W. David Marx Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
W. David Marx on X
Author of "Status and Culture" and "Ametora." Newsletter at https://t.co/M0KE6eCmKM.

The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness
Virginia Postrel
Very honored that the great @vpostrel reviewed "Status and Culture" in the @WSJ Quite coincidentally I just read Postrel's "The Substance of Style" and sensed she would object to my argument that status shapes how we take *pleasure* from culture... 🧵 https://t.co/Gy5q4c5N6T
Paperback, 2004
$16.99$8.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
Kevin Simler
Newsletter this week: Reading "The Elephant in the Brain" in response to Tyler Cowen's diss-blurb of my book, and why I'm suspicious of using "ape-brain" as the primary way to explain complex human social behaviors such as art, status, and culture. https://t.co/unPaIyApSa
Paperback, 2020
$23.99$11.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change
W. David Marx
Very honored that the great @vpostrel reviewed "Status and Culture" in the @WSJ Quite coincidentally I just read Postrel's "The Substance of Style" and sensed she would object to my argument that status shapes how we take *pleasure* from culture... 🧵 https://t.co/Gy5q4c5N6T
Hardcover, 2022
$30.00$15.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Culture and Practical Reason
Marshall Sahlins
25. Marshall Sahlins - Culture and Practical Reason 26. Clyde Kluckhohn - Culture and Behavior Two sophisticated works of anthropology that try to examine what culture *is.* Sahlins is very lucid about how culture takes on value in contemporary society (it's not all economics) https://t.co/MIY2n7tb0A
Paperback, 1978
$33.00$16.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Explaining Social Behavior
Jon Elster
23. Jon Elster - Explaining Social Behavior 24. George Homans - Social Behaviour Indispensable books that help you think about the motivated individual interactions at heart of social behavior. (Elster's entire catalog is worth a read, including his explanations of Marxism.) https://t.co/rdW3zvMsh2
Paperback, 2015
$42.00$21.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions
Thorstein Veblen
1. Thorstein Veblen - The Theory of the Leisure Class Foundational text for understanding taste as an economic process: namely, the inevitability of New Money engaging in conspicuous consumption. Slightly tongue-in-cheek, but his arguments are more nuanced than often portrayed. https://t.co/jK1OcQP49T
Paperback, 2016
$10.95$5.47 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Status: Why Is It Everywhere? Why Does It Matter?: Why Is It Everywhere? Why Does It Matter?
Cecilia L. Ridgeway
Excellent to hear the brilliant status scholar Cecilia Ridgeway on the Ezra Klein Show @ezraklein https://t.co/vvN9drXdyw
Paperback, 2019
$35.00$17.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign
Jean Baudrillard
9. Jean Baudrillard - The System of Objects 10. Jean Baudrillard - The Consumer Society 11. Jean Baudrillard - For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign Essential philosophical works on consumerism and its political implications. ("sign value" = "status value") https://t.co/SWqvwkZVys
Paperback, 2019
$19.95$9.98 + Free shipping50% off your first book
On Social Facts
Margaret Gilbert
21. Edna Ullmann-Margalit - The Emergence of Norms 22. Margaret Gilbert - On Social Facts Two books that ingeniously examine the emergence of social norms from the perspective of game theory and conventions. https://t.co/lzuSsXYBLV
Paperback, 1992
$77.00$52.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book(max discount $25)
The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank's The Conquest of Cool is a great cultural history, especially in showing how the ad industry didn't pander to the '60s counterculture but helped *create* it. Hippie-aesthetic advertising predates the hippies. https://t.co/pK60QbwjCM
Paperback, 1998
$23.00$11.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book