Well, it’s that time again, when I post the list of books I’ve read over the previous year and try to find patterns in it all.
First off, I read about 20 more books in 2021 than I had in 2020. I attribute this to a somewhat more normal lifestyle, without strict COVID lockdowns. I personally felt a bit bewildered in 2020 and I had a difficult time concentrating. I read less, and when I did read, it seemed to go more slowly. Plus, under normal circumstances I would get much of my reading done on the subway commute to work; I didn’t have that commute for most of 2020. (The commute returned in late September 2021, which resulted in a late surge on the reading list below. But I am back in lockdown now, so we shall see how it all pans out…)
However, upon reflection, I think I have to admit that my reading was not as enjoyable in 2021 as it has been in previous years. As usual, I bold the books that I particularly enjoyed, and there is not nearly as much bolding on the list below.
As for patterns, let me see…. One that jumps out is the number of books from or about the Scottish Enlightenment (Beattie, Carlyle, Hume, Hutcheson, Kames, Raphael, Smith), to which one might add a sprinkling of French authors (Rousseau, Voltaire). I read three books about Richard III or his age (Drewett and Redhead, Gross, Mancini). Also, there was the usual legal history theme (Boyer, Coke, Finch, Holdsworth, Horne, Kent, Plucknett).
Otherwise, rather than patterns in terms of subject matter, there is a heavy preponderance of works by certain authors: I read four volumes of Burnet’s History of His Own Time, all three books in Robertson Davies’ “Deptford Trilogy”, and three books by Adam Smith.
There are two additional things not reflected on the list below, but which might show up on next year’s list: I have been reading some literature by the Cambridge Platonists. Two works are on this list (Cudworth, Whichcote), but Cudworth’s True Intellectual System of the Universe – a long work – is in progress. Also in progress, and related to the Scottish Enlightenment theme, I am working my way through some historical literature on Scots law: Sir Thomas Hope’s Major Practicks (in two volumes), Lord Stair’s Institutions of the Law of Scotland, and Lord Bankton’s An Institute of the Laws of Scotland (in three volumes). These are long and dense works and will take considerable time to get through.
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AXELROD. Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation (revised edition). Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2006.
BEATTIE, James. An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth; in Opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism. Edinburgh: A. Kincaid and J. Bell, 1770.
BLOOM, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Touchstone Books, 1988.
BOLINGBROKE, Henry St. John, Viscount. The Works (Vol. IV). David Mallet (ed.). London, 1754 (facsimile, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1968).
BOYER, Allen D. (ed.). Law, Liberty, and Parliament: Selected Essays on the Writings of Sir Edward Coke. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2004.
BREADY, J. Wesley. Lord Shaftesbury and Social-Industrial Progress. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1928.
BROWN, John. Essays on the Characteristics of the Earl of Shaftesbury. London: C. Davis, 1751.
BURNET, Gilbert. Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time (Vol. II). Martin Joseph Routh (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1833.
BURNET, Gilbert. Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time (Vol. III). Martin Joseph Routh (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1833.
BURNET, Gilbert. Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time (Vol. IV). Martin Joseph Routh (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1833.
BURNET, Gilbert. Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time (Vol. V). Martin Joseph Routh (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1833.
BYNKERSHOEK, Cornelius van. De Dominio Maris Dissertatio. James Brown Scott (trans.). New York: Oceana Publications, 1964.
CARLYLE, Alexander. Anecdotes and Characters of the Times. James Kinsley (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
COKE, Sir Edward. The Reports of Sir Edward Coke, Knt. in Thirteen Parts (Vol. II: Parts III-IV). London: Joseph Butterworth and Son, 1826.
CUDWORTH, Ralph. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at Westminster, March 31, 1647. Cambridge: Roger Daniel, 1647 (facsimile, New York: Facsimile Text Society, 1930).
DAVIES, Robertson. Fifth Business. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 2005.
DAVIES, Robertson. The Manticore. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 2005.
DAVIES, Robertson. World of Wonders. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 2005.
DREWETT, Richard and Mark REDHEAD. The Trial of Richard III. Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton,1987.
FINCH, Sir Henry. Law, or, a Discourse thereof. Danby Pickering (trans.). London: Henry Lintot, 1759 (facsimile, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969).
FITZGERALD, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Classics, 1992.
GRANT, George. Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (40th anniversary edition). Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005.
GROSS, Anthony. The Dissolution of the Lancastrian Kingship: Sir John Fortescue and the Crisis of the Monarchy in Fifteenth-Century England. Stamford, UK: Paul Watkins, 1996.
HAMILTON, Alexander and James MADISON. The Pacificus-Helvidius Debates of 1793-1794. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2007.
HAYEK, Friedrich. Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.
