BlogU

  • 5 Concise Reasons to Read Robert Reich's 'Afterschock'

    By Joshua Kim October 3, 2010 8:15 pm EDT

    I love short books. Can you recommend any good, but concise, nonfiction? Great reads under 200 pages?

    Here are my 5 concise reasons to read Robert Reich's latest book "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future"

    Reason #1 - Conciseness: Most books are too long. Aftershock is a blessed 192 pages; 4 hours and 29 minutes short in audiobook format.

    Reason #2 - Originality: Reich's big argument is that out economy is fundamentally unbalanced. That the growth of inequality that has concentrated economic gains among the top 5 percent of the populations has resulted in an inability of most Americans to adequately consume. We cannot afford to buy what we produce (a problem near and dear to the heart of any parent who works in higher education).

    Reason #3 - The Higher Education Plan: Reich actually has a plan for higher education. He would make tuition free (to public institutions), and recoup the costs with a levy on future earnings for anyone who participated. His proposal is more complex than this description, and wildly unlikely to ever be enacted anywhere, but still fun to debate.

    Reason #4 - History: Reich was one of the first academic popularizers that I discovered. Back in 1992, he wrote The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism, in which he argued that economic gains and options would accrue to the "symbolic analysts" - those who manipulate and create information. Reich was ahead of the game in 1992, and if we had listened more carefully to his warnings we might be in better shape today.

    Reason #5 - Narration: Reich narrates his own book - and does it beautifully. Usually reading what you have written does not work out so well. Narration is a skill best left to professional readers. But in this case, Reich is the right person to read his own words.

    What other concise books can you recommend? What are your reading?

Go to comments (5) »
Advertisement

Comments on 5 Concise Reasons to Read Robert Reich's 'Afterschock'

  • audio book's voice
  • Posted by GP Witteveen , Independent Scholar and Curriculum Producer on October 4, 2010 at 6:45am EDT

  • Like Mr. Kim, I find listening to books highly satisfying. I have mixed feelings about who should read them, though. The inflections of the author sometimes add meanings that a voice actor may miss. And hearing the author in one's ear adds authenticity or ethos to the work. On the other hand when there's fiction on hand and multiple voices can be conjured up by a single actor, such as Jim Dale doing the Harry Potter books, then there's nothing better. But for non-fiction, I've enjoyed Bill Clinton, Deborah Tannen and last week, Jill B. Taylor (My Stroke of Insight).

  • Posted by Rocco Tarasi , Co-Founder & CEO at BrainCredits on October 4, 2010 at 8:30am EDT

  • Two great short reads: "How the Mighty Fall", by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great), only 122 pages without the appendices; it analyzes how large companies fail, what the signs are, and whether they can stop their decline before its too late. And "Rework" by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier, founders of 37 Signals, "... shows you a better, easier way to succeed in business". (271 pages, but based on how its formatted it might as well be 150 - very fast read).

  • Excellent short book
  • Posted by AMS , English/Honors at IUS on October 4, 2010 at 9:30am EDT

  • Robert J. Sternberg's "College Admissions for the 21st Century" (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2010) is provocative, clearly written, and thoughtful.

  • Best Care Anywhere
  • Posted by Alan Card on October 4, 2010 at 11:15am EDT

  • For those with an interest in safer, more effective healthcare (pretty much everyone, if you think about it), I can recommend:

    Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better than Yours (2nd Edition) by Phillip Longman.

    At 154 pages, not counting the helpfully extensive references, it's a blisteringly fast read. Longman shows that -obsolete reputation aside- the Veterans Health Administration provides the safest, most effective, and most efficient (you read correctly, most efficient) healthcare in America. He goes on to examine why that might be, and how the VA's lessons about better incentives and better IT could be translated to the broader healthcare industry.

  • Posted by Barbara Fister on October 4, 2010 at 3:30pm EDT

  • I'm finding Ted Striphas's The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control fascinating, and it runs under 200 pages (unless you count the notes and index).

Print
© Copyright 2011 Inside Higher Ed