Scan barcode
A review by manalive
Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
4.0
This is a remarkable book.
Who would have thought that a politically progressive British author would write a popular history that would actually, in the form of a narrative, successfully bridge the opposing accounts of various academic factions arguing over whether the USSR collapse was caused by poor incentives (as argued by [a:Bryan Caplan|373203|Bryan Caplan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1257402293p2/373203.jpg] 15 years ago) or moral rot (as argued by [a:Arnold Kling|349362|Arnold Kling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1472692617p2/349362.jpg]) or by of the failure of central planners to conduct effective economic management without market prices (as predicted by Mises and argued contra Caplan by a number of Austrian econ scholars including [a:Boettke|523381|Peter J. Boettke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361896378p2/523381.jpg], [a:Leeson|1619931|Peter T. Leeson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png],[a:Gordon|5297859|David Gordon|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png], and [a: Stringham|18133057|Edward Stringham|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] ).
Here Spufford draws upon an impressive amount of scholarship- a bibliography this large is quite rare for a work of fiction- to construct a series of illuminating story arcs showing how the rise and fall of linear programming (impressive in itself as a method of coordinating production that is still in use by firms around the world) led to a death spiral of skewed incentives and black markets running on political privilege.
While it would be too much to say he has 'proved' that the two competing scenarios offered by political economists fit together, I think Spufford has demonstrated that it is probable they did.
In short: Prices are a knowledge surrogate. Abolishing prices in a command economy just means you are creating black markets that run on 'pull' instead of money. The politics of pull cannibalizes existing social infrastructure and real capital.
Having listened to interviews with the author, it's clear that he has absolutely no idea what he has accomplished here in this regard. It's unfortunate, because he seems to have fairly parochial view of pro-market economic theory from across the pond. That being said, it's unclear whether the book would have benefited from an increased awareness of the debate. Probably not, is my guess.
What is probably of greater interest to the general public is the way in which Spufford sheds light on the evolving expectations of Soviet citizens toward social order and living conditions.
We are in a habit of condemning American consumerism as a sort of shadow of the excesses of American capitalism while imagining that those living under other systems are motivated by different ambitions than our own. As it turns out, historical Marxists are not admirable anti-materialist/anti-consumerists who are willing to suffer monastic privation for the good of the social order. The reality is that the Soviets themselves were just as interested in consumption, possibly more so, than their American counterparts.
In fact, many of them were aware of the horrible atrocities of earlier regimes and justified their theft, murders, and enforced poverty on the basis that these were simply early steps needed to get the economic engine going- and soon, even this year maybe! we'll overtake those capitalists in the west.
(For an even earlier look at this sentiment, I suggest the book [b:Red Star|400399|Red Star|Alexandr Bogdanov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391055952l/400399._SX50_.jpg|389821]. It's an early Bolshevist science fiction story about the promises of wealth and prosperity that would undoubtedly grow abundantly after the revolution.)
As for the book itself as a piece of literature, the writing is engaging in style and content. I have two complaints.
The first is that I don't like how he write women. There seems to be a stereotype at play where the men are all rather straightforward and simple while the women are complex. Additionally, there is an uncomfortable passage where a politically connected man sabotages the career of a woman and has her labeled as a 'manageable' risk so that the authorities will hand him her leash. By doing this he becomes her only eligible husband. The woman, who previously despised him, finds this manipulation arousing.
Possible? Yes- plausible even. But totally out of place here.
My second complaint is that he uses Russian fairy tales as analogs for Soviet promises of prosperity. He dumps on fairy tales in general quite a bit in the introduction and emphasizes that they were therapeutic/escapist lies to soften the harsh reality of life in Russia.
Anyone familiar with Russian fairy tales should be skeptical of this. I love fairy tales and found this gloss very grating.
He also seems to read fairy tales through a very [a:Campbellian|20105|Joseph Campbell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429114498p2/20105.jpg] lens, focusing mostly on the fairy tales with a clear protagonist that might be [b:the hero on his journey|588138|The Hero With a Thousand Faces|Joseph Campbell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442885694l/588138._SY75_.jpg|971054]. This is consistent with Spufford's [b:other book on Christian apologetics|15929332|Unapologetic Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense|Francis Spufford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354217748l/15929332._SX50_.jpg|21680097], where he also uses "fairy tale" as a pejorative for religious sentimentality.
But stories that fit this mold are a tiny minority of Russian fairy tales.
Spufford lists two sources for his perspective on fairy tales. One is, appropriately, the [a:Afanas’ev|500718|Alexander Afanasyev|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1224085557p2/500718.jpg] book now available as the Pantheon book of [b:Russian Fairy Tales|164695|Russian Fairy Tales|Alexander Afanasyev|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506160458l/164695._SY75_.jpg|159010] with which I am quite familiar. The other is [b:an analysis|2947887|The World Of The Russian Fairy Tale|Maria Kravchenko|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2977334] from a [a:strict historicist|1273512|Maria Kravchenko|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the 40s that has been out of print since the 80s. Spufford appears to get his views from the historicist because you'd have to mutilate the hell out the of Afanas'ev collection to fit his bizarre take.
In reality, Russian fairy tales are bleak. If they are therapeutic it is not because they are escapist, because they are not. And not only that, they are full of irony ([b:Литературократия|33642190|Литературократия|Михаил Берг|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483119025l/33642190._SY75_.jpg|54494498]) and distrust of authority- two enduring features of Russian literature that had to be continually subverted by the Soviet state in order to sustain their project.
(In short, read Chesterton and fairy tales and especially Chesterton on fairy tales so you don't let authors like Spufford make them out to be worthless.)
