TEDxDesMoines Book Club: Stealth of Nations, Aug. 15

July 14, 2012 · by brianne · in

The TEDxDesMoines book club was born at TEDxSummit, in a Bedouin-style tent overlooking the Persian Gulf. Nat Gorohova, a TEDx organizer from Latvia, had arranged for a small group of interested TEDxers to discuss the TED Book Club and ideas for spinning it off to our local events.

We even had the TED Book Club curator sitting in on our small group and contributing to the discussion. We thought it would be neat if we could spread the word about our speakers’ books, and encourage our local communities to read together and continue to discuss ideas.

August 15 at 7 p.m., we’ll host the first TEDxDesMoines Book Club at Beaverdale Books!

Here’s how it works:

  • Pick up a copy of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy from your local bookseller, or download a copy.
  • Read the book. If you found it interesting, tell your friends to read the book.
  • Come to Beaverdale Books at 7 p.m. on August 15 to discuss the book. There will be no formal presentation on the book, but we’ll all join in for what’s hopefully a lively discussion.

Then, at the next TEDxDesMoines event, we’ll announce another book to discuss at our Book Club!

More about the book and author:

Description, via IndieBound:
When we think of the informal economy, we tend to think of crime: prostitution, gun running, drug trafficking. Stealth of Nations opens up this underground realm, showing how the worldwide informal economy deals mostly in legal products and is, in fact, a ten-trillion-dollar industry, making it the second-largest economy in the world, after that of the United States.

Having penetrated this closed world and persuaded its inhabitants to open up to him, Robert Neuwirth makes clear that this informal method of transaction dates back as far as humans have existed and traded, that it provides essential services and crucial employment that fill the gaps in formal systems, and that this unregulated market works smoothly and effectively, with its own codes and unwritten rules.

Combining a vivid travelogue with a firm grasp on global economic strategy—along with a healthy dose of irreverence and skepticism toward conventional perceptions—Neuwirth gives us an eye-opening account of a world that is always operating around us, hidden in plain sight.

 

 

 

About the Author

Robert Neuwirth is the author of Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World. He has received a research and writing grant from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, appears nationally and internationally as a speaker and on radio, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Dwell, Fortune, The Nation, and Wired, among many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn.

 

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