Yuval's Five Books

A while ago, per Matthew Continetti, you correspondent indulgently drew up a list of ten books that have a profound influence on him. I now discover that the ever-wise and always intriguing Yuval (I've decided that the Wunderkind from Hillsborough no longer needs a last name -- think "Cher" or "Pelé") has been published on the Five Books website, which I'm sure much be difficult for him since he reads five books a day, and limiting himself must be rather nightmarish. Yuval fleshes out his selections in erudite, comprehensive detail, but his conversation with Jonathan Rauch remains accessible.

Yuval's interpretation of Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, and of Hayek generally, is undoubtedly somewhat provocative for some people, though rather spot on. It might have helped his argument if he had supplemented his interpretation with a few quotes from another of Hayek's more polemical works, Why I am Not a Conservative. Yuval only touches on this tangentially, when he points out that Hayek himself described himself as "an Old Whig."

All in all, it is well worth the time to read Yuval's analysis, and he whets the appetite with the books he proposes.