Rating: Summary: Very Very Disapointing. Give this one a miss. Review: I was very disapointed with this book, simply because it is little more then a European Supremacy history handbook.
It would not be so bad except the author continously downplays other cultures and peoples, while exagerating and emphasising White and Europeans achievements.
However i must say, the biggest failure of this book is to TELL US WHY SOME NATIONS ARE RICH AND OTHERS ARE POOR! He takes us down a long and boring narrative account of history for the past 400 years or so (All from a European perspective, focusing almost exclusively on European culture and achievements) while FAILING to even address the initial question!
If your a member of a White Supremacist group be sure to read this! It will help boost your superiority complex. For the rest of us... give this one a miss.
I feel the author has "wasted" a excellent title for a book (which caught my attention in the first place) and there are other less-biased persons who could have done a much better job.
Rating: Summary: Excellent Book Review: Whats not to like about this book? If you have any interest in history, sociology, or economics it will be right up your alley. As a Senior finishing up my Econ degree I found the background information in the book to be very illuminating. Despite high level of information contained inside it is written clearly and in a manner that the layperson may understand. This book will rest on my shelf amidst my favorites.
Rating: Summary: Simply Idiotic Review: Though I enjoyed Landes' humour sometimes, this book is by no means an honest endeavour to answer the question posed by the title. The work is mostly rhetoric. Though I agree with some of his conclusions but his arguments are almost always fellacious. This is my first history reading and I have almost no background on the subject. Still after few chapters it became clear that the book does not meet the criteria of an academic writing. It is a shame for Harvard that Landes carries its credentials!
Rating: Summary: An Intelligent Book Review: A great book. Full of facts and stories about human history and how it has affected our abilities to generate economic success. Some argue this book glorifies "Western triumphalism" - nonesense. Well written, funny at times. Gives one a much better understanding of the state of the modern world and the possibilities that lie ahead. Gives some possible reasons why some are poor and others not. A book worth reading.
Rating: Summary: Hmm. Review: Okay, I have to admit I haven't finished reading this book yet. BUT I have one small thing I must point out. When Landes discusses the quincentary of Columbus' landing (in 1992), he implies that "celebrations" of the European discovery of the New World were totally quashed due to being seen as politically incorrect. One of the specific examples he cites was the "1492" exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, which he describes as "ABC--Anything But Columbus." Uh--I WENT to that exhibition, and it was ONE-THIRD European art (in addition to 1/3rd Asian and 1/3rd Pre-Columbian). Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I know it's a small point, but I think it illustrates that a) the author has a tendency to rely on his faulty memory instead of the actual facts and b) he does so because he is eager to push his own views. I'm being nice by suggesting it's faulty memory rather than outright lying.
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