Review Corner

Three not-really-political books from three authors with very different politics have coalesced into a trilogy for me.

Last year, I enjoyed James Surowecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds." I was prepared for a big Hayekfest, and the New Yorker author wasn't quite ready to go that far. Still it is a good book, and many people who don't think or vote like me quote it favorably. They just call it "community" instead of "the market."

A few months back, I added Glenn Reynolds's "An Army of Davids." He quotes Surowecki, and the themes of these books reinforce each other nicely.

This weekend was a book I have anticipated for a long time: Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail." I grabbed onto the long tail early, boring everybody at my last company with constant insistence that "this is what we do!" A quick search shows 23 references to "long tail" on ThreeSources and 16 on my old Berkeley Square Blog.

The book did not disappoint. I would recommend it to anybody who has a passing interest in culture, music, economics, or business. It is a great book in its own right, and I'll be shipping a few copies to folks I have been boring with its premise. But I'm struck at its capacity to bind the Reynolds and Surowecki books into a common view, and how well that view supports my deep belief in individual empowerment. Workers control the means of production without statism. The invisible hand steers and controls the throttle.

The opposition to the book has all centered around the shared cultural loss of our not watching "I Love Lucy" every week. Our parents could discuss little Rickey's antics over the water cooler. By contrast, I get to watch whatever I want and I can discuss it on the blog (Firefly/Serenity 20 mentions); I frequently trade emails with blogger and Buffy fans all over the world.

A friend emailed this review weeks ago, but I wanted to wait until I had read the book. It’s a good example of the genre. Fortune magazine Senior author Marc Gunther has his knickers in a twist over "The extinction of mass culture."

I'll credit Gunther with trying to see the advantages of the new rules. Equal parts nostalgia and job security keep him from embracing the economics of abundance. Neither I nor my friend miss the days of limited selection at the local record store (though you could buy some papers, man...) Both our tastes live pretty far down the tail.

Definitely five stars for this book: check it out!

Posted by jk at July 24, 2006 12:38 PM