Book Description
A bold manifesto by two business leaders, A Billion Bootstraps shows why microcredit is the world's most powerful poverty-fighting movement-and an unbeatable investment for your charitable donations.
A Billion Bootstraps unearths the roots of the microcredit revolution, revealing how the pioneering work of people such as Dr. Muhammad Yunus-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-is giving hope to billions. Philanthropist and self-made millionaire Phil Smith and microcredit expert and consultant Eric Thurman provide a riveting narrative that explores how these small loans, arranged by “barefoot bankers,” enable impoverished people to start small businesses, support their families, and improve local economies. By paying back their loans instead of simply accepting handouts, men and women around the world are continually giving others the same opportunity to change their futures.
Smith and Thurman also examine why traditional charity programs, while providing short-term relief, often perpetuate the problems they are trying to alleviate, and how applying investment principles to philanthropy is the key to reversing poverty permanently.
A Billion Bootstraps explains how ordinary people can accelerate the microcredit movement by investing charitable donations in specific programs and then leveraging those contributions so the net cost to lift one person out of poverty is remarkably low. You'll discover how to get more for your money by donating with the mind-set of an investor and calculating measurable returns-returns that will change lives and societies forever.
Customer Reviews:
Its an overview of what microcredit is but not how to start one .......2007-09-19
This is a good book in explaining what microcredit is and how to get involved, but not how to run a microcredit organization.
I preferred Mohammed Yunus (the noble prize winner) autobiography to this book it gave a better summary of what it is and explains how microcredit can work in the rural and inner city US which a Billion Bootstraps doubts can happen. In Yunus' book he demonstrates how microcredit has worked programs in urban Chicago and rural Arkansas.
Excellent introduction to Microfinance.......2007-08-26
The book explains well the business model of microfinance, what works and what not. It provides a very good insight into this industry. The author has obviously broad experience.
Required Reading for Those Who Seek to End Poverty.......2007-05-27
A Billion Bootstraps is potentially a world changing book. It describes the most effective way to end poverty that I've ever heard about. I had heard about micro loans -- before but didn't know how it worked or how powerful it can truly be. Many misguided people believe that giving people things is the answer to poverty, and sadly, that is rarely the case. Intuitively many of us have also realized this but never had a better way, never had an answer. Here's the answer and it's told and explained in a straigt forward and compelling way. I particulary enjoyed the stories of the lives that have been changed by micro loans, truly inspiring. My hat is off to Phil Smith and Eric Thurman for the fine work they have done in spreading the good word about the creative business solution to poverty. This is creative problem solving at it's finest. For more about creative problem solving, see: Jack's Notebook: A business novel about creative problem solving
Powerfully motivating.......2007-04-16
The best way to attack poverty is through the use of sound economic principles. This book will inspire you to look at poverty, not as a hopeless problem, but as an opportunity to effect real change in the lives of individuals. By acting upon the lessons of this book, you can ignite the spark of personal industry in the lives of people who can then create lasting wealth for their families, communities, and countries; finally succeeding where "charity" had previously failed. Reading this book will show you how you truly can make a difference.
enlightening read.......2007-04-15
A Billion Bootstraps changed the way I view charitable giving. Now instead of "giving to a charity," I am "investing in changing lives." What's more, I've learned to look for and expect accountability from the organizations which receive my money. Microcredit, which once seemed an esoteric concept, is now accessible to those of us who don't have business or economics degrees, thanks to Philip Smith and Eric Thurman. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to intelligently invest in changing lives of the poorest of the poor.
Average customer rating:
|
Heathcliff and the Great Hunger: Studies in Irish Culture
Terry Eagleton
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ireland
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Potato Famine
| Ireland
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Literary Theory
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Irish
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
Culture
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1859849326 |
Book Description
Nobel laureate Robert Fogel's compelling new study examines health, nutrition and technology from 1700 to 2100. Although throughout most of human history, chronic malnutrition has been the norm, a synergy between improvements in productive technology and human physiology has enabled humans to more than double their average longevity and to increase their body size by over fifty percent over the past three centuries. Larger, healthier humans have contributed to the acceleration of economic growth and technological change, resulting in reduced economic inequality, declining hours of work and a corresponding increase in leisure time. Increased longevity has also brought increased demand for health care. Fogel argues that health care should be viewed as the growth industry of the twenty-first century and systems of financing it should be reformed. His book will be essential reading for all interested in economics, demography, history and health care policy. A professor at the University of Chicago, Robert William Fogel has taught at the University of Rochester, Cambridge University, and Harvard University. He has received numerous awards and prizes for his work, including the Arthur C. Cole Prize (1968), the Schumpeter Prize (1971), the Bancroft Prize (1975), the Gustavus Myers Prize (1990), and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science (1993). Previous books include Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (W.W. Norton & Company, 1994) and The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism (The University of Chicago Press, 2000).
