Emily Nussbaum, Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV. Despite its excellent reviews, I resisted buying this book for a while, because most books on TV are not good. It is intrinsically difficult to write about the medium, and also many of the people who want to just aren’t that smart. But the Nussbaum book is a true winner, the Candid Camera chapter alone makes it worth it. Did you know that Richard Lewis was on the show at age 16? Recommended, both for its entertainment and its substance value.
Africa: the Definitive Visual History of a Continent, Penguin Random House. One of my favorite picture books of all time. It teaches the broader history of Africa by region rather than by country. First-rate maps and photos throughout.
Rose Lane Says: Thoughts on Race, Liberty, and Equality, 1942-1945. A hitherto little-known corner of libertarian thought, these short essays are very good and could be a useful tonic for some of what has gone wrong. Edited by David T. Beito and Marcus Witcher.
Emily Herring, Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People. It is good to see more on Bergson in English. I had not known that the best man at his wedding was Marcel Proust (they were cousins by marriage and Proust was not yet famous). Still, the book did not convince me that I have been underrating Bergson.
John Callanan, Man-Devil: The Mind and Times of Bernard Mandeville, The Wickedest Man in Europe, is a good treatment of an underrated and still under-read Dutch thinker.
Marshall B. Reinsdorf and Louise Sheiner, The Measure of Economics: Measuring Productivity in an Age of Technological Change, is a very useful and well-reasoned book.
Ann Schmiesing, The Brothers Grimm: A Biography fleshes out of our knowledge of the German Romantic period.
Of interest to some is Oliver Keenan, Why Aquinas Matters Now.
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