Charles Kenny Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
Charles Kenny on X
Senior Fellow, CGD, author: Life, Liberty & Utility; Getting Better; The Upside of Down; & The Plague Cycle. Tweets are personal opinions.

River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads
Cat Jarman
From @CatJarman ‘s excellent River Kings (history of the Vikings). Interesting how often through history ‘throwing newborns into sea/pit/other’ is the go-to indicator of the despicable other. https://t.co/YZACAokZ2n
Paperback, 2023
$18.95$9.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Old and New Perspectives on Mortality Forecasting
Tommy Bengtsson
TIL: UN forecast for year 2000 world population made in 1966 was more accurate than the forecast made in 1995. (Keilman, Nico. "Erroneous population forecasts." Old and New Perspectives on Mortality Forecasting 95 (2019)). https://t.co/iUKKyLv7eH
Hardcover, 2020
$60.95$35.95 + Free shipping50% off your first book(max discount $25)
Poverty
Will Reason
Small irony that the approach the World Bank is taking to measure poverty ensures (with some good reason) the dream will never come true. https://t.co/m5QONpv2W7
Out of stock

Bolivar: American Liberator
Marie Arana
Marie Arana’s biography of Bolivar, discussing regulations in late-colonial Spanish America. Also: no colonial printing presses, letters require government approval to send, a Spanish equivalent of the Jones Act in force… https://t.co/rpKIhOXgBP
Paperback, 2014
$23.00$11.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success
Ran Abramitzky
Great @Hofrench article on the benefits of immigration to sending and receiving countries with discussion of @m_clem's work and @leah_boustan 's new blockbuster *Streets of Gold* https://t.co/HvlROM7b9L
Hardcover, 2022
$29.00$14.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Usaid: following the money
United States House of Representatives
Podcast hosted (excellently) by @s_e_rose with John Norris on his great new book The Enduring Struggle -a history of USAID. Good present! https://www.cgdev.org/blog/history-usaid-john-norris-and-wade-warren-cgd-podcast
Out of stock

Heyday: The 1850s and the Dawn of the Global Age
Ben Wilson
From Ben Wilson’s ‘Heyday: The 1850s and the Dawn of the Global Age.’ Colonial boosterism, trying to attract migrants. Starting to see a revived (less morally suspect) global competition for migrants 170 years later. https://t.co/fg4CWdMCeQ
Hardcover, 2016
$45.00$22.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Making of Oliver Cromwell
Ronald Hutton
Among book purchases made by the UK House of Commons library at the request of MPs: "The Making of Oliver Cromwell" "Thomas Cromwell: a life" Someone planning something? https://t.co/ugb9QPKE51
Paperback, 2022
$22.00$11.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Our Solar System: Earth: Our Home Planet
World Book
*Please* if you are a “planet B” believer, read this book, combined with @_HannahRitchie ‘s forthcoming “Not the End of the World.” Space is really horrible, Earth is incredible and utterly fixable, but needs work to be even better. https://t.co/ziXf4Wc9uT
Paperback, 2020
$18.99$9.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
World Development Report: Governance and the Law
World Bank Group
@WorldBank I'm in favor of private hospitals in Africa: they provide jobs & quality health care. But I'm not sure subsidizing places that charge $125 for a checkup using bespoke, opaque & non-competitive approaches is best use World Bank IDA grants, either. https://t.co/Q2nY61MIRy
Out of stock