klmama Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 My dc's psychology class is off to a great start because of reading Mindset first. It's helped even the instruction about scientific method be more interesting because dc can see how it was applied in Dweck's research. Dc has asked for more books that approach other aspects of psychology. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions for interesting readings! Now, I need to do the same thing for economics. This is something dc needs to take, but doesn't find very interesting. I'd like to find popular works that include interesting stories which show how economics relates to real life. Thank you for any suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 Michael Lewis has several good books. The Ascent of Money is also good. Each chapter is sort of stand alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klmama Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Thanks, Sebastian. Does anyone else have any recommendations for an interesting read that explains economics along the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockhopper Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I'm watching your thread with interest. My son is in a co-op Econ class that definitely needs beefed up. We had a lot of success adding Longitude and The Stars to Astronomy last semester; I'd love to find a similar fun, readable, engaging "popular" book to add to Econ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
historymatters Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 (edited) How about the books by Russell Roberts? http://russroberts.info/books/adam-smith/ Edited January 26, 2017 by historymatters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fdrinca Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 As much of Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) or works by Tversky and Kahneman that your DC can handle. The Paradox of Choice (Schwartz) the Marginal Revolution blog Freakonomics - books, podcast, movie, blog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad S Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 As much of Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) or works by Tversky and Kahneman that your DC can handle. These recommendations have the added benefit of linking psychology and economics. IMO more than one or two of Tversky and Kahneman's works would preclude enough time to cover economics with some breadth. From an investing perspective, Jason Zweig has a simpler overview of their findings on psychology which impact finance. The best fairly balanced overview of basic economics I've seen in textbooks is McConnell, et al's Economics, picking the chapters listed as corresponding to their Essentials of Economics book or buying the shorter book if you prefer; the previous edition or one before should be a lot cheaper and not too out of date. If you can stand the multiple grammatical errors in some of the earlier lectures, the Great Courses lectures by Timothy Taylor on Economics (the basic one, not the others by T Taylor) does an excellent job of giving a brief, balanced overview with ample relevant examples, and geared to an older teenage audience. (At least the GC transcripts correct most or all the grammatical errors.) If you'd like a somewhat historical approach which explains how many modern societies have become much wealthier after being extremely poor for most of humanity, you could read Wm Bernstein's Birth of Plenty. If you're somewhat intellectually oriented and want to cover the great economic thinkers over recent centuries, you could read Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. The Economist newsmagazine has a lot of articles which cover economics in current events, which could be used to supplement a class. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3andme Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 The Marshall Jevons books weave economic concepts into a fictional mystery format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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