Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates (2009)por Peter T. Leeson
Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Supercilious. This author simplifies and underscores every point until you wonder if his intended audience consists of mentally handicapped first graders. Sound economic theory and history, packaged in an irritatingly condescending manner. I would recommend this for middle school kids, but I suspect most kids get sick of being talked down to. The author makes much of the fact that pirates ran quasi-democratic organizations on their ships a hundred years before the Federalist Papers were written. This is not nearly as remarkable as he makes it sound. The average pirate crew only numbered about 60-70 people. Anthropology attests that quasi-democracies have since time immemorial been the rule rather than the exception in autonomous societies of this minuscule size. The problems of democratic organization in states with millions of citizens are of an entirely different nature. The author's enthusiasm for pirate history is evident, but I think he greatly exaggerates the value of his "economic" explanations for pirate behavior and organization. He simply states logical reasons why pirate ships weren't ruled dictatorially, why they used their own flag, why they shared their loot equally etc. Most readers may not have thought of these reasons before, but they're quite obvious and they could be summarized in just a few paragraphs. The book becomes more and more boring as the author elaborates every simple point for 20-30 pages. The final chapter "Secrets of Pirate Management" is a strange attempt to be humorous. It actually made me double-check if I had misread the name of the publisher, but no, Princeton University Press apparently approved even this garbage. The other chapters are alright for people who like pirates, but they aren't original or interesting from a social-scientific perspective. The organization of criminal activity has been treated from a much deeper theoretical perspective in David Skarbek's The Social Order of the Underworld.
Brisk, clever. These fastidious, calculating pirates may have been a far cry from the romantic, mad buccaneers of legend. But Peter Leeson’s economical actors have an appeal all their own. This engaging account is fun to read and full of humor, qualities not often associated with an explanation of economic theory. Distinciones
Pack your cutlass and blunderbuss--it's time to go a-pirating! The Invisible Hook takes readers inside the wily world of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century pirates. With swashbuckling irreverence and devilish wit, Peter Leeson uncovers the hidden economics behind pirates' notorious, entertaining, and sometimes downright shocking behavior. Why did pirates fly flags of Skull & Bones? Why did they create a "pirate code"? Were pirates really ferocious madmen? And what made them so successful? The Invisible Hook uses economics to examine these and other infamous aspects of piracy. Leeson argues that the pirate customs we know and love resulted from pirates responding rationally to prevailing economic conditions in the pursuit of profits. The Invisible Hook looks at legendary pirate captains like Blackbeard, Black Bart Roberts, and Calico Jack Rackam, and shows how pirates' search for plunder led them to pioneer remarkable and forward-thinking practices. Pirates understood the advantages of constitutional democracy--a model they adopted more than fifty years before the United States did so. Pirates also initiated an early system of workers' compensation, regulated drinking and smoking, and in some cases practiced racial tolerance and equality. Leeson contends that pirates exemplified the virtues of vice--their self-seeking interests generated socially desirable effects and their greedy criminality secured social order. Pirates proved that anarchy could be organized. Revealing the democratic and economic forces propelling history's most colorful criminals, The Invisible Hook establishes pirates' trailblazing relevance to the contemporary world. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)330Social sciences Economics EconomicsClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |
So how is the pirate life related to economics? Well read the book to find out completely, but the short version is a lot. And when it is over you'll know a lot more about both pirates and economics.
The professor uses a classical model of economics to explain things and I imagine some who hold to some newer economic theories might not like that, but this book is not really for them, it is designed to bring an awesome understanding of economics by using the real world example of piracy.
The author never really diminishes the real crimes committed by pirates, but he does avoid harsh judgements. From an economic standpoint it makes sense, but it might feel like the murder, robbery, etc is acceptable.
Well worth the read. ( )