FIRST AMONG EQUALS: The Supreme Court in American Life. By Kenneth W. Starr. Warner. 320 pp. $26.95
NARROWING THE NATION’S POWER: The Supreme Court Sides with the States. By John T. Noonan, Jr. Univ. of California Press. 203 pp. $24.95
FORCES OF HABIT: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. By David T. Courtwright. Harvard Univ. Press. 277 pp. $24.95 hardcover, $16.95 paper
THE PURSUIT OF OBLIVION: A Global History of Narcotics. By Richard Davenport-Hines. Norton. 576 pp. $29.95
OUT OF IT: A Cultural History of Intoxication. By Stuart Walton. Harmony. 366 pp. $24
WHY A PAINTING IS LIKE A PIZZA: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Modern Art. By Nancy Heller. Princeton Univ. Press. 192 pp. $29.95 hardcover, $19.95 paper
REMEMBERING PATSY. By Brian Mansfield. Rutledge Hill Press. 95 pp. $14.99
JANE KENYON: A Literary Life. By John H. Timmerman. Eerdmans. 246 pp. $28
AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. By Martin E. P. Seligman. Free Press. 321 pp. $26
IN DARWIN’S SHADOW: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace. By Michael Shermer. Oxford Univ. Press. 422 pp. $35
MATHEMATICS ELSEWHERE: An Exploration of Ideas Across Cultures. By Marcia Ascher. Princeton Univ. Press. 207 pp. $24.95
A century ago, the German thinker Georg Simmel (1858–1918) wrote a brilliant and nuanced book on the tradeoffs of life in a market society. If he had called it Capitalism and Its Discontents, Simmel might be famous today. As it is, The Philosophy of Money sharply illuminates many of the perplexities of capitalist life at the dawn of the 21st century.