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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (平装)
by David S. Landes
| Category:
History, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 208.00
MSL price:
¥ 198.00
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In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Thought-provoking, controversial, and even politically disturbing, this book makes people think, debate, and search for the answer to the Big Question. |
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 16 items |
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Hilde B. (MSL quote), Norway
<2006-12-25 00:00>
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is a reflective, interesting, and a well-written book. The author possesses an amazing knowledge, both historical and geographical. While he is an academic and therefore at times goes into unnecessary detail or support of his arguments, he serves us the occasional entertaining anecdote, which makes this book both readable and funny.
To explain why the economic development in the world (from about 1500 to the present) has happened at different paces and with different degrees of success is not an easy task to undertake. To do so successfully is even harder.
Landes strongly advocates the point of view that cultural values, such as technology, thriftiness, work ethic, and women, are the primary factors of economic success or failure. I truly enjoyed reading the authors observations on the various cultures and their economic successes and failures (a little minus here is Landes tendency to lean on the cultural stereotype just a few too many times). I now have a better understanding for the importance of cultural values in the economic area. Why the UK fell behind the rest of Europe, or why China by deliberately choosing to isolate the country, lost their economical/technological jump-start on Europe. I also have a greater awareness of the effects of religion; that there can be little doubt that the religious-based repression/bias towards women will continue to slow the economic development and success of the societies in which this still occur.
There is an abundance of interesting and useful information in this book, and I did learn a lot of new facts from this book. Nevertheless, I am not sure that I am left with a better understanding of the key factors that drive economic success. I can't help feeling that I worked my way through the five hundred pages waiting for the "little extra" - that never came. So even if Landis handles the facts and analysis very well, I still miss is the one, grand theory that explains it all.
Bottom line, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is a superb historical overview, but it doesn't quite deliver what it promises - the one theory that wraps up everything, and offers some insights to the question that we all ask ourselves: "Why some are so rich and some are so poor". |
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Raul Abramo (MSL quote), Germany
<2006-12-25 00:00>
Some reviewers have suggested that this book is provocative, and worth reading. I would agree with the first part only. However, the provocation and discomfort it causes have little to do with facts and figures which could challenge one's economic prejudices, and much to do with Mr. Landes' scatterbrained approach to history and economics, and his overbearing arrogance in (often ridiculous) commentary. It should be clear that an economic history book this is not. At best, Mr. Landes has told a few interesting anecdotes on the history of technology (navigations and clockworks are particularly well covered.) If there is a unifying principle to this book, it is that British (and American, by extension) cultural superiority were predestined to lead to greater economic growth and wealth. How these traits (individual freedoms, property rights, technological openness) developed, and to what extent they came in response, to changes in the economies and political systems, we are left to wonder. However, the low point of the book is Mr. Landes's omnipresent commentary. He never misses a chance to try to score points with like-minded conservatives. However, his arguments are weak, and his rhetoric is pompous. I can only describe it as Lilliputean, in its arrogance and idiocy. You could actually guess this by looking at the title of this book, which tries to borrow from Adam Smith's classic. E. Hobsbawm have commented that ... "There are few historians who would not be proud to be the author of this book". I think Mr. Hobsbawm packed his commentary, which appears in the back cover of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, with rather more irony than the Editors who cited it could suspect.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.) |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-25 00:00>
Professor David Landes has managed to lose all academic prestige he might have deserved for other works. He purports to write an ambitious book trying to give an explanation on the inequality of nations, but very soon it is apparent that he is just going to write a history of economics -and, by all means, the worst one I have ever read. Landes gives a lot of anecdotes, and the book is an entertaining read, but from time to time, his remarks are absolutely outrageous: how can a University professor write that if he was an American Indian, he would prefer to be killed by the English rather than by the Spanish; or that the Arabs put the blame of everything on Israel, but even if Israel did not exist they would be fighting each other all the time. And how does it fit within an Economic History a deprecatory comment about Arab students in Boston? (and what about the support for that? An article in the Boston Globe). How can the author be so ignorant and say that we should not be surprised about Chinese ritual because in pre-Renaissance Spain everybody knelt before the bread and wine that are Christ's representation? (Anyone who has ever been to a Catholic Mass -anywhere- knows that is always done). So, these comments (that abound in the book) invalidate any thesis. Although there is no thesis. If you are interested in the influence of culture on economy, read Max Weber and all the scholarship for and against his analysis. By comparison, Landes is really shallow, to say the least. And Landes avoids the more fundamental question: why some countries are richer?
(A negative review. MSL remarks.) |
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Steve (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-25 00:00>
The author gives an in depth incisive analysis that shows in great detail how culture truly affects a society's prosperity. The Western countries largely had firm beliefs in progress, private property, freedom, a work ethic, tenacity, thrift, and competition. These traits led to Europe's unprecedented innovations and technological advancements. Japan and Hong Kong are prime examples of non-European countries that have had fantastic success by adopting western style capitalism. In my opinion their strong sense of family was just as crucial. His conclusion that until these traits are adopted by all nations, the chasm between the rich and poor nations will continue to grow. His thesis proved logical enough for this skeptical reader to agree with him. |
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C. Schaefer (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-25 00:00>
Similar to Thomas Friedman, Landes looks at the world around him and explains why it is the way it is. From ancient China to modern day Britain he emphasizes that cultural traits and values, rather than resources are what make or break a country. Landes argues that those countries which value ingenuity, thrift, hard work, etc. have consistently surpassed others throughout history. Candid and sometimes quite hilarious, he writes in a way that makes world history incredibly interesting. For all seeking to understand macroeconomics and its applications to nation-building this is a must read. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-25 00:00>
The author goes to great length in trying to explain why some societies are currently wealthy and others so desperately poor. Especially telling are the stories on the unlikely - how a small backward nation like England came to control 1/4 of the world (trade not despotic imperialism) and why area with seemingly insurmountable leads - Arabs, China, Spain/Portugal lost influence, power and wealth.
He emphasizes not only the geographic and periodic reasons but the technological and particularly the intellectual reasons. He shows that ideas can and do affect the way history turns out.
Too many times our history in schools is taught from a distance. In an effort to convince ourselves that all cultures are morally equivalent, all comparisons between cultures are avoided. Yet it is the intellectual stimulation, the ideas generated by great men and women that drive nations onward. The author demonstrates that a nation can take nothing for granted. Inertia never succeeds in the long run. |
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