Episode · EconTalk · 2025-01-06
Russ Roberts & Adam Kirsch: books mentioned on EconTalk
Understanding the Settler Colonialism Movement (with Adam Kirsch)
Under settler colonialism, you're either a settler or indigenous and the sin of the founding of America, Australia, and Israel, for example, is not just a past injustice but a perpetuating mistake that explains the present.
Russ Roberts recommended Question 7 by Richard Flanagan, and discussed On Settler Colonialism by Adam Kirsch. Adam Kirsch discussed Utopia by Thomas More.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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On Settler Colonialism
On Settler Colonialism by Adam Kirsch offers a concise and historically grounded examination of the settler colonialism movement.
Discussed“what I like about Adam's book is it it's it's very calm I'll just say he does not uh he appears to have done a great deal of reading uh he doesn't do any yelling there's no yelling in the book which I really appreciate”
Where to get it
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Utopia
Utopia by Thomas More is a foundational 1516 satirical and philosophical work that famously coined the term utopia and describes an imaginary island society.
Discussed“Thomas mois Utopia which gave us the word Utopia uh was written in 1516 I believe so about 25 years after Columbus and it set on an un newly discovered Island in South America uh where Europeans discover this perfect Society”
Where to get it
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Question 7
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan is an acclaimed memoir that intertwines personal history with broader historical reflections.
Recommended“I want to put a plug in for a book uh that's only tangentially related but I just read question seven by Richard Flanigan which is a memoir it's an extraordinary book”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (6) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“his latest book published this year and our topic for today on settler colonialism ideology violence and Justice”
“one of the things I say in the book is that it's it's sort of uh significant that when activists and theorist talk about”
“I get into this a little bit towards the end of the book of saying we are we've inherited this sinful past and we sort of want to atone for it and redeem it”
“one of the things I get into in the book is that people who are actual historians of Native America uh you know who speak the languages and have have studied the the records and the the arch and the you know whatever there is to study are have very mixed feelings about the idea of settler colonialism”
“I say um in the book that it's a there's an odd similarity with um Evangelical Christianity”
“I quote in the in the book people writing about how Canadians introducing themselves even personally as settlers in in real life”