Customer Reviews:
A glass more than half-full?.......2006-04-16
Given that our vision is so heavily freighted with the moment, ideas of human progress are in short supply lately. Although not an easy ride, economic historian and Nobel laureate Robert William Fogel's survey of the long run, at least in respect to human morbidity, leisure and longevity, provides escape velocity from pressing concerns about war, pandemic, income inequality and the health of the ecosphere. It might be as another noted economist, Alfred Lord Keynes, said in a different context: In the long-run we are all dead. But, the long-run seems to be getting longer.
The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100 is an extension of Fogel's briefer 1993 Nobel Prize Lecture. It provides a synergistic view of the impact of increasing human environmental control on the demographic, economic and physiological conditions of successive generations over the past 300 years. According to Fogel, the interaction of these forces has over this period, and most dramatically over the last century, brought about a new stage of evolution - non-genetic "techno-physio evolution." He indicates this is evidenced by an unprecedented positive change during this period in caloric intake of about 250%, human body size of over 50%, and an increase in longevity of over 100%. Pointing to the future, Fogel's extrapolation of data over the last 140 years in optimal life circumstances, suggests that centenarians will be common by the last quarter of the 21st century. During the past three centuries there has also been an accompanying substantial decrease in the hours it takes each day to earn one's daily bread and increase in the percentage of discretionary income.
Although this is a "little" book, just 111 pages in the main body, it is densely packed with deep-mine data and illuminating higher-order concepts derived from a lifetime of concentration on economic development, particularly when Fogel was affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research as director of its Development of the American Economy Program and subsequently at the University of Chicago as the Charles R. Walgreen Professor of American Institutions and director of the university's Center for Population Economics. Metabolic indices, the thermodynamics of human physiological activity, Waaler curves, in-utero effects on morbidity, protein energy, malnutrition, physiological capital, and Gini ratios are grist for Fogel's mill.
Fogel's treatment of the confluence of technological change, diet, morbidity, work demands, leisure and mortality extends beyond developments in Western society to include the rapid pace of technophysio evolutionary changes in third world countries whose per capita income increases piggybacked on Western innovations, consequently dwarfing the much slower pace of Western improvements a century earlier. In the process of his examination he emphasizes the need to recognize the optimal conditions for human adaptation rather than settle for standards such as daily caloric requirements derived from earlier phases of technophysio evolution. Policy issues in the areas of health care, personal savings and retirement are also discussed in the light of the demographic changes that are occurring.
Some data reported by Fogel and those from other sources are anomalous. For instance, in view of the technophysio evolution particularly of the last 100 years, it seems strange that Dutch males, who were on average about 5'5" in 1860 are now the tallest in the world at about 5'11" while over the same period US men, who were about 5'7" then, are only 5'8" now after the declines of the last few decades. One explanation derives from the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the US (Gini = 45) compared to the greater income equality in the Netherlands (Gini = 30.9). (The Gini coefficient ranges from 1-100 with lower scores representing less income inequality). Also, there are data from millennia ago indicating a decline in average heights in the Eastern Mediterranean in the transition period from the hunter-gatherer economic regime to the first agricultural revolution (11,000 BC - 5000 BC). In John Kolmos (Ed.) Stature, Living Standards and Economic Development (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994) there are a number of contributions that focus on such issues.
