#AcademicRunPlaylist - 12/26/25

I had a relaxing few days at home with the family, and while acting as a pillow for this guy I read some books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "Hayek's Bastards" by Quinn Slobodian. This is another great tour through the intellectual tradition of neoliberalism by Slobodian, although unlike in "Globalists" we get much closer to the present day. It's also a profoundly gross, uncomfortable journey, since he traces the evolution of neoliberalism to the modern fascist movements in the US and Europe. A lot of time is spent on the engagement of neoliberals with the modern eugenics movement and a comparatively light jaunt through the gold-worshipping doomsday branch of the movement. Throughout the highlights not only the morally bankrupt and scientifically vapid theorizing of the movement, but also how the conclusions clashed with many of neoliberalism's founding tenets. Highly recommend https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9781890951917/hayeks-bastards

Next was "Liberty's Grid" by Amir Alexander. Alexander reviews the historical forces that led to the widespread default of using grids at different scales of land development in the US. Starting with mathematical and scientific advances in the early 18th century, this book shows how Thomas Jefferson's bizarre fascination with Cartesian coordinates drove him to impose a farm-centric, gridded-vision of development in the American West and urban development. Manhattan's reinvention as a gridded city is enlightening and horrifying, but this history falls a bit short in digging into the political and social currents underlying many of these decisions. Still, if you're interested in why American cities are so distinct from those in the rest of the world and why the Western states are so block-like, this is probably the definitive history on the topic https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo213791857.html

Last was "Corazón de Dixie" by Julie Weise. This is a great look at how Mexicans and Mexican Americans have worked and lived in the US south from 1910. Weise shows how Mexicanos mostly eschewed solidarity with Black Americans during Jim Crow, and the complicated history of the Bracero program and its unique relationship with the Mexican state is endlessly fascinating. There is also some review of more recent decades, documenting how previous acceptance by conservatives gave way to animosity. I would've liked a lot more quantitative support for some of the claims made here, since it's hard to know how much to generalize from the isolated case studies and media reports offered here. Overall, this is a great history on a topic and offers essential insight on a crucial topic for everyone in America. Highly recommend https://uncpress.org/9781469624969/corazon-de-dixie/