Organizations and Markets

Christmas Reading

25 December 2006 at 11:57 am Nicolai Foss 1 comment

| Nicolai Foss |

Not much is usually happening during Christmas, so why not engage a bit in the narcissistic (and non-creative) blogger’s delight — the “what I am reading at the moment” list:

1. Charles C. Ragin and Howard S. Becker, eds. 1992. What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. This is a collection, mainly by thoughtful (in fact, extremely thoughtful) sociologists (yes, they do exist) on the methodological/ philosophical foundations of qualitative research, a subject that I have become increasingly interested in.

2. Yoram Barzel. 2002. A Theory of the State. As the resident Barzel fan here at O&M, I have surely waited too long before I began reading this book, published back in 2002. Barzel applies his highly original ideas on property rights economics to the state. However, the result strikes me as less original than Barzel’s other work.

3. Steve Berry: The Templar Legacy. Yes, I do have a weakness for this kind of templar pulp (this one comes endorsed by Dan Brown, so you know it is going to be bad). The Templar Legacy is one of the better ones (certainly better than this one). And parts of the story takes place in Denmark. I have toyed with writing a Templar novel myself. The title? Frank Knight’s Templars.

4. Rodney Stark. 1996. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. I enjoyed The Victory of Reason and this one is perhaps better. It is certainly less speculative, its reasoning seems stronger.

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