What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos

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Updated 28 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Ticos

Authors: Mavis Hiltunen Biesanz, Richard Biesanz

Written with the perspective of more than half a century of first-hand observation, this unparalleled social and cultural history describes how Costa Rica’s economy, government, education and health-care systems, family structures, religion, and other institutions have evolved, and how this evolution has affected and reflected people’s daily lives, beliefs, and their values. 

The authors are particularly concerned with change since the economic crisis of the early 1980s and the structural adjustment that followed.

The book provides a comprehensive introduction to a country the writers know well, according to a review on goodreads.com.


What We Are Reading Today: Long Problems

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Updated 06 March 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Long Problems

  • In this pathbreaking book, Thomas Hale examines the politics of climate change and other “long problems”

Author: Thomas Hale

Climate change and its consequences unfold over many generations. Past emissions affect our climate today, just as our actions shape the climate of tomorrow, while the effects of global warming will last thousands of years.

Yet the priorities of the present dominate our climate policy and the politics surrounding it. Even the social science that attempts to frame the problem does not theorize time effectively. In this pathbreaking book, Thomas Hale examines the politics of climate change and other “long problems.”

He shows why we find it hard to act before a problem’s effects are felt, why our future interests carry little weight in current debates, and why our institutions struggle to balance durability and adaptability.