Overview

Step right up! Get your tickets for WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird! That's right! This rollicking interactive tour through the museum of social oddities is guaranteed to house the world's weirdest practices-sure to make you say ""WTF?!"" Did you know that ""pre-owned"" wives were sold at auction in early modern Britain? Or that accused criminals in Liberia drink poison to determine their fate? How about the fact that, for 250 years, Italy criminally prosecuted cockroaches and crickets? Do you wonder why? Then this tour is just for you! Join WTF?!'s cast of colorful characters to navigate the museum with guide and economist Peter T. Leeson. As you wander from exhibit to exhibit and overhear Leeson's riotous exchanges with the patrons, you'll learn how economic thinking reveals the hidden sense behind seemingly senseless human behavior. Leeson demonstrates that far from ""irrational"" or ""accidents of history,"" humanity's most outlandish rituals are ingenious solutions to pressing problems-developed by clever people, driven by incentives, and tailor-made for their time and place. As the tour teaches: what varies isn't people, but the environments and constraints within which they operate. Along the way, you'll learn how to use an economic lens to uncover the logic behind any weirdness you encounter in your own life. Can you handle getting schooled by the strange? Better hurry, the tour is about to start!

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9781503600911

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Reviews

-WTF?! is the most interesting book I have read in years! Peter Leeson displays his unique talent: unearthing mankind's seemingly craziest behaviors, and then showing that these behaviors, against all odds, ultimately make perfect sense. WTF?! is like Freakonomics on steroids.---Steven D. Levitt -co-author of the bestselling Freakonomics book series -

WTF?! is the most interesting book I have read in years! Peter Leeson displays his unique talent: unearthing mankind's seemingly craziest behaviors, and then showing that these behaviors, against all odds, ultimately make perfect sense. WTF?! is like Freakonomics on steroids. --Steven D. Levitt co-author of the bestselling Freakonomics book series

Author Information

Peter T. Leeson is the Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University. He is the author of the award-winning The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates (2009) and Anarchy Unbound: Why Self-Governance Works Better than You Think (2014). He can be reached via his website peterleeson.com.

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