Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) secured its author’s place as one of history’s most celebrated philosophers. Like all great works of moral philosophy, Smith’s book belongs to a tradition that dates to antiquity. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, however, is probably best understood in the context of the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment, for its argument helps reconcile two otherwise conflicting ideas advanced by two of that era’s intellectual titans. Furthermore, The Theory of... Read The Theory of Moral Sentiments Summary

The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), written by Norwegian-American sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen, is a critique of consumerism and conspicuous culture promoted by the wealthy leisure class in America during the Industrial era. Veblen proposes that economics is not simply the study of markets and cash flow; it must include sociological analysis to accurately reflect a society’s consumption patterns and their cultural and economic repercussions. Though the book... Read The Theory of the Leisure Class Summary

Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point (2000) is an interdisciplinary work of popular sociology and psychology that explores the concept of the tipping point, a moment of sudden change that occurs in social epidemics. Gladwell explores how social epidemics work and offers many case studies and illustrative research to bolster his novel arguments about how epidemics “tip.” The book began as an article for The New Yorker. This guide refers to the first edition of the... Read The Tipping Point Summary

The Total Money Makeover is a nonfiction personal finance book authored by the American radio personality Dave Ramsey and originally published in 2003. In the book, Ramsey offers a practical plan—called the Total Money Makeover—for personal financial recovery that emphasizes escaping debt and making long-term investments through the “Seven Baby Steps.” The Total Money Makeover is the successor to Ramsey’s book Financial Peace, self-published in 1992. Both books express Ramsey’s financial philosophy as conveyed elsewhere... Read The Total Money Makeover Summary

Published in 1968, the essay “The Tragedy of the Commons,” by ecologist Garrett James Hardin, argues that human overpopulation will stress ecosystems beyond their limits and cause a resource catastrophe. The essay has greatly influenced environmentalists. Hardin was a politically controversial, award-winning science writer who taught ecology at the University of California at Santa Barbara for over 30 years. Critics on both sides of the political spectrum have resented not only some of his proposed... Read The Tragedy of the Commons Summary

In The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?, Michael Sandel argues that the American experiment of wholesale meritocracy has failed, and that a new paradigm needs to be found and implemented if human flourishing is truly the goal of society. Sandel sets out in The Tyranny of Merit to dismantle a host of common misconceptions and assumptions about the system of meritocracy that has ruled American public life for more than a... Read The Tyranny of Merit Summary

Tim Harford’s The Undercover Economist is an exploration of the complex world of economics. First published in 2005 and republished in 2012, the book serves as a bridge between the seemingly arcane world of economic theory and the practical, often hidden, forces that shape people’s daily financial decisions. Harford, an acclaimed economist and journalist, investigates the unseen forces at play in the global economy. He guides readers through a series of real-world scenarios, revealing the... Read The Undercover Economist Summary

A powerful dichotomy lies at the heart of The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds (2016), Michael Lewis’s account of how the friendship between two Israeli psychologists—Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky—essentially created the field of behavioral economics and shifted paradigms about human decision making. This dichotomy is the tension between intuition and algorithms, between gut feelings and empirical data. In the Introduction, Lewis explains that The Undoing Project exists largely as a complement... Read The Undoing Project Summary

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America is a 2013 work of contemporary political science and history by the American journalist George Packer. It won the National Book Award in 2013 and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award. The book explores the trajectory of the United States from 1978 to 2012 and argues that those years saw a diminishing of the institutions, promises, and social connections that had... Read The Unwinding Summary

Charles Fishman’s nonfiction text The Wal-Mart Effect is a work of investigative journalism. Originally published in 2006, The Wal-Mart Effect appeared on the literary market amidst a tradition of similar investigative works examining corporations’ impacts on society. Since its publication, the text has inspired ongoing debates about globalization, sustainability, and fair labor practices. Fishman also established himself as a leading voice in business and corporate reporting via his work on the book. His reporting for... Read The Wal-Mart Effect Summary

In his book The War for Kindness (2019), Jamil Zaki works to upend assumptions about human nature and humans’ inability to develop empathy. A psychologist and empathy researcher, Zaki examines studies from psychology (including some from his own lab), the narrative arts, current events, and modern pop culture references to document both obstacles to empathy as well as strategies for building empathy. He vehemently rejects the idea that humans must give up empathy to save... Read The War for Kindness Summary

The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle (2002) is a self-help book by American author and screenplay writer Steven Pressfield. This work aims to motivate the reader to overcome their “Resistance” to creative work, and to develop their relationship with their craft with discipline and confidence. With a colloquial tone and tough-love attitude, Pressfield examines the different manifestations that “Resistance” can take in artists’ lives, such as self-doubt and procrastination, and urges the... Read The War of Art Summary

The essay begins as Poor Richard addresses his audience, “Courteous Reader,” and admits that few “other learned authors” have quoted him, despite his being “an eminent author of almanacs annually now a full quarter of a century” (1). Poor Richard does take solace in the fact that “[his] writings produce [him] some solid pudding” (1) thanks to the people who buy his work, whom he describes as “the best judges of [his] merit” (2). Because... Read The Way To Wealth Summary

The Wealth of Nations—first published in 1776, during the Scottish Enlightenment and Agricultural Revolution—is the seminal work of Adam Smith, a Scottish economist, philosopher, author, and public intellectual. Born in Scotland, Smith studied at University of Glasgow, Balliol College, and Oxford, and lectured at the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and Glasgow University. While The Wealth of Nations is a pioneering, revolutionary work on economics, his other principal writing, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, is a... Read The Wealth Of Nations Summary

The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good is William Easterly’s investigation and critique of international development, foreign aid, and Western intervention, including the histories and effects of colonialism and imperialism. Easterly comes with decades of experience as a development economist working with global institutions such as the World Bank and on projects across the developing world, which is reflected in his... Read The White Man’s Burden Summary

Tilar J. Mazzeo’s 2008 book, The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, is a work of narrative nonfiction and biography. The book recounts the life of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who was widowed at the age of 27 in early 19th-century France. Defying the social conventions of the Napoleonic era, she took control of her late husband’s struggling wine business and, through a combination of audacity and innovation... Read The Widow Clicquot Summary

The Wisdom of Crowds, first published in 2004, marries discoveries in economics and sociology to describe the phenomenon of crowd intelligence. The book notes that large groups of people typically make better, more accurate decisions than even the most informed solitary experts. When crowds satisfy specific conditions, they can solve complex problems, make wise decisions, and even predict the future.Authored by finance journalist James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds immediately gained traction among both business... Read The Wisdom of Crowds Summary

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is a nonfiction book by Thomas L. Friedman. It was first published in 2005 and was updated with two new editions in 2006 and 2007. The book is a wide-ranging examination of globalization at the turn of the 21st century and its impact on the United States. The book is divided into sections that explain the origin, impact, and meaning of a “flat world.”... Read The World Is Flat Summary

The Worldly Philosophers, first published in 1953, is a nonfiction work on the history of economics, written by American economist and historian Robert L. Heilbroner, the Norman Thomas Professor of Economics, Emeritus at the New School for Social Research, New York. Currently in its seventh edition, published in an updated and revised form in 1999, the book is regularly assigned to economics undergraduates, providing them with an overview of western economic thought. The Worldly Philosophers... Read The Worldly Philosophers Summary

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know is a popular psychology book written by Adam Grant and published in 2021. Grant, an organizational psychology professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a podcast host and entrepreneur, argues for the power of rethinking and unlearning to better understand our world and ourselves. His prior books include Give and Take (2013), Originals (2016), and Option B (2017), cowritten... Read Think Again Summary