As readers of Samizdata may know from my previous articles, I do not think highly of British bookshops and recent visits have reminded me why. John Adamson (of Peterhouse Cambridge) has had a new book published called The Noble Revolt – it is an important work arguing the case that the resistance to Charles the first was mostly organized by great lords. Adamson’s work has been widely discussed, not just in academic journals but in popular magazines. So I visited a few books shops to have a look for it.
Borders – not there.
Waterstones – not there.
W.H. Smith (which owns Waterstones I believe) – not there.
History books sell well in Britain and this was an important new book – and it was not in the shops. “You could order it” – if I am going to order the book why should I not just buy it over the internet, where it would be cheaper anyway? So what new books did the bookshops have?
Almost needless to say there were three new death-to-America books.
One by Chomsky, one by Pilger and one by Mark Thomas.
I could not miss them – they were shoved in the most prominent places in the stores (sometimes side by side in a sort of unholy Trinity). The Thomas book ended up with him denouncing Radstone technology (a company I used to guard) for selling electronics to the evil Americans which they use in their unmanned Predator aircraft.
Mr Thomas boasted that the evil Americans had failed to kill a prominent terrorist (something he described as an attempted “extra judicial killing” – something which non-scumbags call “killing the enemy in time of war”), but had killed women and children (the fact that other terrorists had been killed in the attack was something he did not mention – no doubt because the death of comrades upset him too much). I could not bring myself to look at the new Chomsky and Pilger books – but if they are any different from the death-to-America stuff they have written a hundred times before I am six feet tall and have a full head of hair.
So there we have it. An important history book that would likely sell well is nowhere to be found (so people who pop in to book shops will not see and and therefore will not buy it) and another three books coming out with the same death-to-America stuff that their authors have written a hundred times before are displayed as if they were wonderful new works. I am told that the British bookshop enterprises are getting into financial trouble and they may eventually go bust.
Well, the sooner the better
And that is the great thing… if they cannot satisfy their market, they will go bust, unlike the state. Other than specialist Motorbooks, I never actually go to bookshops any more, I just order what I want on-line.
I really believe that it’s just supply and demand.
Students (generally left-wing) read books like this. People who are more right-wing (and middle aged) prefer their politics more entertaining (PJ O’Rourke/Clarkson).
Having a peripheral connection to the trade, a couple of comments:
1. a correction, – Smiths do not own Waterstones, HMV do (and now Ottakars too).
2. sadly, I’ve also found the same tendency to give prominence to left wing authors in most bookshops in the USA (not to mention Borders, cartoons etc.)
3 (And not a little OT), for me, right now, this pales into insignifigance when compared to the BBC’s refusal to let me suggest that the institutional bias of their coverage of the current Middle East situation against Israel was related to the number of people in their higher echelons with debts to CPGB.
Store owners offer merchandise that sells.
You remark tells not about book stores but about British society in general.
I think Tim has it about right. I have written on this issue before. You can walk up to the politics section of a bookshop and it is crammed with stuff by Chomsky, Michael Moore, Pilger, and all the other dreary rubbish. Bernard Lewis and a few other decent writers are in stock.
With history, I have tended to be more pleased by the balance. In the Books Etc store near my offices in Canary Wharf there is a pretty good collection. The big shop in Gower Street in Bloomsbury is still very good. If you are in my native East Anglia, there seem to be lots of good bookstores in Norwich.
Like Perry, I buy 90 pct of my stuff online, particularly if I want some of the more obscure American stuff.
Paul…I hear mate. Bookshops are not as capitalist as some here believe. They have an agenda…
Don’t be surprised: in Spain we have exactly the same situation -maybe, even worse.
Oh, and if you saw the bookshops over here, you’d think Borders is the closest you could get to Paradise.
I suppose its the problem of living in a country that doesn’t give a damn about History. Theirs, or anyone’s. But if it’s a death-to-America book… boy, is that going to sell!
As one with a long-time connection with the trade, I’m inclined to agree with Jacob. There’s no reason, Paul, for booksellers to organise their business about the eccentric, rather academic, tastes of a Samizdatista.
