More

Any reader of The Economist will be familiar with its superbly written ‘Bartleby’ column. The author is Philip Coggan, an experienced journalist, previously at the Financial Times. More is his second work and achieves an impressive feat, condensing 10,000 years of economic history into 350 pages. It is a ‘Goldilocks’ work in terms of neither oversimplifying to the point of banality nor overcomplicating with heavy-handed analysis. Rather, More is erudite and engaging, packed with both real-world anecdotes and hitherto unknown (to me) trivia. More also succeeds in being non-judgmental, either about economic systems or historic individuals. It is good at debunking fallacies and makes a strong case for enlightenment, tacitly through liberal systems of open trade. Only through interactions with others and via an exchange of learnings can humanity progress. Worthwhile reading, not rated.

By Philip Coggan