Steven Poole

1. Article · Sep 2, 2026 · Steven Poole

   Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings by Jared Diamond review – how to change the course of history (opens the original)

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   The author of Guns, Germs and Steel falters in this flawed study of whether individuals really make a difference Early in this book, Jared Diamond proudly introduces “what I term ‘the Hamlet test’”, which helps decide whether prominent individuals really make a difference, or whether others might have done just as well. Among William Shakespeare’s contemporaries on the Elizabethan stage, he explains, were “Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and John Webster. But not even their best play

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2. Article · Aug 7, 2026 · Steven Poole

   What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemoglu review – how to fix the system (opens the original)

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   The Nobel-winning economist takes aim at elites for no longer meeting the needs of the masses In 2009, the tech billionaire Peter Thiel published an essay with the portentous title The Education of a Libertarian, in which he announced: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” Since the 1920s, he wrote, “the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women” had rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” an oxymoron. To be

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