Popularity and the Taboo.

Courtenay Bayly

Literature and Controversy

27th April 2016

Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Controversy of the Unsaid

Religion, sex, politics or money

Taboos are “prohibitions … that cultures place around a whole range of possible phenomena” (Jenks 2003, p.45).

“The laws of conversation” (Miller 2006, p.74).

However, “what is forbidden … carries with it a propulsion to desire in equal measure” (Jenks 2003, p.45).

Audience“an economics blockbuster and a ‘must read’ to the young

progressive intelligentsia” (Fonesca 2014)

“Specific books … giv[e] direction and purpose to one’s life” (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-

Halton 1981, p.70)

Pre-Release

“The year’s most popular and controversial book.”—Roland White, The Sunday Times

“Despite the controversies surrounding it, the book throws much light upon one of the most important questions in economics: what determines the distribution of income and wealth” – Martin Wolf, The Financial Times

“According to Piketty, the only real corrective to capital’s concentrationis a global capital tax (because it is freely globally mobile), and a stiffinheritance tax. This is controversial, but what is not disputed is thatinequality in income and wealth within each country has gotten muchworse in the past three decades. The question is what do we do aboutit. For starters, we should read this excellent book.”—Ajit Ranade,Business Today

Reception

“the early reviews of Capital in the Twenty-First Century roughly fall into four main groupings – critics who come at Piketty from the right, critics who come at Piketty from the left, reviewers who mainly praise the book, and reviewers who have clearly not read the book” (Pressman 2016, p.56)

(Photograph: Chloe Cushman for The Guardian, cited Moore 2014)

The Daily Mail

The Guardian

Unread

“Books [are] a status symbol” (Roemer 2008, p.92) and can be a tool in the performance of the “self-confirming definition of ‘intellectual’” (Williams 1981, p.222).

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - 98.5%

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking - 6.6%

Capital in the Twenty-First Century - 2.4%

“To be popular … with the right cohorts”

“All citizens should take a serious interest in money, its measurements, the facts surrounding

it, and its history. Those who have a lot of it never fail to defend their interests. Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interest of

the least well-off” (Piketty, 2014)

References available on hand-out.

Thank you.

Any Questions?