The sugarcoated, self-worshipping “Explanatory Note” in the beginning of Freakonomics serves exactly the same purpose that the sequel’s disclaimer regarding statistics does: to appear honest and unpretentious, when in fact it is the opposite. The first line of text in Freakonomics that is not the Table of Contents states, “The most brilliant young economist in America…” and it is, of course, referring to the author in the third person. As if this isn’t off-putting enough, the narrative then switches to the first person, and the reader discovers that the writer of that sentence was not a colleague commenting on the book in the manner of a Foreword (which may have prompted me to forgive such grandiose a statement) but rather Levitt and Dubner themselves.

Scholars trusted in their field would have no need to assert their credibility in such an ostentatious manner, unless the book was specifically aimed at an audience that cares not to be educated but to be amused, which I fear it was. I would suggest that, perhaps, the pseudo-intellectuality such as what is exhibited and catered to in this series of books is worse than blatant ignorance–”neither right nor wrong”–and this review is a solid step in the right direction.