I’d note that British provincial bookshops are infinitely better than they were before Tim Waterstone took a hand, but not nearly as good as when he was in his pomp. Like other media industries publishing has become more hit-driven, and if you want speciality books you have to go to speciality shops. Of which there are a number in London because the local market can support them (it even managed to sustain The Alternative Bookshop, recall) but are very thinly scattered elsewhere because the customers are.
The year before Bush senior was turned out of office here the US, I was struck by the same phenomena. The major bookstores carried virtually no books which could be considered supportive of the Bush administration, but were overflowing with books antagonistic to same. I also put it down to right wing reading habits, but immediately after Clinton was elected, the conservative authors suddenly made a full and mysterious comeback. This hasn’t been repeated since, likely because they know that conservatives and libertarians who read will simply go to Amazon.
You’re more likely seeing a selection effect caused by the people who manage the book shop rather than the people buying.
You get a similar situation with Science Fiction books, especially in Waterstones (which I try to avoid after what they did to the Blogger in Edinburgh). If it troubles you, buy online.
An interesting assortment of anecdotal experiences, but that is all that they are.
As to buying books, well, I order mine and have them delivered. Or I go to the large university down the way and I check them out of the library.
I once asked a Waterstone’s staff member why all the book titles on politics etc were from left wing writers and academics.After pausing for a second she replied (I think now rather sageley) ‘well perhaps Conservatives don’t feel the need to write books’.
Eureka.Why state the bleedin obvious? Whereas the left in order to prove that one and one equals three have a lot of writing to do…
Radstone had guards??? When?
Left-wing authors sell better because the get more press, the get more press because they’re more sensationalist. There is not much of a story in stating economic and rationalist idealogies – compare the coverage Mike Moore gets compared to O’Rourke. Bookstores stock the books theat sell – just like stall owners in Camden stock Che Guevera t-shirts. There is no socialist-bookstore conspiracy.
Libertarianism may have all the answers, but it sure does have an image problem.
I guarded (a few times) the old Radstone buildings in Towcester. I was covering for the regular people (sickness cover and so on) in the days I worked for Chubb Security.
Sadly I was there when Radstone moved to their new buildings (a modern office block type thing). In my experience good companies operate out of old buildings – where there is (for example) plenty of fresh air and no need to have the lights on during the day.
I believe the man who built up Radstone was retireing and standard hired manager types were taking over.
I apologize for my error about Waterstones.
As for what Guy Herbert said.
Try reading what I wrote again Guy.
I was not talking about some text of Austrian school economics or libertarian political philosophy (not that these might not sell if they got one tenth of the boosting that the leftist books get).
My example was John Adamson’s “The Nobel Revolt” – an important new book on a popular subject (i.e. one with the potential to sell very well) that had been discussed not just in academic journals but also in popular magazines.
Interesting book, popular subject, lots of exposure in the press – and NOT ON THE SHELVES Guy. It should have been in the front of the stores as a new book – but it was not even in the history sections.
Face the truth Guy, this is not about sales.
Ever heard of the “passing trade” – people who come into book shops to have a look at what is there?
How are they going to buy a book that is not even on the shelves? And when a decent book is on the shelves the book stores hardly ever plug it (the only half decent book I have seen plugged recently was “Mao: The Untold Story” [although this book seems to blame all the horror of Red China on Mao as a person rather than on socialism in general] – and that was an advertising campaign in railway stations, not in the book stores).
And why shove the same old crap in the most prominent parts of the store?
Even people who agree with Chomsky, Pilger, Thomas (and so on) must be bored with the same stuff being presented as if it was a new book every year.
How can a business that only seeks to serve leftists (indeed only that subset of leftists who are not capable of getting bored) hope to prosper in the long term?
I have never been accused of having a kindly view of my fellow human beings, but I refuse to believe that even the British are only interested in buying crap.
It is as if a grocer said “I do not sell many apples” when he did not have any apples on display in his shop (or they were hidden under boxes somewhere at the back, and covered in dirt) “well my customers could order apples if they really wanted them”.
The British book trade is a pile of shit and you know it.
As I said, the sooner these shops go bust the better.
