It’s been six months — let’s revive the Book Club!!

I received a comment a few days ago pointing out that I needed to refresh my book suggestions. And, indeed, it's been a few months since my last selections. This has mostly been due to two factors: 1) the rigors of new course preps; and 2) I was paralyzed by a series of astonishingly interesting books. Seriously, over the span of a few weeks at the beginning of the year, I got hit with advance copies or gifts of Scott Page's
The Difference
, John Lukacs'
George Kennan: A Study of Character
, A.J. Jacobs'
The Know-It-All
, and Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman's
A Perfect Mess
. I'll admit it -- the range of choice was dazzling enough to paralyze me for a few months. I've regained my equilibrium, however. So, without further ado, my international relations book of the month is.... wait for it.... hey, what do you know, it's
All Politics Is Global
!!!! [Um... the readers might be getting sick of the repeated plugs; is the book any good?--ed.] Hey, if it wasn't good, I wouldn't be hawking it so shamelessly on this high-quality blog! This book slices, it dices, and it can explain both the regulation of Internet pornography and the European Union's foreign economic strategy. It's a book that puts the lie to Carl Schmitt's claim that disputes about trade and regulation really weren't political. And it's the only book I will publish in 2007. Besides, have you seen the cover?: I mean, there are globes and everything. The general interest book is the definitive edition of F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, edited by Bruce Caldwell. The definitive edition means, among other things, that Caldwell has cleaned up Hayek's footnotes, gathered all the introductions to the myriad editions, and included some popular writings of the period to put Hayek's work in context. Virginia Postrel has more on this point. The best part, however, is that Caldwell included the two reader reports -- by Frank Knight and Jacob Marschak -- to the University of Chicago Press on whether the publish The Road to Serfdom. You'll have to buy the book to read the whole thing, but here's the concluding paragraph of Knight's report: In sum, the book is an able piece of work, but limited in scope and somewhat one-sided in treatment. I doubt whether it will have a very wide market in this country, or would change the position of many readers. Even if you own a previous copy, go buy this one. UPDATE: A bad news/good news/best news situation with All Politics Is Global: 1) The bad news is that Amazon.com is now saying it takes 3-4 weeks for delivery. 2) The good news (for me and Princeton University Press) is that Amazon.com is out of stock because sales were high enough to exhaust their initial stores 3) The best news is that All Politics Is Global is now available at BarnesandNoble.com -- as well as directly from Princeton University Press. Don't let Amazon.com stop you from ordering the book!