The rising temperatures may have told us that summer arrived some time ago, but the holiday season is now just around the corner – bringing with it the perfect opportunity to find a good book to read. Below is a selection of titles that ECIPE staff have read and warmly recommend.
Common Law Liberalism: A New Theory of the Libertarian Society by John Hasnas
Hasnas asks us to rethink where law comes from. Rather than seeing law only as a coercive, top-down instrument, he turns to the common law: a system where rules emerge gradually through disputes, precedent, and practice. He offers a provocative defence of the Anglo-American common law as a decentralised and evolving way of sustaining social order without relying only on legislative design or political direction. Clear and challenging, this is a useful read for anyone interested in how free societies govern themselves, and how institutions can grow from the bottom up.
Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future by Dan Wang
Wang begins with a striking contrast: China is an engineering state, while America is a lawyerly society. This helps explain why China has been able to build railways, factories, bridges, power plants, and cities at extraordinary speed, while the US is often slowed by litigation, procedure, and delay. But Wang’s account is not a simple argument for Chinese efficiency or against American legalism. He is interested in what each system reveals: China shows the power of a country organised around building, but also the dangers of treating society itself as something to be engineered. America, meanwhile, shows why law, markets, and individual liberty matter, even when too much procedure makes progress harder. This is for anyone interested in what societies need in order to build, and what they risk when power moves too fast.
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman
Dunkelman points to why governments so often struggle to get things done. Rather than blaming failure only on money, ambition, or political will, he looks at the rules and habits that shape public action itself. He argues that reforms meant to prevent corruption and abuse have also created a system full of procedures, consultations, lawsuits, and veto points, making it harder for governments to deliver. Thoughtful and persuasive, this is a useful read for anyone curious about why modern states fall short and what it might take to rebuild public capacity without giving up democratic accountability.
Arriving Today by Christopher Mims
A package on the doorstep can feel almost effortless, but Mims shows the complex machinery behind the moment. Following a product from an overseas factory to the consumer’s home, he takes readers through ports, ships, trucks, warehouses, scanners, algorithms, robots, and the workers who keep modern commerce moving. Fast-paced and eye-opening, this is a fascinating look at global logistics, and a reminder that the everyday convenience of “arriving today” depends on a vast system of decisions, incentives, technologies, and human labour working together behind the scenes.
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Klein and Thompson begin with a simple but uncomfortable question: what if many of America’s shortages are self-inflicted? They argue that housing, infrastructure, and clean energy are not scarce only because of material limits, but also because rules, procedures, and veto points make it too difficult to build. This is a useful read for anyone interested in how governments can move from good intentions to real-world results. Its central message travels well beyond America: spending money is not the same as getting things done.
The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress by Virginia Postrel
Postrel’s book may be more than two decades old, but it still feels strikingly relevant. Her central divide is not left versus right, but dynamism versus stasis: between those who trust experimentation, competition, and open-ended progress, and those who want to make the future safer by planning it in advance. In a world where innovation is often managed before it is fully understood, Postrel offers a lively defence of the creativity of free people, and a reminder that progress usually comes from leaving room for surprise.
Autocrats vs Democrats: China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder by Michael McFaul
McFaul offers a timely read for anyone trying to make sense of today’s shifting world order. He argues that the rivalry with China and Russia is not simply “Cold War 2.0.” China is deeply tied into the global economy, Russia remains dangerous despite its weaker economy, and western democracies face real challenges from their own internal divisions. This is a read for anyone interested in globalisation, security, and the growing contest between autocracy and democracy.