How can a business that only seeks to serve leftists (indeed only that subset of leftists who are not capable of getting bored) hope to prosper in the long term?
Of course it doesn’t. It doesn’t really care about politics. I suspect all the sales of the books you describe as “leftist” are a small fraction of the bread and butter business that they’re really interested in. Selling fringe interest books to fringe interest people isn’t a business plan for a book chain. A small independant could make a name at it, but in reality your Waterstones manager is going to worry far more about the numbers of Browns, Pratchetts and Rowlings on the shelves than any others.
They’ll jump on the odd bandwagon, or a book who has a publisher willing to push it such as your Railway Station adverts.
Passing trade is, on average, going to buy a book by Terry or some of the 100,000+ a year writers before they buy a history book which is probably going to end up remaindered and in the Remaindered Book dealer down the High Street, tucked away behind the dodgy old VHS tapes and the art supplies.
Like all high street endavours book selling caters crap to the masses, like McDonalds and all the other rubbish that clutter our high streets.
I refuse to believe that even the British are only interested in buying crap.
Not only do I believe it, but I think the evidence pretty much points to this as a historical trait by us Brits.
We drink crap coffee by the bucket, we have built and bought crap cars at outrageous prices, we go on crap holidays to dreadful destinations. It’s enough to make one want to move…. oh… I am. Never mind then.
Even people who agree with Chomsky, Pilger, Thomas (and so on) must be bored with the same stuff being presented as if it was a new book every year.
Yup. Pilger for one has been plowing the same furrow since the Vietnam War.
Didn’t Lenin say something about people believing you if you just kept repeating the same message.
I find it hilarious that people are getting upset with the ‘market’ on THIS website.
Maybe we should bring in some laws to force the book sellers to have a more balanced book list, what do you think samizdatas !!
Although i would agree that sometimes when i walk in to Borders ‘history’ just seems to mean miltary history (basically the Nazis and the Romans)
but as you all seem to know round here the market knows best! 😉
Nick M is quite right.
Daveon may well be right about many things – but I do not he is right about everything here.
For example history is hardly a “fringe” interest in Britain – history programmes (often presented by able historians) are a staple of British television, and history books (about popular periods – such as the Civil War of the 1640’s) are popular to.
I accept that it may well not alaways be politics – in that I do not think that the book shop people are thinking “Adamson is undermining the idea that the Civil War was about class conflict – therefore we will suppress the book” (after all academics have not argued that the Civil War was about class conflict for decades – Adamson is in fact attacking the idea that resistance to Charles was mostly based on religion rather than political ideas).
It is much more likely that they are just no good at their job – the job of finding books that might sell and promoting them.
As for Dan Brown – yes I accept that I do not understand why his books are so popular (almost five million copies of his “Code” book sold in Britain alone) -as his language and story telling skills seem to be about on a par with mine (and I am dyslexic).
However, (for example) Tolkien’s books are well written (even people who hate fantasy works should admit his grasp of the English language and his ability to tell a story are good) – and his works have been selling well for almost 70 years (“The Hobbit” came out in 1937 and is still going strong).
If children can read, understand and enjoy three volume works like the “Lord of the Rings” (and they do) then the book trade is not (in theory) a matter of selling of crap to scum.
There are (even today) a great many nonscum out there – but the book trade does not seem to be interested in them.
As for Dan Brown (and so on) whether their success is due to being plugged hard (which I suspect) or whether there is value in these works that I miss, I do not know.
Supermarkets carry such books – and (if they are popular) serious book shops must carry them to. I do not object to that.
What I object to is the vast effort made to plug leftist books. Chomsky and co are not simple writers – it is not a question of their books selling to people who can not read very well.
To sell, these books have to be plugged and plugged – and they are. Even though it is really the same book “death-to-America” being written over and over again.
Right in the front of the stores – Chomsky and co.
“We Recommend” – Chomsky and co.
This is nothing to do with finding what sells and selling it.
Something quite different is going on.
Sadly I was there when Radstone moved to their new buildings (a modern office block type thing).
The old building was an absolute dump to work in, however. The new one is way after my time, but not being able to nip across the road to get coffee & doughnuts from Asda must have been a blow. Of course, there was always the added frisson of the threat of disciplinary action should we venture out of the building during working hours…
Oops, wrong quote tags.
