Issawi's Laws of Social Motion

Issawi is both a distinguished professor emeritus of economic history and a wit; and he combines the two sides of his character in this collection (smartly illustrated by Pascal) of aphorisms about politics, economics, and society. Only a few are actual laws: "The more oil you take out of the ground, the more you find in it." The great majority are insightful observations: "Other states are like children who have grown up in a large family," he notes; "the US is like an only child." "Western civilization works-in Japan." "The only thing academics do promptly is read their own proofs."

Although only a small number of laws deal with the Middle East, Issawi's own area of specialty, these include some of the most pithy and original of the collection. Perhaps his best known law concerns the distribution of petroleum reserves: "Where there are Muslims, there is oil; the converse is not true." Then there is the challenge of those who would fix the Middle East: "God sent Moses, and he couldn't fix it; he sent Jesus, and he couldn't fix it; he sent Muhammad, and he couldn't fix it. Do you think you can fix it?" He has little time for quantitative types: "Whatever model you plug the Middle East into, a camel comes out."

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