Lewis and Joanna's Resources

  • Introductory Reading

    Economics:

    • Harford - The Undercover Economist
    • Dubner and Levitt - Freakonomics
    • Thaler & Sunstein - Nudge
    • Heilbroner - The Worldly Philosophers
    • Galbraith - The Great Crash 1929
    • Chang - Edible Economics

     

    Philosophy:

    • Singer - Practical Ethics
    • Blackburn - Think
    • Williamson - Doing Philosophy

     

    Politics:

    • Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (3rd ed, 2015)
    • Acemoglu & Robinson- Why Nations Fail [introduction only]
    • Autobiographies of world leaders

     

    Crossover:

    • ‘Very short introduction’ book series- find a couple which take your fancy!
    • Tegmark- Life 3.0 (about AI, a very important topic at the moment)
  • More books

    • How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t – Ian Dunt
    • Too Big To Fail – Andrew Sorkin
    • Doughnut Economics – Kate Raworth
    • Value(s): Building  a Better Work – Mark Carney (he used to run Bank of England)
    • Why We Get the Wrong Politicians – Isabel Hardman
  • Podcasts

    • Talking Politics: History of Ideas
    • 50 Things that Made the Modern Economy
    • OxPods (PPE section)
      • A new podcast produced by current oxford students, interviewing their tutors on a range of topics
    • Political Currency (Ed Balls & George Osborne)
      • Overlap between politics/ economics is well presented due to the fact both were key to their parties’ economic offerings during their career.
    • Philosophy Bites
    • The Daily from the NY Times
      • Would be particularly helpful for year 12 students thinking ahead to the TSA (entrance exam), which assesses critical thinking skills
    • Economics Explained

     

    Podcasts which may be biased but are worth listening to in a critical way:

    • The Rest is Politics with Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart
    • Pod Save the UK / Pod Save America 
  • News sources

    The Economist. No need to read cover-to-cover, pick some sections that interest you and read them critically. In addition, you can use The Economist for:

    • Podcasts on Spotify
    • Read the articles in the  section for quick introductions to the major theories in economics. Make sure to click through all the pages!
    • Email briefings (daily and weekly)

     

    Financial Times - Sign up for the  and read the weekend editions for long-form analysis.

  • Essay competitions

    • Royal Economics Society Young Economist of the Year
    • St Hugh’s Oxford 
    • Trinity College Cambridge essay prizes in , ,  (this one has a number of questions so you can choose one which interests you).
  • Fiction

    • Gaarder - Sophie’s world.
      • Introduction to the history of philosophy, presented in a fun, approachable way
    • Camus - The Plague
      • Interesting parallels to the Covid-19 Pandemic
    • Orwell - 1984
    • Huxley - Brave New World
  • Films and YouTube videos

    • The Big Short- on the 2008 financial crisis
    • Then & Now Channel
    • Kahnemann- Thinking, Fast and Slow