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Freakonomics review
By Huw Leslie | July 31, 2008
I’ve just read Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, and thought I’d write a review (in general I’m intending to review more things on this blog).
That I read it at all is an achievement - not on my part, but on the authors’. I am ashamed to admit that it is the first book which I have read cover to cover in a long time (perhaps a year), with the exception of my A-Level English texts. Levitt and Dubner succeeded in that respect where countless others have failed. The achievement is only increased when one considers the subject of the book: economics. I mean, economics isn’t commonly regarded as a subject which lends itself well to a pageturner!
The book is so compelling because it is consistently interesting; the stated aim is to root out complacent conventional wisdom and replace it with evidence-based theory everywhere it is found. Perhaps the book would not have been so successful if this mission had been applied to analysis of the balance of trade, but the authors’ chosen subjects of education, sumo wrestling, the Klu Klux Klan and drug gangs to name but a few makes for a lively and innovative read.
I have a great deal of sympathy for the book’s aim; I do think we live in a society where evidence is often replaced by blind acceptance of statements, providing they come from the ‘right’ source, at face value. Take crime in the UK. The vast majority of people are certain that crime is on the rise, yet under the Labour Government crime has fallen signficantly if one looks at either reported crimes or, crucially, the British Crime Survey.
Freakonomics is a thoroughly enjoyable book, but with a serious point, cogently demonstrated throughout. The fact that the book came free with a newpaper last week only made me doubly pleased with myself: not only had I managed to actually read a book all the way through, but I hadn’t had to pay for it!
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