Paul, the key issue is that with a few exceptions the bookshops and the chains themselves don’t do the plugging of the books. A campaign, such as the one you describe at stations is almost certainly the work of a publisher.
The publishers also have sales teams who make sure their produce is well displayed and cut deals with the shops. The retail market is pretty well serviced across many platforms in that regard.
A similar situation happened in SF last year with Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel, a book I can’t even read, and yet which sold by the bucket and had, at publishing, a 7 figure marketing budget. Personally I think it was without merit and for the SF Hugo award the best book Ian MacDonalds amazing River of Gods (about India at it’s centential) was pipped by a jugernaut of a publishing effort.
But, having said all that, this is, as somebody else mentioned, the market in action. I don’t think the book chains are in any immediate danger. My recommendation to anybody who wants a particular book: buy it online, ideally second hand (a great Amazon service)
Paul, while this is an entertaining subject. Could I ask a quick question – where did you get your data on the book from and did you double check it?
I ask because you piqued my interest and I checked on Amazon. They show the publication date for the hardcover as July 2005 and the paperback not being due until mid August 2007.
It would certainly explain why the book is not on the shelves.
Alex,
As I always seem to end up saying on these threads – no one suggested passing laws to force the bookshops to have better “balance.”
To support the free market on philosophical grounds does not necessarily mean that you like the results in every case.
Here is a parallel: most people in the UK support democracy on philosophical grounds. That does not necessarily mean that they like the results of elections in every case.
“‘well perhaps Conservatives don’t feel the need to write books’.”
Actually we try to get published but the left-wing wankers who inhabit publishing houses refuse to publish anything that does not fit into their little worldview.
I mean have you ever tried to get a Eurosceptic series of novels published? I have and no one would touch it because of its “political” content. (It was pretty libertarian as well…naturally.)
I mean have you ever tried to get a Eurosceptic series of novels published?
No, but Peter F Hamilton has managed it many times.
Daveon.
I quite agree that the railway station campaign for “Mao: The Untold Story” was not by the book stores (although I must confess some of them have promoted it a bit).
Your point about the publishers of leftist books making deals with the book stores about where the books are put and how they are plugged is well taken – however why do the publishers not do that with non leftist books?
On the publication point.
We are dealing with two different books here.
Adamson on the run up to the war (“The Noble Revolt”) and Adamson on the war itself (which is supposed to be out next year).
If the hardback of “The Noble Revolt” has been out since 2005 why is it not in the bookstores?
I know transport links are slow – but how can it take a year to get from the printers to the stores?
I think you will find that “2005” means “2006” (although the thing was actually ready back in 2004, but that is another story).
The review copies were out ages ago.
I say again, why is the book not on the shelves?
Nor is this an isolated case.
Whether it is book stores, publishers or both it is the British book trade being its usual shit self.
why do the publishers not do that with non leftist books
Shrug. I have no idea. If we discount the mass conspiracy and look at it commercially, I suspect that they feel there is less of a market for them. There are “pop” right wing books in the bookshops I browse in, but they tend to be of the “Bill O’Reilly” level of intellectual discourse. As another commentator has pointed out, there are probably differences in reading patterns.
If the hardback of “The Noble Revolt” has been out since 2005 why is it not in the bookstores?
According to Amazon it was around 32,000 on their best sellers list. Frankly, I’d be surprised if the hardback is in any mainstream store if that’s the sales. You’d be better off trying the remaindered bookshops, which is, sadly, the end for most books. Its a rare author of anything who can escape them.
The nice thing about the Internet is it is effectively infinite, shops are not and they do churn stock to make way for better selling lines. This is the market in action. I used to have huge rows with my father on this topic who felt that shops were duty bound to forever hold spares for everything they have sold over the last 20 years. That’s anathema to the market economy which we have; at least in my opinion.
The British book trade is certainly poor. I know many authors, very few of whom, even off “reasonable” sales can afford to be without a day job.
The magazine reviews were for July this year Daveon – not July last year.
So the nails that.
Nothing to do with poor sales.
