Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic Calvinist Determinism
Review: The problems with Mr. Landes' book are many. First, he absurd cultural and religious determinism accomplishes little more than stoking the fires of already rampant antipathy. What little historical merit this book might contain is swamped by the Landes' insipid and hackneyed tropes of Calvinist value supremacy. Anyone seeking to read the basis for the next in a long and infamous line of Western self-concratulatory texts should pick up Weber, "Protestant Ethic." Second, Landes' whitewashing of European and American military and economic imperialism allows him to pity LDCs for their cultural inadequacy alone. Forutantely, he offers the salvation of the neo-liberal economic paradigm and of Christian values (as if either of these would prevent IMF austerity measures or the landing of the 81st airborne). Why read the whole book, when you can manufacture the idea from your weekly sermon?
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This is an excellent and, though hardly a book you'd want to take to the beach and read, it is a surprisingly ease read for a book of its kind. And to be honest, I can see how lots of "politcally correct/multicultural" types won't like this and claim it is racist, or Eurocentric, or God knows what- but that not only goes to show they have not read the book, but, to arouse such ire, this book has touched a sore spot with these folks...the the truth will out.
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Summary: Ambitious Project: More History than Economics
Review: I enjoyed the book, even when I disagreed with Landes. I was, however, disappointed - apart from some interesting anecdotes here and there, I learned little that I did not know already (and I am neither an economics, nor a history major). The project Landes took on is ambitious; he wants to explain - and without too many numbers, please! - why some countries are so rich, and some so poor. He does a decent job in explaining Europe/USA, and a reasonable job in explaining the poverty of sub-Saharan Africa. But his style is to talk about issues from 100,000 feet above sea-level. If you are interested in economics (even only an amateur one), or are a policy-maker, this approach, and the book, are utterly useless. East Asia and Japan are addresses, but in disappointingly shallow fashion. Latin America merits a similar fate. China's past gets mentioned; its present is either not mentioned at all, or completely glossed over. India gets passing mention. The book's historical sections are splendid; his language, even in criticism, is graceful. But the book has an air of having been hurried towards the latter portions, and all-too-leisurely in the initial, historical sections. There's also a theme running through the book that will jar the optimists. It is this: culture is destiny. Maybe you can do an end-run around Ricardo by creating your own comparative advantages using protections; maybe you can dodge Adam Smith too, by constructive involvement of the state in industry, but you can not dodge who you are, nor can you easily change that state of affairs. Disturbing thought.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Summary Of The State Of The World
Review: This book must rate as one of my all time favourite works of non-fiction. As a western expatriate with nine years experience of third world countries, this book explains the atrocious state of countries such as India, and the lamentable state of the whole African nation. If you want to read unvarnished truth, read this book, if you prefer political correctness, stick to comic books. This book talks of the state that the world is in now-and the reasons for it, and does not waste space talking about how we would like the world to be. A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource of understanding for inequality
Review: the human race is consider as an uniform group and we never consider the radical differences between groups. From climate to history from biology to psycology we are considerably different form each other and that has to be understood not only by politicians but all of us to create national and international policies. We can't expect the same from everybody. We have to understand and cope. This book is helping me see this. I think is an excellent book.
Rating:
Summary: These reviews say as much about the reviewers as about book.
Review: It's interesting to read all the reviews here. Anyone with a little background in statistics will quickly note a "bimodal" (i.e. two-humped) distribution. That is, people either LOVE the book or HATE it. The "stat-literate" will also know that the implication of this, since there is not a bell curve of any kind and the book is the same in all cases, is that the source of difference is really in the reviewers -- i.e the reviews contain as much information about the reviewers as about the book. I'm personally in the "love-it" camp -- thinking "this is history the way it ought to be written". Dense; thoughtful; thematic and detailed at the same time. Whether you agree or not with what Landes says, his arguments are interesting, thought-provoking and worth thinking about. I get the impression (obviously this is subjective on MY part) that many critics of the book are basically angry about "Eurocentrism" or "Euro-dominance". But, like it or not, it is true that Europe led the Industrial Revolution and, partly as a result, has had an "over-weighted" impact on many aspects of world history. That's just a historical fact; like it or not. Landes didn't CAUSE it; he merely is trying to understand it. And -- whether one ends up being persuaded by any, all, or none of his arguments -- this book is worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointing
Review: This book compares very poorly with the entertaining and well thought out Guns,Germs and Steel. Landes book is a anectodotal ramble. It contains little in the form of a central thesis or argument.
Rating:
Summary: silly excuse for scholarship
Review: Landes gives himself away here as never before as a rampant apologist for the devastation of Western colonialism and neo-liberal imperialism. A work which in an intellectually sane society would be laughed out of the marketplace is in the US reviewed with sober reverence. The book conveniently ignores the preponderance of historical data explaining why third world populations are in their modern-day predicaments. Landes, from his lofty Cambridge peak, affects to bemoan the poor brown people's inability to grow up and become civilized, ignoring the shining example of freedom, technological inititative and courageous, entrepreneurial daring of the West. A rather cursory look at the history of Bengal's deindustrialization under the British would quickly rip apart Landes' paper-thin argument, thus this and many other such topics are studiously avoided. Blaming the victims for circumstances imposed by oppressor states is an old sport, one in which Landes excels with exceptional vigor. For those interested in the mind-set of the modern American intellectual class, however, such a book will prove most instructive, though it should also elicit sympathy from anyone who regrets the sight of a mind trapped in the petrifying morass of vulgar ideology.
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Summary: A rigorous, thought provoking survey of industrial history
Review: Landes work illustrates his commanding knowledge of the origins and factors driving socio-economic evolution. The work is a terrific balance of concept and detail, fittingly interspersed with contextual academic anecdote. As with as difficult subjects, the conclusion is appropriately controversial, but nonetheless incontrovertible.
Rating:
Summary: this book really rates 0 stars
Review: This book is nothing more than regurgitated hogwash and a rerun of Darwinism, etc. recast as values and other factors such as temperature. Why such a book would be so popular in a country where the lack of values has been repeatedly shown is a mystery to me.
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