Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.)
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4.6 on Amazon
2 HN comments
The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book)
Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray
4.7 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
Anand Giridharadas
4.5 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century
Josh Rogin, Robert Petkoff, et al.
4.5 on Amazon
2 HN comments
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Robert A. Caro
4.7 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Intellectuals and Society
Thomas Sowell
4.9 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Don Quixote: Translated by Edith Grossman
Miguel de Cervantes, George Guidall, et al.
4.6 on Amazon
2 HN comments
HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time
Brad Aronson
4.6 on Amazon
2 HN comments
The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon , Richard Philcox , et al.
4.8 on Amazon
2 HN comments
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
4.7 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work
Matthew B. Crawford
4.3 on Amazon
2 HN comments
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
Mark Fisher
4.7 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military
Matthew Lohmeier
4.7 on Amazon
1 HN comments
The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War
Louis Menand
4.4 on Amazon
1 HN comments
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
Ryan Holiday and Tim Ferriss
4.7 on Amazon
1 HN comments
schoenonMay 7, 2021
The closest to this that the review comes is
> One sentiment repeated with variations throughout the book is “The timing was good” (for the appearance of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951, when Stalin seemed to have taken the place of Hitler).
In context I think the idea is that some people like Arendt may have engaged in sincere journalism and philosophy, which the culture and/or the CIA may then have deployed as part of the Cold War, not that Arendt (at least) was thinking "what could I write that would make me famous and influential right now?".
To modernize this a bit, Ta-nehisi Coates and Jordan Peterson were both developing and expressing their ideas for a long time (decades, I think) in relative obscurity. Then they suddenly became best-sellers in the 2010s, I imagine to a great extent because of cultural and political developments outside of themselves and their work. Both are presumably profiting quite a bit from their success, but I doubt either primarily thought tactically or consciously opportunistically about that.