George Stigler is not only a first class economist but also a formidable polemicist who is not too deeply beholden to any philosophy. I have just read his collection essays in this rare book shows that the incentives faced by professors in the academy are not always conducive for maximum output in terms of teaching, research or promoting free thinking. An important and enduring issue tackled with a sense of humour that is uncharacteristic of an economist is on ensuring better economic literacy among common people. His views about why that elevated quest may be futile is by and itself worthy of a thesis in philosophy. The choice of the title comes from the final essay in the collection that contrasts the academy to the market place and wonders why these two are not natural allies.
Without doubt a superior book for introducing a lay and professional audience to the thinking on economics and the place of academies in the nation. Definitely deserving of five stars because of the due regard for Adam Smith, whose ideas are still profoundly correct in spite of the fact that he did not employ spreadsheet and high order mathematics.
He makes the following profund statement in the title essay that is still demonstrably true almost half a century later: "I consider it shocking that more Americans have read The Affluent Society than The Wealth of Nations". Needless to mention, it is not only true of the US where a larger proportion of citizens have heard of Adam Smith than many other nations.
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