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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some…
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (original 1998; edition 1999)

by David S. Landes

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,6921910,221 (3.77)9
"David S. Landes tells the long, fascinating story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cultures lead to - or retard - economic and military success and material achievement." "Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early through the interplay of a vital, open society focused on work and knowledge, which led to increased productivity, the creation of new technologies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war, transportation, generation of power, and skill in metalwork. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's new economic winners are following much the same roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed to duplicate this crucial formula for success." "The key to relieving much of the world's poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us - lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work of history."--Jacket.… (more)
Member:sanderjelmar
Title:The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
Authors:David S. Landes
Info:W. W. Norton & Company (1999), Paperback, 658 pages
Collections:Your library
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor by David S. Landes (1998)

  1. 30
    The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando de Soto (br77rino)
    br77rino: De Soto does a wonderful job of making plain the problems of Third World capitalism, i.e., a lack of formal, standardized, and publicly-available property deeds. Every country that has successful capitalism also has the answer to the question: Who owns what?… (more)
  2. 20
    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (Oct326)
    Oct326: La tesi centrale del saggio di Diamond è che la causa dominante dei disuguali gradi di sviluppo tra popolazioni umane sia data dalle condizioni ambientali più o meno favorevoli. Il saggio di Landes ha un argomento un po' differente, e cioè il disuguale grado di sviluppo economico e di ricchezza tra popolazioni. Ma sulle cause di queste differenze è più articolato, e mette in rilievo l'importanza dei fattori culturali. È un punto di vista piuttosto diverso, e questo rende interessante il confronto tra le due opere.… (more)
  3. 10
    Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu (raulmagdalena)
  4. 00
    Centuries of Change: Which Century Saw The Most Change? by Ian Mortimer (Oct326)
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» See also 9 mentions

English (15)  French (1)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  German (1)  All languages (19)
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
I read Landes and Diamond in tandem: why are different societies so different. They should be read in tandem. Diamond offers biological and geographical reasons for the differences in civilizations and their rate of "evolution." Landes notes societal and cultural differences for the differences in civilizations and their rate of "evolution." Both are correct and both are wrong in certain areas. ( )
  tuckerresearch | Jun 30, 2022 |
A massive account of world political and economic history, from the title setting out to explain why some countries (mainly the West) became wealthy, while most of the tropical "third world" remained poor. The trouble with such attempts is that they often descend to post-facto rationalizing. Almost any factor can be seized to "explain" the differences, and counter-examples can be found for any single cause-and-effect hypothesis. So the book amounts to not much more than a chronicle of historical events, with some speculations on the role of religion, on national character, climate and natural resources, and so on. It is difficult even to account for differences between parts of the West: why did the "industrial revolution" develop most robustly in Britain, for example? The author, refreshingly, tend to eschew "political correctness", and calls out deficiencies in the ruling mores and values in society, and challenges attempts to always blame some other entity or force; the positive message being, presumably, that it will be possible for any country or region to pull itself up economically, if policy is oriented to long-term improvement rather than to immediate indulgence in conspicuous consumption. ( )
  Dilip-Kumar | May 18, 2022 |
This marvelous book weaves an informative narrative on the history of nations and how they achieved their current(1998) status in the world at large. Thus we hear a lot about the dominance of Japan with their Gemba Kaizen and just-in-time production methods. It also explores a great number of other countries and why they didn't lead the way, so to speak.

For instance, take China. China invented and developed so many things back in the olden days, but never made real use of them. So they developed paper and block printing, but where was the literacy back in 1100 AD or so? So they managed to find the uses of Gunpowder, but they didn't find a more efficient formula for cannons and guns. This was all explained by the government and how it stifled creativity and drive for anything. The emperor decided what was good and bad, and a number of toadies decided who got to see the emperor. Even back in the time of Europe's rise to dominance, they did nothing but languish in the past. The thing that broke this was clocks and watches. Everything else was considered foreign trash or old news.

Thus Europe led the way with improved ship building techniques and navigation and such. When they went places they desired knowledge and trade. They wanted dominance too, of course. This was fueled in many ways by how they did things in the mother country. Take Spain for another example. They founded the "New World" and conquered the greatest nations in the Americas. The Aztecs and the Incas had much in terms of gold and silver, but this was a huge detriment to Spain. Since they received all of that specie, they went and bankrupted themselves; several times. This might seem counter-intuitive, but it doesn't actually improve the state of the nation all that much. They rested on their laurels and didn't develop new ways of farming and manufacture. Thus, by the 1600s they were already woefully behind.

Anyway, this book was really good, but somewhat out of date. Still, since it discusses the history of economics, it can be learned from. ( )
  Floyd3345 | Jun 15, 2019 |
I stopped reading it during the inventions chapter. The size of the book and amount of information and opinion were too much to bother... ( )
  CassandraT | Oct 10, 2014 |
This is an anecdotal account of how some nations are much wealthier than others. Culture counts. European culture is better at producing wealth than African, Middle Eastern, or South American.

Landes says that some forms of state intervention (much as mercantilism) might work better at times than free trade. He has no theory to determine when those times occur.

He avers that bad government (e.g., all of Africa), is always bad for the overall economy.

A thought-provoking work.

(JAB) ( )
  nbmars | Aug 3, 2014 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
In dit boek vergelijkt de auteur de economische ontwikkelingen in de werelddelen, zich afvragend waarom historisch gezien in Europa meer welvaart aanwezig is dan elders. Het antwoord ligt volgens hem eerder in een verschil van houding tegenover vernieuwingen dan in beschikbaarheid van natuurlijke voordelen of van technologische mogelijkheden. Het notenapparaat bevindt zich achter in het boek, onderscheiden naar de 29 hoofdstukken; er is een omvangrijke bibliografie en een gecombineerd register van personen, plaatsen, zaken en begrippen. De zeer verzorgde uitgave bevat enkele kaarten en cijfertabellen; andere illustraties ontbreken. Het werk zal voor wie van de grote lijnen in de economische geschiedenis houdt, aantrekkelijk zijn maar ook de in details geïnteresseerde lezer kan er veel van zijn gading in aantreffen. Toptien-boek (abonnement 1 en 2).
(Biblion recensie, Drs. J.C.M. van Stratum.)
added by karnoefel | editNBD/Biblion (via BOL.com)
 

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...the causes of the wealth and povery of nations - the grand object of all enquiries in Political Economy. -- Malthus to Ricardo, letter of 26 January 1817
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For my children and grandchildren, with love.
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Geography has fallen on hard times.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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"David S. Landes tells the long, fascinating story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cultures lead to - or retard - economic and military success and material achievement." "Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early through the interplay of a vital, open society focused on work and knowledge, which led to increased productivity, the creation of new technologies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war, transportation, generation of power, and skill in metalwork. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's new economic winners are following much the same roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed to duplicate this crucial formula for success." "The key to relieving much of the world's poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us - lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work of history."--Jacket.

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