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WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird

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!

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 232
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781503600911
  • Genres
  • economics, history
  • Release date
  • 2017