WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 73Review_NONFICTION
animist world”), the appreciation for the
beauty of silence (“Zen is what remains
when words and ideas run out”), and how
the Japanese pursuit of perfection can
make it “wonderfully welcoming” to out-
siders but also “unyieldingly inhospi-
table, deep down.” Provocative and ele-
gant, Iyer’s guide succeeds precisely
because it doesn’t attempt to be authori-
tative. (Sept.)
★ The Bourbon King:
The Life and Crimes of George
Remus, Prohibition’s Evil Genius
Bob Batchelor. Diversion, $27.99 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-63576-586-1
The roaring ’20s glisten with vice and
danger in this fast-paced portrait of pro-
lific bootlegger George Remus, from
biographer Batchelor (Stan Lee: The Man
Behind Marvel). The son of German
immigrants, Remus (1874–1952) quit
school to support the family as a pharma-
cist, then became a criminal defense
attorney notorious for his dramatic
courtroom tactics and defense of the
“elite of crime” in Chicago. In the 1920s,
Remus moved to Cincinnati and, using
his knowledge of the medical industry
and the loophole allowing whiskey to be
distributed for medicinal purposes,
worked his way into a near monopoly on
the Kentucky bourbon trade in the
Midwest with expansions along the East
Coast. He divorced one wife, married
another, made vast sums of money,
bribed officials in the attorney general’s
office, was arrested for violations of theVolstead Act, got convicted, and served
two years in prison—during which time
his second wife fell in love with a high-
ranking Prohibition agent, and the two
of them spent and lost most of Remus’s
millions. Remus shot her dead, defended
himself in court, and was acquitted by
reason of insanity. Batchelor’s action-
packed narrative both entertains and
informs with its tales of the corruption
of President Warren G. Harding’s
attorney general, the bootlegging trade,
and the public’s oscillating views of
Remus and Prohibition in general.
Larger-than-life characters take the reins
of this story, a rip-roaring good time for
any American history buff or true-crime
fan. (Sept.)★ The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free
Markets, and the Fracture of Society
Binyamin Appelbaum. Little, Brown, $40 (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-51232-9
New York Times correspondent Appelbaum, who won a
George Polk Award for his subprime lending reporting,
intelligently chronicles the unprecedented influence of
economists on public policy during what he dubs “the
economists’ hour,” roughly from 1969 to- He recounts how economists in the
U.S. rose from laboring in obscurity in
Quonset huts on the National Mall to
occupying such lofty roles as secretary of
the treasury and chair of the Federal
Reserve. Appelbaum is sharply skeptical
of the reputed alchemical powers of econ-
omists to engineer prosperity, particularly
those (Milton Friedman; Alan Greenspan) whose blind
adherence to free market principles, he argues, fostered the
Great Recession and significant income inequality. He notes
that countries that consulted economic theory, but then
accorded management of the economy to engineers (as in
Taiwan) or the state (as with China) have performed better eco-
nomically than the U.S. with its policy of minimal government
intervention in markets. He also examines the deleterious
effects of the unfettered free market philosophy upon health
and safety regulations, regulation of industries, and antitrust
litigation, concluding that blind reliance on free markets has
led to an ossifying plutocratic minority. This thoroughly
researched, comprehensive, and critical account of the economic
philosophies that have reigned for the past half century
powerfully indicts them. (Sept.)
★ Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the
Decline of the American Dream
Nicholas Lemann. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-
374-27788-8
New Yorker staff writer Lemann (The Promised Land)
describes the evolution of American corporate culture in
this excellent and unusually framed economic history. Lemann
describes how the American worker once
dedicated his or her life to a single company,
receiving generous benefits, career-long
job security, and a pension, whereas the
transaction man labors at the mercy of
corporate shareholders who may sell,
break up, or merge a company to maximize
share price. Lemann attributes this change
to the work of economists Milton Friedman,
who believed the sole function of corporations was to maximize
profits for shareholders, and Michael Jensen, who justified
rapacious junk bond trading, hostile takeovers, and debt-
leveraged buyouts. Lemann also depicts this transformation
of the American economy at the micro level through its effect
on one neighborhood, Chicago Lawn, which saw the disas-
trous dissolution of its auto dealerships after General Motors’
bankruptcy. He thoughtfully links income inequality to the
transactional theories of the corporation and looks ahead to a
possible future model for “pluralism,” wherein political and
economic power is diffuse and distributed, rather than held
in “institutions, transactions, or networks.” This concise and
cogent history of the theories that have transformed the
American economy makes a potentially dry subject fascinating.
(Sept.)Right on the Money
September brings two outstanding 20th-century American economic histories.