William Bonner and Lila Rajiva, Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets: A Micro-Review

Bonner is either the most frustrating or most entertaining non-fiction writer I’ve ran across. He loves anecdotes and detours. He loves making a larger point by illustrating with an even larger story. At times, I want to scream, “Get to the point!” At other times, I’m saying, “Take your time. This is great.” I have finished the book, but I can’t say I read every page. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that people have an unfortunate tendency to think they have to read every page of a book in order to read a book. I’ve taken his words to heart, especially with this one. I reached the end of the nearly 400 pages, but I jumped like the American Navy around Japanese islands toward the end of WWII: I missed at least 75 pages, but the ones I read were worth storming.

Strong caveat: It seems to me that everything this book predicted 20 years ago didn’t happen, but no matter. They still might.