Think Tank: The Story of the Adam Smith Institute [Kindle Edition]

Institutional histories are usually worthy but dull. This is neither: it replaces impersonal worthiness with personal engagement; and there is never a dull paragraph. "Think Tank" is written as crisply as Madsen Pirie speaks when introducing a guest at the ASI (Adam Smith Institute). Indeed, these 282 pages are as good an illustration as I have recently seen of Somerset Maugham's clinical definition: "The best style is the style you don't notice."

What you do notice is that the mistakes are given as much attention as the successes, especially the false starts in finding a secure financial basis for the ASI. What helped the infant survive was that it knew how to bawl. However, while noisy, the ASI realised that the media did not want sermons: clear two-sentence messages were the ideal. Succinctness has underpinned much of the ASI's effectiveness: a combination of politeness to audiences and of clean organizational lines, echoed in the strong, simple design of the book. Similarly, the strict rules of the ASI's "Power lunches" give the main guest just ten minutes to introduce the topic before opening up discussion around the table.

The other striking feature of the ASI is that it has attracted so many young people, often from non-European backgrounds. Kirkcaldy-born Adam Smith would be delighted that his ideas are flowing so freely across the generations and international boundaries.

Think Tank is a huge surprise. It reads like an adventure story, certainly not the dry history of some smug, self-satisfied think tank. It is an Operations Manual. It should be read by everyone who aspires to reform our economic and political process. Read it and learn what Madsen Pirie and Eamonn Butler did, and how they did it. Apply those lessons to how you can conduct political campaigning with a small team and a plan. Because what will surprise you is how much of what they had to fight against is still out there today, fighting back, and resisting reform. The battle is far from over, if it ever could be over. It is a constant struggle against a tide of vested interests that will oppose, delay, dilute and negate every step you want to take. Don't let it.

This book will inspire and empower every advocate of free-market, libertarian policies.

I found this book incredibly inspiring. So many good ideas explained very clearly. I strong recommend reading this book to anyone interested in politics or public sector reform.

Reviewing a book about one of the central formative experiences in your own life is off course fraught with dangers. The only reason I do it, is, that while I agree with the other reviewers on the qualities they mention, I have the special pleasure to testify that the book is indeed a reasonable description of the institute as it was when I worked there as an intern in the early to mid-eighties.
Considering that self-aggrandisement is such a common sin among those who work in politics, I find the book surprisingly critical of our activities. That is indeed a rare quality in memoirs and certainly not one you express in the thick of public debate.
Another quality is the introduction to practical libertarianism that lies submerged in the text and which has strong persuasive qualities. Socialists should beware,if they dare read it.