Or are you saying that someone could have got the book from Amazon last year (before it was even reviewed)?
Of course the book was promised a long time ago – but it was not available for sale.
As a matter of fact there seems to be a problem on Amazon even now – I got a “will take weeks to arrive” from them.
Overall (leaving aside the question of this one book) I just do not agree that this a matter of commercial judgment.
Publishers and bookshop people are not calculating machines – they have opinions the same as anyone else. “Economic man” is actually a sterotype invented by Dickens and others – real free market economists have never argued that such people are common (if they exist at all). Utility is not just another word for money.
Sure, in the end, plugging crap books may not make commercial sense – but I do not think they can get themselves into a different “mind set”.
They promote the type of books they have promoted for many years, and do not really see that their enterprises are gradually shrinking. They appeal to a narrow group of people (and they must be boring even them) and just ignore other people.
The New York times has seen a large decline in its stock price in recent years. This could be because readers are increasingly tired of reading the same old rants by herbert and dowd and/or because it is now mostly free on the internet. The internet has spawned a huge amount of competition in the form of blogs like this one for news. I suspect the decline is a combination of both. Likewise for the booksellers who now have to compete with internet retailers. I almost never buy a book in a bookstore anymore and I refuse to pay $1 for a print edition of the times when the NY Post is 25 cents and doesn’t have idiots like Herbert, Dowd, and Krugman polluting the op ed pages.
JB makes a good point.
I had heard that the New York Times had falling sales.
But I had not heard that the stock price was going down (I had thought that the corporate adverts would keep the stinking rag going).
Let us hope that the “mainstream” (i.e. leftist) media continues to decline.
Or are you saying that someone could have got the book from Amazon last year (before it was even reviewed)?
That’s what Amazon says – although the publishers, Orion, have the book listed for November publication.
Either way, it is not currently in print and not available. Amazon are showing a 4-6 week delay.
Are bookshops sinking? I’m pretty sure they are having a bouyant time at the moment, there are certainly more, and better of them, than when I was growing up.
Small bookstores are having a hard time in the US, but the big chain bookstores aren’t–Borders and Barnes and Noble, for example, are found everywhere and they are large, and they have Starbucks in them, a place to sit and read and drink coffee, fancy gifts and stationery, etc. The book selection is broad, deeper than one would expect, but mass market oriented nonetheless. The weird books I am looking for are often not in these emporiums of popularity.
Tip for US shoppers who pinch their pennies until Abraham Lincoln screams:
– get the ISBN number for the book you want, from Amazon or elsewhere.
– go to http://www.gettextbooks.com and plug in the ISBN.
– that site surveys many other sites (new and used) and returns results ordered by total price including shipping.
– my college’s nursing students turned me on to this, because their textbooks were outrageously expensive
– I have since discovered that it can search for other books than just textbooks.
– if buying used, read the seller’s comments about condition carefully.
Heh. This reminds me of working in a large, general-interest bookstore in the US during the Clinton-era. You could have made the same complaint, except then you’d have been talking about Rush Limbaugh books crowding out the quality reading.
As to why shops stock a lot of Moore/Pilger/Chomsky and why they keep writing more or less the same book….according to an article I read last year (can’t find it now), a lot of Americans who buy these sorts of books (Moore, Coulter, Limbaugh, Franken, etc) don’t actually read them. Sometimes they are buying gifts, sometimes they never get around to it, sometimes they never intend to. Often, reading the book (or finishing it) is secondary to owning the book, because owning it says something about the owner (to the owner, and to people who observe the owner owning the book). It doesn’t strain my imagination to suggest that there’s a significant portion of the British book-buying public that feels (and buys) the same way, but that they’re mostly or all from one place on the political spectrum.
A lot of serious non-fiction books don’t sell nearly as well as you’d think. A shop might get 2-5 of the big history/biography/science/theology book of the quarter, sell them, and then never restock them.
The reviews said publication July 2006.
However, Davion may be right (the publishers may just have messed everything up).
By the way it was me who said there was a X week wait for the book from Amazon. As for “data” – I did not give any numbers for “The Noble Revolt” – my numbers on sales were for Dan Brown’s “Code” book.
