- Podcasts and more at Sage’s Social Science Space.
- Politico has a blog prepping students for the AP Government exam. Hat tip to Daniel Lippman.
- Fascinating look at how well a 1981 climate forecast performed. Via Andy.
- Best book review ever? Hat tip to Brendan Nyhan.
- Fun correlations: Chicago Bulls and the federal budget. Hat tip to Alyx Mark.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
“Best book review ever”?
Ok, it’s not bad. But the prize winner here has to be:
Colin Leys, “Samuel Huntington and the End of Classical Modernization Theory.” In Hamza Alavi and Teodor Shanin (eds.), Sociology of “Developing Societies,” pp. 332-349.
You won’t see a more expert flaying of the theory and evidence behind a still widely cited book then this. After I read it, I quit taking anything Huntington had written after his first book (which isn’t bad) seriously. I’ve never regretted that decision.
That’s a quality review, but my favorite remains Paul Abramson’s evisceration of Courtney Brown’s Cosmic Voyage in the American Journal of Political Science.
JSTOR Stable Link: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2111782
That always bothered me because Brown’s work that’s being ridiculed isn’t political science or, as far as I know, held up to be political science. The episode is disturbingly close to pointing at a scholar and making fun of his unpopular religious beliefs, or because he’s prominent in the SCA, or because he is a furry.
I respect Meier’s and Abramson’s scholarship, but Meier should be embarrassed that he rejected papers that made some actual contribution to the discipline, however narrow, but saw fit to publish what is only a mean-spirited joke, and Abramson should be embarrassed for writing and submitting it. Even if Brown were completely crazy, making fun of his mental problems in a public journal would be about the worst possible response to it.