Overall, this book is a real treasure.
Who would have thought that a politically progressive British author would write a popular history that would actually, in the form of a narrative, successfully bridge the opposing accounts of various academic factions arguing over whether the USSR collapse was caused by poor incentives (as argued by [a:Bryan Caplan|373203|Bryan Caplan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1257402293p2/373203.jpg] 15 years ago) or moral rot (as argued by [a:Arnold Kling|349362|Arnold Kling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1472692617p2/349362.jpg]) or by of the failure of central planners to conduct effective economic management without market prices (as predicted by Mises and argued contra Caplan by a number of Austrian econ scholars including [a:Boettke|523381|Peter J. Boettke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361896378p2/523381.jpg], [a:Leeson|1619931|Peter T. Leeson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png],[a:Gordon|5297859|David Gordon|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png], and [a: Stringham|18133057|Edward Stringham|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] ).
Here Spufford draws upon an impressive amount of scholarship- a bibliography this large is quite rare for a work of fiction- to construct a series of illuminating story arcs showing how the rise and fall of linear programming (impressive in itself as a method of coordinating production that is still in use by firms around the world) led to a death spiral of skewed incentives and black markets running on political privilege.
While it would be too much to say he has 'proved' that the two competing scenarios offered by political economists fit together, I think Spufford has demonstrated that it is probable they did.
In short: Prices are a knowledge surrogate. Abolishing prices in a command economy just means you are creating black markets that run on 'pull' instead of money. The politics of pull cannibalizes existing social infrastructure and real capital.
Having listened to interviews with the author, it's clear that he has absolutely no idea what he has accomplished here in this regard. It's unfortunate, because he seems to have fairly parochial view of pro-market economic theory from across the pond. That being said, it's unclear whether the book would have benefited from an increased awareness of the debate. Probably not, is my guess.
What is probably of greater interest to the general public is the way in which Spufford sheds light on the evolving expectations of Soviet citizens toward social order and living conditions.
We are in a habit of condemning American consumerism as a sort of shadow of the excesses of American capitalism while imagining that those living under other systems are motivated by different ambitions than our own. As it turns out, historical Marxists are not admirable anti-materialist/anti-consumerists who are willing to suffer monastic privation for the good of the social order. The reality is that the Soviets themselves were just as interested in consumption, possibly more so, than their American counterparts.
In fact, many of them were aware of the horrible atrocities of earlier regimes and justified their theft, murders, and enforced poverty on the basis that these were simply early steps needed to get the economic engine going- and soon, even this year maybe! we'll overtake those capitalists in the west.
(For an even earlier look at this sentiment, I suggest the book [b:Red Star|400399|Red Star|Alexandr Bogdanov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1391055952l/400399._SX50_.jpg|389821]. It's an early Bolshevist science fiction story about the promises of wealth and prosperity that would undoubtedly grow abundantly after the revolution.)
As for the book itself as a piece of literature, the writing is engaging in style and content. I have two complaints.
The first is that I don't like how he write women. There seems to be a stereotype at play where the men are all rather straightforward and simple while the women are complex. Additionally, there is an uncomfortable passage where a politically connected man sabotages the career of a woman and has her labeled as a 'manageable' risk so that the authorities will hand him her leash. By doing this he becomes her only eligible husband. The woman, who previously despised him, finds this manipulation arousing.
Possible? Yes- plausible even. But totally out of place here.
My second complaint is that he uses Russian fairy tales as analogs for Soviet promises of prosperity. He dumps on fairy tales in general quite a bit in the introduction and emphasizes that they were therapeutic/escapist lies to soften the harsh reality of life in Russia.
Anyone familiar with Russian fairy tales should be skeptical of this. I love fairy tales and found this gloss very grating.
He also seems to read fairy tales through a very [a:Campbellian|20105|Joseph Campbell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429114498p2/20105.jpg] lens, focusing mostly on the fairy tales with a clear protagonist that might be [b:the hero on his journey|588138|The Hero With a Thousand Faces|Joseph Campbell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442885694l/588138._SY75_.jpg|971054]. This is consistent with Spufford's [b:other book on Christian apologetics|15929332|Unapologetic Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense|Francis Spufford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354217748l/15929332._SX50_.jpg|21680097], where he also uses "fairy tale" as a pejorative for religious sentimentality.
But stories that fit this mold are a tiny minority of Russian fairy tales.
Spufford lists two sources for his perspective on fairy tales. One is, appropriately, the [a:Afanas’ev|500718|Alexander Afanasyev|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1224085557p2/500718.jpg] book now available as the Pantheon book of [b:Russian Fairy Tales|164695|Russian Fairy Tales|Alexander Afanasyev|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506160458l/164695._SY75_.jpg|159010] with which I am quite familiar. The other is [b:an analysis|2947887|The World Of The Russian Fairy Tale|Maria Kravchenko|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2977334] from a [a:strict historicist|1273512|Maria Kravchenko|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] from the 40s that has been out of print since the 80s. Spufford appears to get his views from the historicist because you'd have to mutilate the hell out the of Afanas'ev collection to fit his bizarre take.
In reality, Russian fairy tales are bleak. If they are therapeutic it is not because they are escapist, because they are not. And not only that, they are full of irony ([b:Литературократия|33642190|Литературократия|Михаил Берг|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483119025l/33642190._SY75_.jpg|54494498]) and distrust of authority- two enduring features of Russian literature that had to be continually subverted by the Soviet state in order to sustain their project.
(In short, read Chesterton and fairy tales and especially Chesterton on fairy tales so you don't let authors like Spufford make them out to be worthless.)
Overall, this book is a real treasure.