Sean Turnell's Top Book Recommendations

Bertil LintnerThis is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand today’s Burmese politics. (Source)

Sean TurnellIt’s an extraordinarily inspirational book, as befits someone who has stood up for things and made such immense sacrifices. (Source)

Steve CrawshawFor more than two decades, every conversation in Burma or about Burma has ended up being about Aung San Suu Kyi. (Source)

Sean TurnellIt’s called Colonial Policy and Practice by J S Furnivall. Today it doesn’t pay to praise the British Empire, but it many ways it was an incredibly liberal institution. Many individuals within it were extraordinarily impressive, and upheld the interests of the people they ruled over, very often against London. Furnivall is an absolute classic of this genre. He went out to Burma in the early 20th... (Source)

Sean TurnellThis is very unusual; it’s a numismatic book called The Coins and Banknotes of Burma. It’s written with incredible passion, and I hate to use the label but these guys have qualities that only belong to trainspotter types. I don’t think any academic could match the deep research of the committed amateur. What it does is trace out the history of all the coins and banknotes issued by Burma, going... (Source)

Sean TurnellThis was published in 2001. It’s a very bold book that tells the truth, and cuts through a lot of the mythology that the Burmese like to tell themselves about the situation there, and that we like to tell ourselves. I guess what it’s about is that many of the flaws that led to the current situation go further back simply than 1962. Tucker looks at origins of the independence movement in the... (Source)

John KayHe provides an explanation for why Western Europe was the cradle for modern economic growth and looks at the development of the institutions that made modern economic development possible. (Source)

Diane CoyleThe Wealth And Poverty of Nations is one of several really fantastic economic history books of recent times. (Source)

Sean TurnellIt’s the most erudite examination of what causes economic development and growth that’s been written in many decades. (Source)