Ian Malcolm

Review essay Review

A great review of Gerald Garutti's *Watch Your Words*, a crtitique of our contemporary abuse of language (not least on social media like this).

ethicalspace.pubpub.org/pub/cg4a97lz...

Proofs are in for Glyn Morgan's prescient *Rise and Fall of American Europe*. Books due in late spring. Glyn analyses exactly the political choices that European leaders are now confronting with Trump's aggression over Greenland.

Published today in the UK, Matt Sleat's critique of post-liberalism.

Coming to bookstores in 2026. If you can't wait, the fall of American Europe is, of course, already available in reality.

Andrea Capussela, what have we not learned from the Financial Crisis? — Institute of Intellectual History Political economist Andrea Capussela discusses how a republican conception of freedom and Schumpeter’s idea of ‘creative destruction’ can converge to foster economic reform and innovation.

Andrea Capussela on what we haven't learned from the financial crisis: www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-br...

Postliberals Don’t Understand What’s Wrong With America Frustrated with the state of America, some on the Right have come to embrace postliberalism, an ideology that seeks to invigorate conservative politics by rejecting equality.

Matt McManus at Jacobin reviews Paul Kelly and Matt Sleat on post-liberalism: jacobin.com/2025/12/post...

Not sure of all he has in mind but he notes, e.g, that raising the UK’s pension age by 1 year is more effective in having a lower share of pensioners than tripling net migration. He also notes that demographers show immigration makes the population younger in the short-run yet older in the long-run.

You may be right. But see FT on Alan Manning's new book today: "One [overblown] claim [he challenges] is that rich countries need higher immigration to pay for healthcare & pensions... But migrants too grow old, & other policies — pension reform, say — are far more powerful tools."

Why Immigration Policy Is Hard — a guide to breaking out of the ‘infernal circle’ Economist Alan Manning takes a balanced, sometimes uncomfortable look at the costs, benefits and trade-offs of migration

FT on Alan Manning's new book: "Anyone who thinks they know how rich countries should frame their rules on immigration should read economist Alan Manning’s carefully balanced guide to the complexities of the subject."

www.ft.com/content/9005...

Immigration policy is hard, involving difficult decisions and trade-offs. But, as Alan Manning makes clear, this doesn't mean that we can't do better.

'Why Immigration Policy Is Hard' is an indispensable resource for informed debate on one of the most charged subjects in public life.

If I recall correctly, anxiety about immigration did drop in polls after Brexit but resumed when numbers soared to record highs. And recall that gross immigration = 900,000, so that 1 in 77 people in the country arrived in the year to June 25 (1 in 30 over the past 2 yrs). We're not Fortress UK.

Although, we're having a population boom now so when the immigrants get older they may be like the baby boom generation in numbers, only (I assume) poorer.

I'm puzzled by this thread & the comments as immigration is historically v. high. Even today's stats about a drop in net immigration misses that gross immigration was 900,000 (lots of people left, notably young Brits). So 1 in 77 people in the UK arrived in the year to June 2025. How high can we go?

For those who want to know the economic facts about immigration (neither "side" will like all he has to say), LSE labour economist Alan Manning has a new book out tomorrow.

Out tomorrow, Alan Manning's Why Immigration Policy is Hard.

People need to read [Manning's] work before immigration tears us apart.
-Angus Deaton, Nobel laureate

Fantastic, accessible & wittily written... It has challenged, sharpened & changed my thinking.
-Stephen Bush, FT

The Republic of Innovation: A New Political Economy of Freedom The Republic of Innovation: A New Political Economy of Freedom, True freedom, Capussela writes, arises when no one is subject to another’s will, be that the will of an employer, Big Tech, or the so-ca...

My ‘republic’ is out today: www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...
Grateful to my editor @iannmalcolm.bsky.social @politybooks.bsky.social (and to @brankomilan.bsky.social @glgerstle.bsky.social)
These are the reviews, as good as they are undeserved:
‘This imaginative and illuminating study ...

How did Canada come to exist and how has it remained sovereign despite repeated overtures, some nicer than others, from the south? I'm delighted to say the great Robert Bothwell is writing a book for Polity on the subject. Due to be completed in the spring.

“A fantastic, accessible and wittily written book regardless of where you sit on the issue – if you have an interest in immigration policy you should read it.” Stephen Bush, The Financial Times

Two new books to make sense of postliberalism. @pjthinker.bsky.social; @mattsleat.bsky.social

J.D. Vance calls himself a ‘post-liberal’: here’s what that means for US government J.D. Vance is religious, has conservative views on social issues, but also believes in big government’s power to change society.

Matt Sleat on post-liberalism: J.D. Vance calls himself a ‘post-liberal’: here’s what that means for US government theconversation.com/j-d-vance-ca...

Now available in the US. To help understand what norms Trump is breaking, Kori Schake's history of American civil-military relations.

What Does Donald Trump’s “War from Within” Mean in Practice? The President’s chilling vision of turning American military power inward.

Kori Schake (The State and the Soldier) on The New Yorker's Political Scene. On Trump's domestic use of the military. podcast.https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/what-does-donald-trumps-war-from-within-mean-in-practice

Mentioned by Tim Harford in the FT today, Alan Manning's forthcoming Why Immigration Policy Is Hard.

Out later this month from Paul Kelly at the LSE.

Never before has humanity done so much talking. But is anyone listening?

Cambridge visitors and locals, don't miss Gérald Garutti, author of 'Watch Your Words'

Wednesday, October 8 · 6 - 7pm GMT+1

At Heffers Bookshop @heffers.bsky.social

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/watch-your...

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/watch-your...

I recall a sense of disorientation on visiting the Resolution Foundation. Dedicated to the British poor but oozing money and decorated principally with paintings of the Soviet military. It felt very far from Blackpool.

He's wrong about Ireland. But it's odd that a person in a country powerless to stop the war thinks it’s helpful and important to donate to an organisation committing sabotage in a foreign country only marginally less powerless. There's something knee-jerk about it.

Self-Censorship, With Glenn Loury On this episode of American Prestige.

Glenn Loury on The Nation podcast, talking about self-censorship:

www.thenation.com/podcast/soci...

Thanks again. We're just making different points.