Alison L. LaCroix and Mordecai Kurz for PS Book Recommendations

PS Read More is now PS Book Recommendations, and it is coming to your inbox every week. The PS Book Recommendations newsletter. [View this message in a web browser.]( Welcome to PS Book Recommendations, your weekly source of reading inspiration, provided by PS contributors. This week's edition features Alison L. LaCroix, Professor of Law and an associate member of the History Department at the University of Chicago, and Mordecai Kurz, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Alison L. LaCroix's Picks [The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War]( By Joanne B. Freeman LaCroix says: "I read Field of Blood – and began assigning it to my students – when it was published in 2018. Since then, the book – which chronicles the prevalence of violence in politics, especially on the floor of the US Congress, in the decades leading up to the Civil War – has become even more relevant. Freeman brilliantly depicts both the sense of perpetual crisis that consumed Americans in the 1840s and 1850s, and the seemingly incongruous belief that the system would somehow keep working, despite increasing chaos and bloodshed." [Campaigning with Grant]( By Horace Porter LaCroix says: "A lieutenant colonel in the US Army, Porter was a member of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s staff during the critical final year of the Civil War, and subsequently served as Grant’s personal secretary during his presidency. From the western theater to the brutal Virginia campaign to Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Porter’s lively chronicle covers troop movements, interpersonal dynamics at headquarters, and – most memorably – sketches of Grant’s humor, smoking habits, horsemanship, and strategy." Don't miss our recent Say More interview with LaCroix, in which she explains why “originalist” methods of constitutional interpretation are deeply ahistorical, describes the zero-sum relationship between state and federal power in modern America, identifies possible historical analogues for the upcoming US presidential election, and more. [Read now]( By a PS Contributor [The Market Power of Technology: Understanding the Second Gilded Age]( By Mordecai Kurz Kurz says: "My book traces market power in the United States from 1889 to 2017, and highlights parallels between the two Gilded Ages (1870-1901 and since 1980). It thus illustrates how technological innovations increase productivity, while also sowing the seeds of market power, which firms are then able to consolidate in a free market economy. Because technological competition results in only one or two winners, it does not eliminate that market power, which becomes a permanent feature under a free-market policy approach. This consolidation of market power results in increased inequality – which, if left unchecked, can threaten the very foundations of democracy – and lower output, consumption, and investment. The policy proposals I present in the book focus on preserving incentives to innovate – not altering present-day rewards to innovators – but limiting firms’ ability to make permanent the initial monopoly power granted by innovations." [PS. Save 30% on a new Digital subscription with our special introductory offer.]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter does not entitle the recipient to re-publish any of the content it contains. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.