Most Recommended Books of 2022

See which books PS contributors recommended again and again. The PS Say More Newsletter | [View this message in a web browser]( [PS Read More]( In this week's edition of PS Read More, we share the books that multiple PS contributors agree belong on your bookshelf. [A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961–2021 by Alan S. Binder]( Sponsored by Princeton University Press [A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961–2021]( By [Alan S. Binder]( From the New York Times bestselling author Alan S. Blinder, A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961–2021, tells the fascinating story of US economic policy from Kennedy to COVID – filled with lessons for today. Available now. Most Recommended in 2022 [Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?]( By [Graham Allison]( With Sino-American relations at their lowest point in decades, fears are mounting that tensions – especially over Taiwan – could erupt into violent conflict. Allison’s book, Kevin Rudd notes, shows that the United States and China’s “spiral into ‘strategic competition’” was caused by “structural dynamics, which continue to drive the two countries toward an incredibly dangerous rivalry.” In fact, as Nouriel Roubini observes, a rising power has “ended up at war with the established power” in 12 of 16 cases over the past few centuries – and the US-China rivalry does not seem to meet the conditions of joining the minority. “For now,” Roubini concludes, “the Sino-American cold war grows colder, but a hot war over Taiwan may well be coming.” [The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity]( By David Graeber and David Wengrow Daron Acemoglu recommends this “wide-ranging and fascinating book,” despite “disagreeing with many of its claims,” because of its “emphasis on the diversity of human institutions at every stage of our history, and the importance of choices that humans had in building different types of societies.” As Kristin Ghodsee puts it, “the book’s main feat is forcing readers to recognize how timid and limited we have all become in terms of our political imaginations.” Graeber, an anthropologist, and Wengrow, an archeologist, are “wonderfully grumpy and contrarian,” she quips, but “if you take the time to get through” their 700-page tome, “you will emerge on the other side with your worldview shaken.” [Thinking, Fast and Slow]( By Daniel Kahneman Written by a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics, this book has “fundamentally affected” Antara Haldar’s view of institutions, and has been “more effective than any single other intervention in paving the way for an epistemic revolution in economics.” A key component of such a revolution Mark J. Roe observes, would be the recognition that our immediate responses – our “fast thinking” – often lead us to “make basic mistakes, such as accepting an appealing but wrong narrative, and rejecting a more complex and correct one,” with potentially devastating consequences. [The Great Reversal: How America Gave Up on Free Markets]( By Thomas Philippon Philippon is not, Roe points out, the first economist to observe that “competitive structures in the US have been weakened much more than is generally acknowledged.” The difference is that he does not consider this shift to be “broadly efficient.” Instead, as Angela Huyue Zhang puts it, he “exposes the fragility of the free market through quantitative analysis,” while demonstrating the “promise of regulation as a tool to correct market failures.” [Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events]( By [Robert J. Shiller]( Much like his fellow Nobel laureate Kahneman, Roe argues, Shiller “shows how simple economic stories, when widely believed, can shape policy decisions, as officials face pressure to act according to the public narrative.” Whether the results are good or bad depends on whether the narrative is true. Stephen S. Roach finds Shiller’s logic to be applicable not only to “financial crises, housing cycles, and stock-market bubbles” – all of which the book addresses – but also to the US-China rivalry, “with the dissemination of false narratives heightening the risk of an accidental conflict.” For more book recommendations, check out our recent On Point feature, PS Commentators’ Best Reads in 2022, featuring Jason Furman, Harold James, Alison LaCroix, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and more. [Read now](. PS Contributors on PS Contributors [The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China]( By [Kevin Rudd]( "This is a crucial book right now," writes Werner Hoyer. In it, Rudd explains, he seeks to show what could cause the US-China relationship to "devolve into an 'avoidable war'," and offer a "detailed framework" that would "enable the US and China to manage the scope of their competition during this 'dangerous decade,' cooperate on pressing global challenges, and avoid a catastrophic conflict" – one that, as Hoyer puts it, would "usher in a dark new era." [Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century]( By [J. Bradford DeLong]( "In this sweeping overview of the period stretching from 1870 to 2010," Saadia Zahidi writes, "DeLong explains the forces that drove the modern era’s unprecedented progress in technology and expansion of wealth." The most important lesson of that period, DeLong notes, is that "only through the shotgun marriage of Friedrich von Hayek and Karl Polanyi – a marriage blessed by John Maynard Keynes – have we been able even to slouch toward utopia, and that marriage has failed its own sustainability tests." In fact, Zahidi laments, instead of utopia, "we got climate change, economic depressions and recessions, perpetual uncertainty, inequality, and deepening social polarization." [How China Escaped Shock Therapy: The Market Reform Debate]( By [Isabella M. Weber]( According to Weber, she "set out to write How China Escaped Shock Therapy to shed light on one of the most consequential economic-policy debates of the past century – namely, the struggle among Chinese reformers over how to recreate markets.” The result, Mariana Mazzucato says, is a "fascinating history of Chinese capitalism," which "offers crucial insights into a local approach to economic thinking that steered clear of neoliberal fallacies." [PS Holiday Sale: Save $35 on any new subscription]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter does not entitle the recipient to re-publish any of the content it contains. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.