In them, Hayek discusses the intellectual history of the 19th and 20th centuries, his scholarship, his own life and practices, economic theory, legal institutions and virtually everything else he wrote about over the course of a long and distinguished career.

FORBES: Conversations with Friedrich Hayek

But it has been adopted by students who engage in intellectual pursuits like playing chess or reading history as they sip their pulque.

BBC: The return of Mexico��s national nectar

Of course, this is also a bit of a deal with the devil -- Intellectual Ventures might be the most infamous patent troll in history, and HTC and Samsung have essentially decided the risks and cost of doing business with IV are more favorable than the risks and cost of going to court.

ENGADGET: HTC and Samsung license entire Intellectual Ventures patent portfolio, gear up for war

That is appropriate in a history, but it would have been interesting to know what Mr Rosen thinks of the way intellectual-capital laws are being challenged at the moment.

ECONOMIST: Why it started in Britain

His enjoyable and informative canter through three millennia of intellectual and religious history highlights the many ways, ingenious, beautiful, wrongheaded or mad, in which humans have tried to define paradise, seek it or, latterly, create it.

ECONOMIST: Heaven on earth

Throughout their history, the Jesuits have enjoyed a reputation for their intellectual acuity and have played a leading role in Catholic education.

WSJ: Jesuits Had Past Struggles With Popes