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Audible Editor Reviews
Statistics shouldn't be this interesting. They should be dry, lifeless, and grey, and they should bring to mind pocket protectors and Econ 101 professors with too much ear hair. Statistics shouldn't be engaging or compelling, but somehow the authors of Freakonomics manage to make them amusing and fascinating.
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner make statistics apply to your life, and they make you see those things in a whole different light. Somehow, they make stats seem...cool. Narrator Dubner pulls off a little miracle, too. At first, he sounds a bit geeky, but it doesn't take long before you are hanging on to his every word, waiting for the next nugget of information, and thinking that this geeky-sounding guy is really pretty smart. And it doesn't take long before you realize that you've read an entire book on economic theory and statistics - and enjoyed every minute of it. Go figure.
Publisher's Summary
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life, from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing, and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: Freakonomics.
Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives; how people get what they want or need especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of...well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.
What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.
©2005 Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner; (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
What the Critics Say
- 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year, Adult Nonfiction
- 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Nonfiction
"An eye-opening, and most interesting, approach to the world." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Prepare to be dazzled." (Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink and The Tipping Point)
"It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned." (The New York Times)
From AudioFile
According to economist Levitt and writer Dubner, everything--including the cheating habits of Sumo wrestlers, the choice of baby names, the finances of crack dealers, or the likelihood of bagel theft--can be decoded if we study the numbers. Using a freewheeling narrative style that jumps from one cultural phenomenon to another, FREAKONOMICS takes on conventional wisdom. (No, apparently it doesn't help much if you read to your child, and, yes, even Harvard graduates from good families can become serial killers.) There's no unified field theory here, but there is a message behind the medium: Don't trust the experts. Co-author Dubner reads in a friendly, instructive style that captures the enthusiasm of the authors. This is especially recommended for those who liked the books of Malcolm Gladwell or James Surowiecki's THE WISDOM OF CROWDS. (c) AudioFile 2005
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