Rating: 
Summary: VERY FUNNY !
Review: Mr. Landes started this job already with a definited purpose: to make poor people accept the fact that they are poorer because they are dummier. Since the beginning of the book, Landes tries to demonstrate his "theories" about the white civilization superiority above the rest. In other words, North is better than SOuth. The book is full of prejudice, hidden meanings, pro-liberalism. One step more and we could have listened the American anthem playing on it.
Rating: 
Summary: A THOROUGH Explanation
Review: Like many Americans, my knowledge of history is not what it should be. I'm interested in history and how it has shaped the world we live in, and that's why I bought this book.Hats off to David Landes for his diligent and thorough research and his deep knowledge of the subject about which he writes. This book is not light reading; indeed, at times it was somewhat difficult for me, not being of the "ivory tower" set, but it is worth getting through. Landes does an excellent job of analyzing how such factors as climate, religious beliefs, form of government, and cultural and institutional barriers affected the prosperity or lack thereof of many different nations. I admire the fact he's not afraid to belittle some of the absurd revisionist history being taught in our universities nowadays. He may not be a conservative, but he's not afraid to gore the sacred cow of political correctness. No doubt, my time and money were well-spent with this book because it contains so much valuable information and I can save it as a reference book. A decade ago, I read "The Closing of the American Mind" (Norman Bloom?) Landes' book was similar to that in that some of it was a bit heavy, but its substantive content made it worth the while.
Rating: 
Summary: A fine work; a worthwhile retrospective of economic history
Review: Thanks to David Landes for helping me better understand the forces at play that shaped the world I know today. This is a timely (and possibly, timeless) work--time will tell! I found this book very refreshing and enlightening. I found his quest for truth encouraging. Moreover, I did not find it too detailed or rambling. It just takes more than a few words to say some things. And, I might add, his fine, conversational writing style makes the subject (and length of the book) less intimidating. By the way, there is no academically holy style, whatever we've been told. (Frankly, I had to struggle with that for the first hundred pages) Finally, this is an area that I have studied from many other perspectives over the past 35 years. The book explains that fragmentation and carried my thinking (sometimes kicking and screaming) to a better place.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting book that doesn't live up to its subtitle
Review: On the plus side 1)a lot of information, much of which is not common knowledge. 2)Landes writes well, sometimes very well. 3)the book is "post-racist," e.g. sometimes Europeans murder, torture, or enslave; sometimes non-Europeans do. That's not about ethnicity; it's about power and failure of conscience. 4)frequently, the book will make you think; Landes isn't shy about telling you he thinks a scholar or a politician (or a hundred million people)are wrong--and why. But on the negative side, he never really says WHY some succeeded and some failed. Or rather he gives lots of different reasons for success and failure in individual cases. But it just didn't fit together for me. The closest he comes to a general theory is his chronological description of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, "Institutions and culture first; [investable] money next; but from the beginning and increasingly the payoff was to knowledge." (276) About halfway through I started losing interest; it seemed to ramble. (BTW the title is not a direct allusion to Adam Smith. Landes prefaces the book with an excerpt of a letter from Thomas Malthus to David Ricardo 40 years later, "...the causes of the wealth and poverty or nations--the grand object of all enquiries in Political Economy" (vii))
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating book of great integrity
Review: Landes shows very convincingly, that cultural values have a large influence on the economic success of a society. Explaining somebody why he is poor, in contrast to yourself, is generally not received very well, as is evident from some of the comments. But a good medicine may be bitter! Landes clearly shows that, although not everything can be controlled, there are cultural values that do make a possitive difference: education, curiosity, a liberal spirit, and hard work, and that there are human vices that drag down any society: corruption, fanaticism, narrowmindedness, intolerance, laziness, racism, lack of responsibility. Just look at Africa! Spanish and Portugese readers will get tears in their eyes when reading this book; it must be embarrassing. To those who want to learn some hard but good lessons: read Landes' book and go for it. The rest can go back to bed.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent overview of civilizations and progress
Review: How sad it is that people feel compelled to politicize works such as these and Diamond's GG&S. Since Diamond's book ends at just about the point where this one begins, and because they are talking about necessary precursors to modern civilization on the one hand, and the era of that civilization itself on the other, one need not choose one view or the other. That is, unless everything must be sacrificed to the politicization of ideas. Some things are just true, boys and girls, and while both authors will certainly admit that historical causes are inevitably overdetermined, this book (and Diamond's) quite simply hits the nail on the head in comparing cultures that have "progressed" (to use a politically loaded term) to those that have not. Many of Landes' points are not in dispute; for instance, the results in China, and much later, Japan, due to the closing off of their cultures to outside influences. Another is the oft-mentioned ties within Islamic culture of religion to secular knowledge, and the subordination of the latter to the former. But no matter; anything can be shamed, at least temporarily, by crying racism, or accusing one of a lack of concern, or eurocentrism, etc. For real scholars, though, the point is in honestly trying to find out what is true, and in having the ability to use that knowledge. Just like cultures that succeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful explaining the past, hopeless for the future
Review: Whilst Landes may strive to convince us of what the keys to economic wealth and growth are; we must remember that he is a historian and The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is history. Culture, economic geography, social conditions, and other impediments to economics are increasingly irrelevant in a new millienium of hypercompetition, globalisation and cyberspace-driven economics.Read Landes about the past but he is no tour guide for the future. The rules that govern the past do not govern the future. It is a new ball game from here on.
Rating:
Summary: Best on the subject
Review: Landes is an historian who is very qualified for writing a book on this topic on which he has done much research. And indeed his book is excellent, the best of its class in my opinion. The only thing is that he does not conform to the leftist, politically correct ideology. I assume this is the reason why leftists prefers Diamond's anti-Western book (guns...), although Diamond has no qualifications in the area and his book is extremely poorly argumented--no match for Landes. I can understand that anti-Western Westerners will dislike Landes' book because it shows the achievements and greatness of the West, but how many leftists are ready to be true to their ideas and live in a Third World country? Why do on the contrary all people in the Third World dream (and try) of immigrating to the West, whereas the opposite does not happen? This confirms to me that Landes can't be wrong, and that his book is a milestone, an achievement that everyone should read.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Misleading
Review: This is one of the most narrow analyses of history that I have ever read. The author deals with an extremely selective range of history and rather than seeking answers to the question posed, the book is a pulpit for the author's personal opinions which are passed of as historical inevitibility. It is the worst kind of history - result based and biased. The author seems to endorse every historian prior to 1940 - basically colonial, while dismissing any modern analysis as tainted by political correctness. Lots of facts, no analysis and a mere expression of opinion- a much better book on the topic is Jared Diamond's Guns Germs and Steel, which takes a much broader view and offers scientific fact based causes rather than vague "culture" for disparity in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This fundamental book shows shows the economic benefits of Western civilization. It is a must for everyone's library - and only converting underdeveloped nations to these idea can help them out of their failure. I also recommend the books on this issue by Peter T. Bauer, Doug Bandow, Michael Novak, etc.
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