Books by Graham Allison
“This I chose as a very good example of interpretive international relations. It starts from the classic realist assumption in international relations: national interest is everything. Nations do what they do because it’s in their national interest to do so, rationally understood. And Allison offers alternative accounts to that, not to the exclusion of it, but to supplement it. What makes it a really neat book is that it focuses on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. US spy planes flying over Cuba discovered tell-tale signatures of Russian missile sites under construction, and just about finished at this point. Cuba is very close to the US. Any missile fire from Cuba would reach anywhere in the eastern half of the US within a matter of minutes, cutting down response time in Washington, which was strategically not good. The US couldn’t allow them to stay – but it was really tricky figuring out how to get rid of them, which involved trying to figure out what the Russians were up to. It was a dangerous time. President Kennedy thought at the time that there was a fifty-fifty chance of it all ending in nuclear war. So the case was of more than just academic interest.” Read more...
The Best Political Science Books
Robert E. Goodin, Political Scientist
“The last 70 years are a fairly unusual state. We don’t really know why they’ve been so unusually peaceful. This could all change in the 21st century.” Read more...
The best books on Effective Altruism
Will MacAskill, Nonprofit Leaders & Activist
Interviews where books by Graham Allison were recommended
The best books on Effective Altruism, recommended by Will MacAskill
Should you feel responsible for helping the world become better? And if so, how should you use your time, money, and career to have the biggest possible impact? These are the questions addressed by the effective altruism movement. One of its leading figures, Will MacAskill, recommends the best books to answer them.
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1
The American Voter
by Angus Campbell et al. -
2
The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
by Mancur Olson -
3
Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Graham Allison & Philip Zelikow -
4
Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
by James C Scott -
5
Deliberation Naturalized: Improving Real Existing Deliberative Democracy
by Ana Tanasoca
The Best Political Science Books, recommended by Robert E. Goodin
The Best Political Science Books, recommended by Robert E. Goodin
Emerging in the middle of the last century, political science combines data and theory to help us understand the political world. Professor Robert E. Goodin, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science and co-editor of The British Journal of Political Science, introduces five seminal works from major sub-disciplines. His choices are accessible starting points that open up new ways of thinking: from big data to deep case studies, these are five books that will help you to make sense of the world – and to change it.