HEINECCIUS, Johann Gottlieb. A Methodical System of Universal Law: Or, the Laws of Nature and Nations. George Turnbull (trans.). Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2008.
HOLDSWORTH, William S. Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1929.
HORNE, Andrew. The Mirrour of Justices. Washington, DC: John Byrne and Company, 1903.
HUME, David. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. Tom L. Beauchamp (ed.) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
HUTCHESON, Francis. Thoughts on Laughter and Observations on the Fable of the Bees. Glasgow: Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1758 (facsimile, Bristol, UK: Thoemmes, 1989).
HUTCHINSON, Lucy. Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson. James Sutherland (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1973.
JAMES, William. Pragmatism. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.
KAMES, Henry Home, Lord. Sketches of the History of Man (Vol. I). James A. Harris (ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2007.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. I). New York: O. Halsted, 1826.
KENT, James. Commentaries on American Law (Vol. II). New York: O. Halsted, 1827.
KLEIN, Lawrence E. Shaftesbury and the Culture of Politeness: Moral Discourse and Cultural Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
KLEMPERER, Victor. The Language of the Third Reich – LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii. Martin Brady (trans.). London: The Athlone Press, 2000.
KYD, Thomas. The Spanish Tragedy. J. R. Mulryne (ed.). New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.
LUCIAN. Works (Vol. II). A. M. Harmon (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.
MANCINI, Dominic. The Usurpation of Richard III. C. A. J. Armstrong (trans.). Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton, 1989.
McINERNY, Ralph. Ethica Thomistica: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1982.
McKENZIE, Richard B. and Gordon TULLOCK. The New World of Economics (6th edition). Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2012.
NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil / The Genealogy of Morality (Complete Works, Vol. 8). Adrian Del Caro (trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.
NOZICK. Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books, 1974.
PEPYS, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Vol. VII: 1666). Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
PLATIAS, Athanassios G. and Constantinos KOLIOPOULOS. Thucydides on Strategy: Grand Strategies in the Peloponnesian War and their Relevance Today. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
PLUCKNETT, Theodore F. T. A Concise History of the Common Law (5th edition). Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.
PLUTARCH. Lives (Vol. I). John Dryden (trans.). London: Folio Society, 2010.
PULTENEY. William and Henry St. John, Viscount BOLINGBROKE. The Craftsman (Vol. IV). London: R. Francklin.
PULTENEY. William and Henry St. John, Viscount BOLINGBROKE. The Craftsman (Vol. V). London: R. Francklin.
RAPHAEL, D. D. The Impartial Spectator: Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007.
RICHARDSON, Samuel. Clarissa (Vol. II). London: Dent, 1968.
ROSS, Sir David. Kant’s Ethical Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954.
ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Emilius; or, An Essay on Education (Vol. I). Thomas Nugent (trans.). London: J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1763 (facsimile, Bristol, UK: Thoemmes Press, 1995).
ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques. Emilius; or, An Essay on Education (Vol. II). Thomas Nugent (trans.). London: J. Nourse and P. Vaillant, 1763 (facsimile, Bristol, UK: Thoemmes Press, 1995).
SALISBURY, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of. Lord Salisbury on Politics: A selection from his articles in the Quarterly Review, 1860-1883. Paul Smith (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
SHAKESPEARE, William. Antony and Cleopatra. John Munro (ed.). London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1958.
SHAKESPEARE, William. Coriolanus. John Munro (ed.). London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1958.
SHAW, William and Hester Lynch PIOZZI. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Late Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Arthur Sherbo (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1974.
SMITH, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
SMITH, Adam. Lectures on Jurisprudence. R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
SMITH, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Vol. I). R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
SMITH, Patti. Just Kids. New York: Ecco, 2010.
STEPHEN, James Fitzjames. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. R. J. White (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
STORY, Joseph. A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States. New York: American Book Company, 1840 (facsimile, New York: Legal Classics Library, 1992).
SWIFT, Jonathan. The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift (Vol. I: 1690-1713). Harold Williams (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.
TAYLOR, Charles. Radical Tories: The Conservative Tradition in Canada. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2006.
TULLOCK, Gordon. The Rent-Seeking Society (Selected Works of Gordon Tullock, Vol. 5). Charles K. Rowley (ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2005.
VOLTAIRE. Philosophical Dictionary (Vol. I). Peter Gay (trans.). New York: Basic Books, 1962.
VOLTAIRE. Philosophical Dictionary (Vol. II). Peter Gay (trans.). New York: Basic Books, 1962.
WHICHCOTE, Benjamin. The Works of the Learned Benjamin Whichcote (Vol. III). Aberdeen: Alexander Thomson, 1751 (facsimile, New York: Garland, 1977).
WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig. On Certainty. G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright (eds.). Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
WODEHOUSE, P. G. Right Ho, Jeeves. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1975.
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