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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Arctic regions ... Read more

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Originally published in 1920.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

not "vintage" Leacock, but more than a historical curiosity

I've only known Leacock from his novels (I particularly recommend "Sunshine Sketches" and "Arcadian Adventures", unless you find humour from the 1920s a bit laboured). He was, however, an economist at McGill University in Montreal and so, as an economist myself, I looked forward to reading this book when I came across a used copy.

(Note: I haven't read the University of Toronto's reprint, sold by Amazon, which includes other essays besides the title piece.)

There's one reason not to read this book, and two reasons why you should.

Turning first to the negatives, unless you have a taste for the period in which the book was written, you may be either bored, angered or perplexed with Leacock's concern that socialism not succeed as, apparently, it once threatened to do. Then again, he criticises those who think that social programmes will only help the poor to breed and so condemn us to subsistence at best. Leacock opposes such neo-Malthusian views with a cornucopian stance I associate more often with the work of Julian Simon. I have little sympathy here either with Leacock or with the view he attacks.

Much more worthwhile, however, (indeed, it is critically important) is his criticism of what we might today call mainstream economic models. Yet, in spite of the book's title, the basis of Leacock's position is not an assertion that economic models are in some way oppressive. That's as may be, but his approach is grounded more in logic than in social justice. For example, if prices are based on costs, yet if wages are derived from marginal revenue product (for the non-economist he does explain these terms) then, Leacock suggests, the whole argument is circular.

If you are a heterodox economist this much may strike you as nothing new. What makes Leacock worth reading is the second reason I mentioned above: the pleasure of his style. True, from time to time there are technical terms to deal with, but on the other hand there are passages such as this: "It requires no little hardihood to say that this proposition [a central tenet of economic theory] is a fallacy. It lays one open at once, most illogically, to the charge of being a socialist. In sober truth it might as well lay one open to the charge of being an ornithologist."

To sum up, the heterodox economist today can skip those pages (at times, whole chapters) which relate to controversies of long ago, and enjoy finding his or her views confirmed in a book from the 1920s--and confirmed, moreover, in a generally approachable way. Non-economists might also enjoy this book, but perhaps everyone should begin their reading of Leacock with "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town" or "Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich". Curiously enough, there is more of Leacock's somewhat tory concern with social justice in those novels (subtly in the first, rather more blatantly in the second) than there is in the book I'm reviewing here. ... Read more

Product Description
This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more