The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor

David S. Landes

W.W. Norton, 1999 - Business & Economics - 658 pages

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes's acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance. Rich with anecdotal evidence, piercing analysis, and a truly astonishing range of erudition, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is a "picture of enormous sweep and brilliant insight" (Kenneth Arrow) as well as one of the most audaciously ambitious works of history in decades.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - nbmars - LibraryThing

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 ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - HadriantheBlind - LibraryThing

Reread for class. Author's main thesis is that cultural values play an important role in whether or not a nation succeeds or fails. Some areas of his thesis are easy to ridicule, but there is a lot of ...

About the author

David S. Landes (1924--2013) was professor emeritus at Harvard University and the author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Bankers and Pashas, The Unbound Prometheus, and Revolution in Time.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor
• Author: David S. Landes
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: W.W. Norton, 1999
• ISBN: 0393318885, 9780393318883
• Length: 658 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Development / Economic Development; Business & Economics / Economic Conditions; Business & Economics / Economic History; Business & Economics / Economics / Theory; History / Europe / Western