Monday, November 27, 2006

*Modern Mongolia* by Morris Rossabi


A review by Andy Morriss of Morris Rossabi's book Modern Mongolia:

http://stmaximoshut.powerblogs.com/posts/1157293075.shtml

"It's a well-written and well-researched book, with lots of fascinating details about a fascinating country. It is also an incredibly frustrating book, as Rossabi has only a loose grasp of economics...

"Rossabi makes two crucial errors. First, he thinks economics is just a point of view, using quote marks around economic terms to emphasize that they aren't really definitional. Second, he buys an excessively romantic notion of primitive communism among nomads, without asking (at least through this chapter) whether the pre-Communist nomadic civilization included institutions that were destroyed by the Communists and which take time to recreate."

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