Give the Gift of P. J. O ’Rourke

David BoazThe Cato Institute offers lots of greatChristmas gifts— Pocket Constitutions (also a good gift forBill of Rights Day!), books, even Cato ‐​brandedLands ’ End merchandise. But I  have my own holiday recommendations that I’ve made before.I decided one year to give a  young colleague a post‐​graduate course in political science and economics —P. J. O ’Rourke’s booksParliament of Whores andEat the Rich. So I  went to my local Barnes&  Noble to search for them. Not in Current Affairs. Not in Economics. No separate section called Politics. I decided to try Borders (RIP). But first — to avoid yet more driving around — I went online to see if my local Borders stores had them in stock. Sure enough, they did, in a couple of st ores just blocks from the Cato Institute. Checking to see where in the store I would find them, I discovered that they would both be shelved under “Humor–Humorous Writing.” Oh, right, I thought, they’re not books on economics or current affairs, they’rehumor.Yes, P.J. is one of the funniest writers around. But what people often miss when they talk about his humor is what a  good reporter and what an insightful analyst he is.Parliament of Whores is a  very funny book, but it’s also a very perceptive analysis of politics in a modern mixed‐​economy democracy. And if you readEat the Rich, you ’ll learn more about how countries get rich — and why they don’t — than in a whole year of econ at...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs