Non-Fiction Books that Changed the Way I Think: Part II ...

Today's post is the second batch of recommendations from Miss Warner.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

Provocative treatise on nationhood and its relationship to economics and power. Shortlisted for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2012, and a must read if you are interested in socio-economics.

Why are some nations more prosperous than others? Why Nations Fail sets out to answer this question, with a compelling and elegantly argued new theory: that it is not down to climate, geography or culture, but because of institutions. Drawing on an extraordinary range of contemporary and historical examples, from ancient Rome through the Tudors to modern-day China, leading academics Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson show that to invest and prosper, people need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep it - and this means sound institutions that allow virtuous circles of innovation, expansion and peace.

Non-Fiction Books that Changed the Way I Think: Part I ...

In today's post, Miss Warner explores some of the non-fiction books that have had a significant impact on the way she looks at the world.

The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin
This book is one of my all time favourites. It is a patchwork of musings that really stay with you; a cultural tour de force!

'To great writers,' Walter Benjamin once wrote, 'finished works weigh lighter than those fragments on which they labour their entire lives.' Conceived in Paris in 1927 and still in progress when Benjamin fled the Occupation in 1940, The Arcades Project (in German, Das Passagen-Werk) is a monumental ruin, meticulously constructed over the course of thirteen years--'the theater,' as Benjamin called it, 'of all my struggles and all my ideas.'

Tell me the truth about ...

Today's post features some non-fiction picks from 4B.

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman
Recommended by Kirin Bhatnaga

'It explains quantum physics and the complicated biography of a Nobel-prize-winning scientist in a very simple and often funny way.'

Strange Places, Questionable People by John Simpson
Recommended by Max Clapham

'John Simpson’s long career in journalism makes his autobiography an exciting read. What I like is that you don't have to read it from front to back - you can dip in and out and still enjoy it.'