Marginal Revolution Book Rankings

Tyler and Alex's favorites from Marginal Revolution

How it works: I scraped every post categorized under 'books'. Then extracted book titles and relevant review context from each post. I then submitted a couple million pairs of reviews to an LLM to compare and determine which book review had more positive sentiment. I used these comparisons to fit a Bradley-Terry model which produces these rankings. I racked up a gemini bill so stopped shy of exhaustive 16 million comparisons, so it's not perfect, but roughly accurate.

Genre: Education ×
Showing 66 books in Education
College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students
1. College Unbound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students
BT: 10.49 232 comparisons
education future studies higher education social science
MR Post
S
2. Self-Help is Like a Vaccine
BT: 6.62 133 comparisons
economics education parenting personal development +2
MR Post
T
3. The Race Between Education and Technology
BT: 5.16 195 comparisons
american economics economics education labor economics +3
MR Post
O
4. Off the Charts: The Hidden Lives and Lessons of America’s Child Prodigies
BT: 5.13 141 comparisons
american history biography business education +4
MR Post
M
5. Markets, Minds, and Money: Why America Leads the World in University Research
BT: 4.89 161 comparisons
american history economics education education policy +3
MR Post
T
6. The Making of an Economist, Redux
BT: 4.82 163 comparisons
economics education higher education
MR Post
T
7. The Cartoon Introduction to Economics
BT: 4.19 152 comparisons
economics education humor
MR Post
T
8. There IS Life After College: What Parents and Students Should Know About Navigating School to Prepare for the Jobs of Tomorrow
BT: 3.96 173 comparisons
career guidance education parenting self-help
MR Post
T
9. The Little Virtues
BT: 3.83 194 comparisons
education essays ethics literary non-fiction +1
MR Post
E
10. Engineers of Jihad: The Curious Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
BT: 3.67 164 comparisons
education extremism studies islamic studies political science +3
MR Post
O
11. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration
BT: 3.55 620 comparisons
economics education ethics graphic novel +4
MR Post MR Post
T
12. The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain’t Learning
BT: 3.30 192 comparisons
development economics economics education education policy +1
MR Post
B
13. Building the Intentional University: Minerva and the Future of Higher Education
BT: 2.75 269 comparisons
education educational philosophy educational reform future studies +1
MR Post
F
14. Fabio Rojas’ pearls of wisdom for grad students
BT: 2.37 223 comparisons
academic advice education higher education self-help
MR Post
G
15. Grad School Rulz
BT: 2.26 252 comparisons
academic advice education higher education self-help
MR Post
T
16. The Road Ahead for America’s Colleges & Universities
BT: 2.19 258 comparisons
american studies economics economics of education education +2
MR Post
T
17. The Rebirth of Education
BT: 1.93 296 comparisons
development economics economics education social science
MR Post
E
18. Entrepreneurial Life: The Path from Startup to Market Leader
BT: 1.56 275 comparisons
business education entrepreneurship leadership +1
MR Post
R
19. Real Shanghai Maths
BT: 1.37 314 comparisons
chinese education education mathematics textbooks
MR Post
T
20. The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India
BT: 1.07 311 comparisons
education history india indian history +3
MR Post
T
21. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn
BT: 0.96 310 comparisons
education engineering methodology science +1
MR Post
M
22. Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It
BT: 0.81 331 comparisons
american politics education legal studies politics +2
MR Post
T
23. The Parent Trap
BT: 0.76 346 comparisons
economics education parenting psychology +3
MR Post
W
24. Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions
BT: 0.66 351 comparisons
education higher education non-fiction social science
MR Post
E
25. Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China
BT: 0.43 623 comparisons
american history chinese history comparative studies education +4
MR Post MR Post
M
26. Microeconomics: a very short introduction
BT: 0.23 295 comparisons
economics education microeconomics
MR Post
U
27. University of America: A Non-Linear Blueprint for Higher Education in the 21st Century
BT: 0.21 403 comparisons
education education reform higher education public policy
MR Post
F
28. From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline
BT: 0.16 303 comparisons
african american history american history education history +3
MR Post
H
29. Higher Education in the Digital Age
BT: -0.37 368 comparisons
education higher education social science technology
MR Post
T
30. The Trachtenberg method of speed arithmetic
BT: -0.37 392 comparisons
arithmetic education mathematics
MR Post
T
31. The Case Against Education
BT: -0.53 1916 comparisons
economics education non-fiction public policy
