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Title: Not enough economics for someone interested in economics; not captivating enough for anyone
Review: As a fan of the economic focus on institutions, I was excited to read one of Douglass North's books. North is the founder of this school, it would seem, and won a Nobel for it.Unfortunately, North's book hasn't enough mathematics to satisfy those with a quantitative bent, nor enough elegance to captivate anyone. I had to put it down after 80 pages (of 140 or so). I haven't felt like precious moments of my life were being lost so viciously since I last hurled Cryptonomicon across the room. I'm told that I should read North's papers rather than his books; this seems wise.If you want to read books that refocus economics on institutions, I'd strongly suggest starting with Bowles's "Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution." It's the best synthesis of the subject that I've seen, bringing in threads from evolutionary game theory and probably every major economist from the last 75 years.
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