THE PLANK MARCH 12, 2009
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I had a lot of negative things to say about "The Forgotten Man." A criticism I did not make is that it's too intellectually rigorous. Unfortunately, that seems to be the critique Amity Shlaes has internalized. Shlaes plans a new edition of "The Forgotten Man," in "120-page illustrated format, aimed at the teenaged/student market," per Dr. Manhattan of the Atlantic Online.
Perhaps the model here is the comic-book version of "The Road to Serfdom," first published by General Motors, which is worth checking out if you haven't seen it before. Note that the argument presented does a very poor job of predicting the path of post-war liberalism in the United States or, really, anywhere.
--Jonathan Chait
8 comments
Those who misrember the past almost invariably get the future wrong too.
- Geoff G
March 12, 2009 at 12:12pm
That was, by the way, one of the best book reviews I've read in years. Or at least, one of the most fun to read. So when the Classics Illustrated version of "The Forgotten Man" comes out, please do a few thousand words on it, too. Or maybe a 5-page graphic novel adaptation of a review. Get Seth or Adrian Tomine or James Sturm to illustrate; their styles would be perfect for the topic.
- rhubarbs
March 12, 2009 at 12:23pm
We should not misunderestimate Amity. (What a quaint 19th century name!) She is soon turning into another one of those intellectual giants beloved by the Republicans ...
P.s. The book review was wonderful, by the way.
- icarusr
March 12, 2009 at 12:40pm
How about a sock puppet review?
- Simon Greenwood
March 12, 2009 at 12:42pm
The "Road to Serfdom" comic book is priceless -- what's the value of one of the originals? And didja notice that this thing is actually available through the WEBSITE of the Ludwig von Mises Institute? If I hadn't heard of the Von Mises Institute already, I would have actually thought that this was the product of Martin Eisenstadt's Harding Institute.
- wildboy
March 12, 2009 at 1:45pm
I hear the latest historical research coming out of Republican intellectual circles is that FDR was in fact Franky Rosfield, a wanted conman and petty shoplifter from East Lansing, Mich., and the New Deal a consumer scam thought up when he was riding the rails from Indianapolis to Pittsburgh in the summer of '32.
- ironyroad
March 12, 2009 at 1:46pm
That is great stuff, Jonathan. I had never known that this work appeared in comic book form, Friedrich Hayek was a formidable intellectual, though.. Cass Sunstein payed a critcal tribute to him in his superb piece The Flawed Greatness of Friedrich Hayek, a few years back in TNR.
- liberal reformer
March 12, 2009 at 2:06pm
Asking a pop Marxist like Jonathan Chait to understand Hayek is like asking a chimpanzee to understand Beethoven.
- bulbman1066
March 14, 2009 at 3:15am