MR Post MR Post +4 more
L
32. Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve
BT: -0.58 344 comparisons
chinese culture chinese education comparative education cultural studies +5
MR Post
T
33. The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice
BT: -0.68 362 comparisons
education education policy inequality social commentary +2
MR Post
C
34. Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works
BT: -0.81 368 comparisons
american history education social policy sociology
MR Post
E
35. Education Unchained: What It Takes to Restore Schools and Learning
BT: -0.82 355 comparisons
economics education education policy educational reform +2
MR Post
U
36. Upstart
BT: -0.92 795 comparisons
biography education higher education history +2
MR Post MR Post
T
37. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education
BT: -0.97 391 comparisons
american education economics of education education education policy +2
MR Post
D
38. Doing More With Less: Making Colleges Work Better
BT: -1.17 396 comparisons
economics education education economics education policy +2
MR Post
T
39. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
BT: -1.30 423 comparisons
cultural criticism current events education non-fiction +4
MR Post
I
40. Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count
BT: -1.44 382 comparisons
education psychology social science sociology
MR Post
W
41. Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education
BT: -1.44 374 comparisons
education higher education organizational studies public policy +1
MR Post
H
42. Human Capital Contracts
BT: -1.49 393 comparisons
economics economics of education education finance +1
MR Post
E
43. Easiest Way to Learn Arabic
BT: -1.64 368 comparisons
arabic language education language learning non-fiction
MR Post
F
44. From Black Power to Black Studies
BT: -1.70 372 comparisons
african american history african american studies american history education +4
MR Post
A
45. A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska
BT: -1.83 362 comparisons
alaska history american history education history +1
MR Post
T
46. The Shape of the River
BT: -2.18 342 comparisons
american politics education law politics +2
MR Post
T
47. There is Life After College
BT: -2.38 345 comparisons
career guidance education higher education self-help
MR Post
L
48. Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide
BT: -2.49 315 comparisons
career development career guide education self-help
MR Post
M
49. Mindstorms
BT: -2.79 408 comparisons
computer science education pedagogy technology
MR Post
G
50. Giving Kids a Fair Chance
BT: -2.81 341 comparisons
economics education public policy social policy
MR Post
N
51. Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
BT: -3.00 338 comparisons
business cognitive science education neuroscience +3
MR Post
R
52. Rethinking School
BT: -3.01 338 comparisons
education education reform social commentary
MR Post
T
53. The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money
BT: -3.02 354 comparisons
economics education public policy social commentary
MR Post
P
54. Polarized Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics
BT: -3.06 361 comparisons
american history american politics education politics +2
MR Post
W
55. Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter
BT: -3.18 358 comparisons
education future studies social science
MR Post
R
56. Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education
BT: -3.19 309 comparisons
education history history of education social history +2
MR Post
T
57. The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself
BT: -3.24 303 comparisons
american education education education reform technology
MR Post
T
58. The Trachtenberg System of Basic Mathematics
BT: -3.43 350 comparisons
education mathematics
MR Post
L
59. Learn Better: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything
BT: -3.44 365 comparisons
business education learning psychology +1
MR Post
B
60. Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality
BT: -3.47 307 comparisons
assessment education educational policy school reform
MR Post
R
61. Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Education System
BT: -3.51 324 comparisons
american education education education policy politics +1
MR Post
C
62. Campus Economics: How Economic Thinking Can Help Improve College and University Decisions
BT: -3.57 349 comparisons
economics education education policy higher education
MR Post
T
63. The Promise and Pitfalls of Using Imprecise School Accountability Measures
BT: -3.76 343 comparisons
economics education education policy public policy +1
MR Post
R
64. Resolved: Debate Can Revolutionize Education and Help Save Our Democracy
BT: -3.98 263 comparisons
civics education educational reform politics
MR Post
A
65. American Higher Education Since World War II
BT: -4.76 151 comparisons
american history education higher education history +1
MR Post
S
66. Socrates in the Boardroom: Why Research Universities Should be Led by Top Scholars
BT: -5.78 101 comparisons
economics education education policy higher education +2
MR Post