Almost five million copies sold (in Britain alone) according to the “Sunday Telegraph”.
No I do not understand it either.
But I hope you will agree this is not really about one book. This is a general thing.
The book trade people just feel more comfortable with leftist books.
Buying books and not reading them? I had not thought of that Pepe.
That would explain why the pathetic “Is it just me, or is everything shit?” has been in the top ten non fiction hardback list for several months.
People are buying the thing for the title – they have not actually looked inside (it is just another “corporations are evil” and “death to America” book). I have no problem with reading bits of leftist books in book stores without buying them – if they do not respect other people’s property rights, why should I respect their property rights?
Anyway the book store staff could always tell me to move along (but as they do not actually own the store they do not care).
Sometimes interesting books can have “rude” titles. I remember “95% is crap” from the 1970’s (Terry Arthur if I remember correctly).
The work carefully examined the political speeches of the time (from all parties) and showed they simply did not make sense.
That would explain why the pathetic “Is it just me, or is everything shit?” has been in the top ten non fiction hardback list for several months.
People are buying the thing for the title – they have not actually looked inside (it is just another “corporations are evil” and “death to America” book).
Book publishers and sellers are corporations too – they are only going to give a fig about about politics that affect their sales and profit margins – if they promote book X more than book Y, it will be because of the sales they think they can get. An attitude that in any other context, this forum seems to be champion.
Hm. Middle paragraph was a quote and should have been in italics as well.
Sadly although the book shop people may care about profits (although I am not sure they do – after all they do not actually own the corporation and the connection between “company makes less money, I am less likely to have a job” is a bit abstract for a lot of people) – but that does not mean they do things well.
As I have said (several times) concentrating on only the leftist customers (and ignoring other people) and then boring any leftist who has the capacity to be bored (by pushing the same sort of books all the time) is not the road to long term prosperity.
That is the whole point of the thread Nick.
As for making a profit in general business. Profit can be a matter of money or it can be other things – for example a person may choose to earn less money doing a job that gives him greater satisfaction.
The sterotype of “economic man” has not got much to do with how real libertarians think.
That is also a point that has been made before Nick.
There’s no point expecting any different in this country – it would kill most press, media and ‘culture’ professionals to show any support for libertarian or conservative thought – it would be something shameful to admit to over the dinner tables of Crouch End, Camden and Islington. There is an assumption by the left in this country that every sane person must think like they do…just watch TV and listen to the likes of Alan Davies (arsehole on QI) make throwaway remarks about the right with every expectation that we all agree with him. (Although he’s not averse to making money out of capitalism by advertising mortgages). It all boils down to a “trahison des clercs” – intellectuals refusing to accept the blindingly obvious and continuing to support and propagate ideas that undermine the society and system that pays their wages and guarantees their freedom.
I agree with a lot of what Chris Thompson says here, but I do not think that it is just a matter of hostility to conservative or libertarian thought.
It is a matter of only being comfortable with a certain sort of book. So even if a book is not arguing for any antileftist political point of view, if it does not make the ritual nods (history just about conflict over economic resources, traditionial Roman Catholic church evil …… and so on) then the book shop people find it alien (and will not promote it).
Thus they neglect potential customers – even leftists who are bored with getting the same sort of book pushed at them all the time.
As for making a profit in general business. Profit can be a matter of money or it can be other things – for example a person may choose to earn less money doing a job that gives him greater satisfaction.
The sterotype of “economic man” has not got much to do with how real libertarians think.
But in general, libertarians do seem to think that businesses should be able to market whatever product they want. If they marketed the likes of Coulter rather than the likes of Chomsky, would you be so quick to paint it as an agenda rather than a sales strategy? Even if you did, would you be so quick to say they deserve to go bust for it?
[By the way, those are genuine questions, as opposed to assumptions/accusations dressed up as such]
You are giving the impression, at least to me, of judging the publishing and media industries in a way you wouldn’t judge other industries (though I accept I may be reading you wrong).
I do agree on one thing though: they should certainly be selling the Noble Revolt.
Of course Nick (not the usual one), bookshops should be ALLOWED to plug leftist books (when did I say they should not be so allowed?).
