Paul Krugman's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Paul Krugman recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Paul Krugman's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

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Essays in Persuasion (1932)

John Maynard Keynes

4.1

This reissue of the authoritative Royal Economic Society edition of Essays in Persuasion features a new introduction by Donald Moggridge, which discusses the significance of this definitive work. The essays in this volume show Keynes' attempts to influence the course of events by public persuasion over the period of 1919-40.

Recommended by Warren Buffett, John Quiggin, Paul Krugman, and 1 others.

Paul Krugman

This [source]

Warren Buffett

CEO/Berkshire Hathaway

Reading Keynes will make you smarter about securities and markets, I'm not sure reading most economists would do the same. [source]

John Quiggin

Keynes was writing in 1930 or so, a time of deep depression, so it’s impressive he could have such an optimistic view of the potential for the future. [source]

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

John Maynard Keynes

4.0

Distinguished British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) set off a series of movements that drastically altered the ways in which economists view the world. In his most important work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936), Keynes critiqued the laissez-faire policies of his day, particularly the proposition that a normally functioning market economy would bring full e

Recommended by Eric Weinstein, Mark Blyth, and Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman

It is a difficult book, because it’s the first book that tries to figure this stuff out. You don’t teach Keynesian economics from Keynes anymore. Keynes was actually working on The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money before the Great Depression, but, obviously, the Great Depression gave it urgency. It’s a first stab – it’s one hell of a first stab – but because it is a first stab, it’s got all the awkwardnesses that go with that. He goes off on tangents that seemed important to him at the time, but don’t seem so important now. It’s not an easy read. [source]

Eric Weinstein

Managing Director/Thiel Capital

Folks frequently ask “What are the books that changed your life?” If I tell them, they are usually radically disappointed. I find that curious. I just cleared out of an office, and these are books that mattered enough to me to bring home. So here they are. [source]

Mark Blyth

This is an incredibly important book because it shows us that Adam Smith was only right in a special case. [source]

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume

4.1

A landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh, Hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme skepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature, which anticipate

Recommended by Paul Krugman and Simon Blackburn.

Paul Krugman

This [source]

Simon Blackburn

Hume thought that overconfidence and dogmatism led to intolerance, to faction, to a lot of the crimes of human history. [source]

Foundation/Foundation and Empire/Second Foundation

Isaac Asimov, Michael Dirda

4.4

Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation trilogy—one of the cornerstones of modern speculative fiction—in a single hardcover volume.

It is the saga of the Galactic Empire, crumbling after twelve thousand years of rule. And it is the particular story of psychohistorian Hari Seldon, the only man who can see the horrors the future has in store—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and violence that will last f

Recommended by Orson Scott Card and Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman

This [source]

Orson Scott Card

Author

Isaac Asimov wrote many good books, but this is the one that stands as his finest, and the one that most rewards periodic rereading. [source]

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Essays in Economics, Volume 1: Volume 1: Macroeconomics

James Tobin

4.8

These 28 essays, covering Tobin's work in macroeconomics from the early 1940s to 1970 are grouped into three parts - macroeconomic theory, economic growth, and money and finance.

In a period marked by revisionism in economic theory and retrenchment in the public goals of economic policy, Tobin remains committed to the standard he has upheld throughout his professional life. He is an eclectic Keynes

Recommended by Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman

I took introductory economics with Jim Tobin. He was a great economist and I learned an enormous amount from him, though he isn’t very fashionable these days. This is a collection of his best papers, which I read, admittedly a long, long time ago. But when I go back to it, I realise how much I’ve internalised Tobin’s approach. Some way into this crisis I realised how much I was relying on his way of thinking about how financial markets work. It was an approach that was pragmatic and yet model-based. [source]