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When to Rob a Bank

non-fiction work by Steven D. Levitt

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ42322901
Source-derived summary

When to Rob a Bank: ...And 131 More Warped Suggestions and Well-Intended Rants is an edited collection of blog posts by American authors Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, authors of the Freakonomics series. It was published by HarperCollins imprint William Morrow on May 5, 2015.

Overview

It takes quick looks at a variety of topics, including car seats, terrorism, aptonyms, obesity, performance-enhancing substances, and attempts to ban internet gambling. The pieces are taken from the companion website that the authors first developed with the 2005 publication of Freakonomics, and continued to post new content to over the following decade.

Reception

Reviews of the collection were mixed. Kirkus Reviews called it "another kooky and counterintuitive compilation of economic analysis that might appear wildly offbeat but just might be surprisingly spot-on." Publishers Weekly wrote that "Lively, self-deprecating writing ensures an entertaining read for fans and new readers alike". Robbie Millen of The London Times, in contrast, wrote that the collection lacked the appeal of the authors' previous volumes.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “When to Rob a Bank” as non-fiction work by Steven D. Levitt. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around When, Bank and non-fiction.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2015, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2015-05-05. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with When, Bank and non-fiction providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “When to Rob a Bank”, the useful work is to connect “non-fiction work by Steven D. Levitt” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q42322901. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015 and 2005.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from When to Rob a Bank” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.