And yes, you are right that I judge a business enterprise (not just a bookshop) by other things than how much money it makes (I have always been open about that).
For example, if I met two people one of whom was a pimp and the other was a baker.
I would judge (all other things being equal) the baker to be a better man than the pimp – I would not be interested in how much money the two made.
And I accept that it is possible that a pimp might not be violating the nonaggression principle (although, in reality, most do).
A bookshop that plugs leftist books and neglects everything else is (in my opinion) following a foolish long term commercial policy.
But let us say that I am wrong – that this policy is ideal for making money.
You are right I would still not respect people who spend their time promoting books by authors who hold that the shareholds of the very companies the bookshop people work for be robbed and murdered.
“We will buy from the Capitalists the very rope with which we will hang them” (V.I. “Lenin”) and the later (alleged) words “and they will lend us the money with which we will buy the rope from them”.
This does not seem like a very good policy for the “capitalists” – i.e. helping to create a society in which they themselves (along with many other people) will be robbed and murdered.
Still (as I implied above) it is more than this.
I would respect (for example) a person who sold interesting history books more than I would respect a person who sold porn (even if the porn seller made much more money).
That does not mean I want the selling of porn banned.
One could say a similar thing about the sale of bread.
Say there was a baker who regarded the baking of bread as his vocation in life – he thought and worked hard and produced high quality bread.
And there was another baker who did not care about the bread he baked – he just tossed out any old stuff.
Even if second baker made more money than the first baker, I know who I would respect more.
There is nothing unlibertarian in this.
“libertarianism = the love of money above all other things” has never been the definition of the non aggression principle that any libertarian has ever used.
This is the definition that our enemies use.
“shareholders” not “shareholds” – and so on.
Fair enough,
Just a couple of comments re. ‘Noble Revolt’ by Adamson. I’m a PhD student who is currently doing a thesis on the Eng Civil War period. I’ve been aware of Adamson’s work in various academic journals for a while now and have been eagerly awaiting his much-promised major monograph on the Civil War for just as long. As you’re no doubt aware, it’s been listed on Amazon for quite some time but I would be very surprised if anyone could obtain a copy. It’s been common knowledge for ages now within academic circles that he’s been having trouble finishing it – hence the fact that its publication date keeps getting postponed (and also hence the fact that bookshops don’t stock it). Even ‘The First Post’ – an online daily magazine for which Adamson is a contributor – does not say the book is due to be released until early 2007 (this is ‘The Noble Revolt’ not the sequel which is also supposed to be coming out sometime in 2007?!?). So that may explain why it’s not available in bookshops – it’s not out yet
As I wrote, the book had been reviewed (for example in the Sunday Telegraph). How a book can be reviewed without having been finished I leave to you to explain.
Actually I ordered the work from Amazon myself recently (having been unable to find a single bookstore that stocked the work).
The paperback version is indeed out next year – but I did not write “paperback version”.
In my experience if something is “generally known in academic circles” that thing is false.
It is of course possible that this time “academic circles” have broken with the tradition of Plato and are actually telling the truth – but the odds are against it.
As an afterthought, in my seach of bookshops in London I found that C. Hill’s works are still the most common works on the period (even though they were refuted decades ago).
This sort of thing is not confined to history. For example, the most common works (in the bookshops) by a modern economist were by Paul Krugman (a New York Times statist).
I think that while much of what this thread about is accurate, an essential point has been ignored. It is very difficult for works to get accepted by a publisher unless the publisher thinks it will sell in big numbers, and that it might generate a follow-up. I often say that Shakespeare wouldn’t get accepted today – too political, too whatever! And apart from small presses, there are very few real publishers left – they have all been eaten up by the ‘big five’ who also don’t care about accuracy, typos, punctuation errors, inconsistencies and so on, as they have sacked many of their editors (not me)!
Rachel Bowen
You might have picked the wrong book for your example. This one, Adamson, may have been almost immediately remaindered. I say that because I am having trouble finding it in the USA. The problem may lie more with the publishers.
I have been using price comparison sites like College Textbooks(Link) for buying my textbooks. It is better than going for standalone stores. As you can save on lot of money using them.