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Latest Read: A Brief History of Equality

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty. Thomas is a French economist and Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics. In addition, he is a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.

A Brief History of Equality by Thomas Piketty

Thomas previously taught as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a French economist, Thomas documents a global progress regarding equality by tapping into historical data.

This book is certainly addressing wealth redistribution, and is a continuation from his books Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) and Capital and Ideology (2020).

However, the most interesting discoveries for Americans is how Thomas addresses colonialism. This obviously brings America’s slavery into a world view within Chapter 3: The Heritage of Slavery and Colonialism. In fact, we see that Europeans began their colonial rule around 1450–1500 with Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India. This was the initial Portuguese trading post on the coast of Africa. Thomas includes Columbus’s expedition to America. However this all ended in the 1960s with the French defeats in Indochina (Vietnam) and Northern Africa (Algeria). Yet, Thomas certainly brings South African apartheid into focus as these are not so long ago transformations.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: How the World Really Works

How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil. Vaclav a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg Canada.

How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the 2000 recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology.

In addition, Vaclav was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its 2010 list of FP Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013, he was appointed by the Governor General to the Order of Canada. Finally, he was the 2013 EADS Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin.

So, What really makes our modern world work? Vaclav proposes the answers in four grand transitions of civilization: populations, agriculture, energy, and economics. In fact, he outlines how each transition has greatly transformed our world and how our global society functions.

Vaclav is relying upon today’s computing ability to tap into vast amounts of data to tell powerful stories and he succeeds. This book has become a world wide bestseller and certainly is addressing the impact future climate change will have upon our world and global societies. Furthermore, Vaclav is delivering somewhat startling statistics throughout the book.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: How to Read Numbers

How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) by Tom Chivers and David Chivers

How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) by Tom Chivers, David Chivers

Tom is the science editor at UnHerd and has twice been awarded a Royal Statistical Society “statistical excellence in journalism” prize, in 2018 and 2020, and was highly commended for the same prize in 2017. Tom was the science writer of the year by the Association of British Science Writers in 2021. In addition, has been shortlisted for the science journalist of the year by both the British Press Awards and the British Journalism Awards.

His cousin David is an assistant professor of economics at Durham University. He was a lecturer at University of Oxford and completed his PhD from the University of Manchester. David is published in academic journals such as Review of Economic Dynamics, Economic Theory and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Today, more than ever before, we live in a world of sensational headlines from seemingly thousands of websites who lead with data driven reports. So, is it not a surprise in which they misquote the data in which they present. Of course not. So where does one start to understand a baseline of news data and statistics?

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Education Reading

Latest Read: American Overdose

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal. Chris is a reporter for the Guardian and was a former correspondent in Johannesburg, Jerusalem and Washington DC.

American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal

He has won awards for his reporting of the Rwandan genocide, Israel/Palestine, and the economic recession in America. In fact, Chris has been recognized by the James Cameron prize for “work as a journalist that has combined moral vision and professional integrity.” He won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. In fact he was recognized for reporting that “penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth”.

This is the fifth book of five that I have read regarding the opioid crisis. In contrast, Chris’ view as a foreign reporter brings a global perspective to our country.

In fact, what Chris sees looking into America is how opioids have deeply gutted smaller communities all across the country. Moreover, his use of statistical data helps drive home how damaging this toll has taken.

Written in three acts, Chris is addressing Dealing, Hooked, and Withdraw. Hence, Dealing begins by documenting America’s business driven healthcare system. Big Pharma profits off pain, and the FDA is somewhat complicit. Following this, Hooked is focusing on addiction. And in the closing act Withdraw, drug cartels succeed by certainly understanding how to ‘game’ the addiction marketplace.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: Dreamland

Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones. Sam is a freelance journalist today and was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times from 2004 to 2014. In 2021 he published The Least of Us, a National Book Critics Circle Award best nonfiction nominee.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones

This is a storyline that is certainly as powerful as the four previous books that I have chosen to read in order to understand the ongoing opioid crisis. Dreamland begins in Portsmouth Ohio, the book title from this community’s large historic public pool. This opening chapter certainly allowed me to remember a similar environment in northwest Ohio in my youth. However Sam then traces the explosion of black tar heroin in Columbus Ohio and Huntington West Virginia like delivery pizzas.

In fact, Sam’s story of young men who escaped poverty in Nayarit Mexico seems not uncommon. When presented with a choice of a colonial-era life that would take young men decades to acquire enough money to build a house versus selling black tar heroin for a year in the US, the choice is rather simple. By saving money the young men certainly returned with status symbols: Levi 501 jeans. This also permitted the men to quickly build lavish homes around Xalisco Nayarit.

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