Henry HarpendingThe 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
(2 books discussed together):
August 2009Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Ron PaulMeltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse
Paul KrugmanThe Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008
July 2009Peter LeesonThe Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates
June 2009Dean Keith SimontonGreatness: Who Makes History and Why
April 2008Arthur De VanyHollywood Economics: How extreme uncertainty shapes the film industry
February 2008Stephen Ziliak and Deirdre McCloskeyThe Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives
January 2008Michael AbramowiczPredictocracy: Market Mechanisms for Public and Private Decision Making
December 2008Diane CoyleThe Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters
November 2008Mark Edward Lewis and Timothy BrookThe Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han
October 2008Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. HudsonThe Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin & Reward
September 2008Aubrey de Grey and Michael RaeEnding Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
August 2008Charles MurrayHuman Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950
May 2008Paul MartinCounting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams
May 2008Gregory ClarkA Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World
April 2008William BernsteinThe Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created
(2 books discussed together):
February 2008James R. FlynnWhat is Intelligence?: Beyond the Flynn Effect
Nicholas HumphreySeeing Red: A Study in Consciousness
January 2008Christine KenneallyThe First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language
December 2007Ken MacLeodThe Execution Channel
November 2007Keith E. StanovichThe Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin
September 2007Daniel GilbertStumbling on Happiness
August 2007Sunny Y. AuyangHow Is Quantum Field Theory Possible?
July 2007Thomas SowellBlack Rednecks and White Liberals
June 2007David WarshKnowledge and the Wealth Of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery
April 2007Judith Rich HarrisNo Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality
March 2007Lee SmolinThe Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
February 2007Robert PapeDying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
(2 books discussed together):
January 2007James SurowieckiThe Wisdom of Crowds
Robert HahnInformation Markets: A New Way of Making Decisions
December 2006Edward CastronovaSynthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games
November 2006Helmut SchoeckEnvy: A Theory of Social Behavior
September 2006Adam B. Jaffe and Josh LernerInnovation and Its Discontents : How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It
August 2006Michael LockwoodThe Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe
July 2006(2 books discussed together):
Sue Savage-RumbaughKanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind
Marc Bekoff (editor)The Cognitive Animal: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives on Animal Cognition (a few selected papers from this book)
June 2006Charles C. Mann1491 : New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
May 2006J. Philippe RushtonRace Evolution & Behavior
March 2006Sam HarrisThe End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
March 2006David J. BullerAdapting Minds : Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature
January 2006Thomas L. FriedmanThe World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
December 2005Charles StrossAccelerando
November 2005Kenneth PomeranzThe Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
September 2005Eric B. BaumWhat Is Thought?
August 2005John Steele GordonEmpire of Wealth, An : The Epic History of American Economic Power
July 2005Wayne C. Gramlich, Patri Friedman and Andrew HouserSeasteading: A Practical Guide to Homesteading the High Seas
June 2005Thomas P. M. BarnettThe Pentagon's New Map
April 2005Cory DoctorowDown and Out in the Magic Kingdom
March 2005Jeff HawkinsOn Intelligence
February 2005Michael ScheuerImperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror
January 2005Alexander Tabarrok (ed)Entrepreneurial Economics: Bright Ideas from the Dismal Science
November 2004Peter Ward, Donald BrownleeRare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe
October 2004Mancur OlsonLogic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
September 2004Judea PearlCausality : Models, Reasoning, and Inference
August 2004Michael LewisMoneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
June 2004Mark SkousenThe Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers
April 2004Martin SeligmanAuthentic Happiness
February 2004Thomas GoldThe Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels
January 2004Daniel C. DennettFreedom Evolves
December 2003Robert J. ShillerThe New Financial Order: Risk in the Twenty-First Century
November 2003Paul H. RubinDarwinian Politics: The Evolutionary Origin of Freedom
September 2003Steven PinkerThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
August 2003Amy ChuaWorld on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability
June 2003William EasterlyThe Elusive Quest for Growth : Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
May 2003Lawrence LessigThe Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
April 2003Andy ClarkBeing There : Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again
March 2003Tom BethellThe Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity Through the Ages
February 2003Alfred W. CrosbyThe Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600
January 2003Michael D. CoeBreaking the Maya Code
December 2002Mancur OlsonPower and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships
November 2002Joseph LedouxThe Emotional Brain : The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life
August 2002Robert J. ShillerIrrational Exuberance
July 2002Victor Davis HansonCarnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power
June 2002Joel MokyrLever of Riches : Technological Creativity and Economic Progress
April 2002Leonard ShlainThe Alphabet Versus the Goddess : The Conflict Between Word and Image
March 2002Burton W. FolsomThe Myth of the Robber Barons
March 2002Matthew JosephsonThe Robber Barons
January 2002Julian L. SimonThe Ultimate Resource 2
December 2001Richard D. Alexander The Biology of Moral Systems (Foundations of Human Behavior)
November 2001 Hernando De Soto The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
September 2001Jane Jacobs Systems of Survival : A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics
August 2001Marc D. Hauser Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think
June 2001Anthony Stevens and John Price Evolutionary Psychiatry: New Beginning
May 2001V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee Phantoms in the Brain : Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
April 2001Joel Kotkin Tribes: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success in the New Gobal Economy
(2 books discussed together):
February 2001Paul W. Ewald Plague Time : How Stealth Infections Are Causing Cancers, Heart Disease, and Other Deadly Ailments
Matt RidleyThe Future of Disease : Predictions
January 2001Keith J. Devlin The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip
December 2000David D. Friedman Law's Order
October 2000 Sarah Hrdy Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection
September 2000 Geoffrey Miller The Mating Mind : How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature
August 2000 F. A. Hayek The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (Collected Works of F A Hayek, Vol 1)
JuLy 2000 Susan Blackmore The Meme Machine
June 2000 Steven Pinker How the Mind Works
April 2000 Gary Klein Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
March 2000 Sober, Elliott Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior
February 2000 Fukuyama, Francis The Great Disruption
January 2000 Robert H. Frank Luxury Fever
December 1999 Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian Information Rules
October 1999 Judith Rich Harris The Nurture Assumption
September 1999 Howard Baetjer, Jr. Software as Capital
July 1999 Diamond, Jared Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
April 1999 Moravec, Hans Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind
March 1999 Brin, DavidThe Transparent Society
February 1999 Strauss, William and Neil HoweThe Fourth Turning