Professor Fogel touches very briefly on in utero, childhood and adolescence effects of economic status on morbidity and mortality, but his comment that "The exact mechanisms by which malnutrition and trauma in utero or in early childhood are transformed into organ dysfunctions are still unclear." (p. 32) is unwarranted. These relationships are detailed extensively in various chapters of the volume by Bruce S. McEwen and H. Maurice Goodman (Eds.) Handbook of Physiology: Coping with the Environment: Vol. IV (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001) for neuroendocrine abnormalities; in D.J.P. Barker's Mothers, Babies and Health in later Life (Churchill Livingstone, 1998) and Fetal Origins of Cardiovascular and Lung Disease (Marcel Dekker, 2001) for specific organ effects; in Peter Gluckman and Mark Hansen's The Fetal Matrix (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005) for more general morbidity effects; and A.R. Cellura's The Genomic Environment and Niche-Experience (Cedar Springs Press, 2005) for the confluence of genetic influences, economic regimes, ecological niches, caloric intake, stature, morbidity and mortality.
Robert William Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100 is that rare species of research - longitudinal study. Unlike the cross-sectional snapshots whose importance often quickly fades, there is gold in these data mines that is so precious because it is so difficult to find and so hard to get to. It is must reading for those in human biology, medicine and the social sciences who are interested in the issues surrounding human adaptation. It will also appeal to life-long learners drawn to the interface between the biology, economics and history of the human condition.
Book Description
In Wishful Thinking, the first book in his much-loved lexical trilogy, Frederick Buechner puts the language of God, the universe, and the human spirit under his wry linguistic microscope. In his often ironic and always keen-sighted reflections on such terms as agnostic, envy, love, and sin, he invited us to look at theses everyday words in new and enlightening ways. Freshly revised and expanded for this edition, Wishful Thinking is a "beguiling" [Time] adventure in language for the restless believer, the doubter, and all who love words.
Amazon.com
A kind of "mongrel litter" by way of Pascal, Voltaire, and Ambrose Bierce, this theological run through the alphabet goes from Abraham and Agnostic straight through to YWHW and Zaccheus--the tax collector who shimmied up the tree on Palm Sunday to get a good look at Jesus. In between we get a heady brew of humor and wisdom. On Anger, for example, Buechner writes: "Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun.... In many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you." Or this, on wine: "Unfermented grape juice is a bland and pleasant drink ... [but] it is a ghastly symbol of the life blood of Jesus Christ, especially when served in individual antiseptic, thimble-sized glasses. Wine is booze, which means it is dangerous and drunk-making. It makes the timid brave and the reserved amorous. It loosens the tongue and breaks the ice especially when served in a loving cup. It kills germs. As symbols go, it is a rather splendid one."
And the book's title? Find it under "W": "Christianity is mainly wishful thinking.... Sometimes wishing is the wings the truth comes on. Sometimes the truth is what sets us wishing for it." --Doug Thorpe
Customer Reviews:
very helpful book.......2007-01-09
a very good book for "seekers" and those who think they have already "found."
A Christian's view of philosophy........2007-01-05
This is a book for those who require their Christian beliefs to be confirmed and supported.
Not in my opinion a work that will provide any balanced explanation of metaphysical philosophies.
I would suggest that a true exploration in to faith should begin with a good understanding of many theological perspectives, not something that I found in this book.
Upbeat and profound.......2006-03-21
This little book by Fred Buechner is a gem. It's crisp, hopeful Christian theology. It's an upbeat page-turner, but it is not dumb-downed for the masses. I keep going back to my dog-eared 1974 original version of this book by my bedside. I bought the updated paperback version both as gifts and as a traveling companion.
continually thought provoking.......2006-02-19
This book is so much fun. Buechner writes so well and thinks so clearly. It's a kind of iconoclastic dictionary. He invites us to look at words, concepts and articles of faith differently and to shatter the platitudes-all by giving short definitions of the terms we use every day as people of faith.
I've found it especially useful when writing or preparing sermons as a way to get out of the box and see a text or a concept differently with a twist. Essential for the thinking preacher
A treasure of a book.......2005-10-28
This was the first book by Frederick Buechner I have read, and I have already ordered more.
It's a quick read, yet full of little treasures. I enjoyed some of his thoughts so much that I made a list of favorites while reading, so I could go back and read those parts again, such as "homelessness".
Written in a style that should prove an easy read for all, I found it thought provoking and heart warming.
Average customer rating:
- This book can be used as a fertilizer
- "Famines are not natural disasters,but social disasters"
- Invaluable, Illuminating, Empowering
- An excellent resource
- Excellent Warning Against Market Fundamentalism
|
World Hunger: Twelve Myths
Frances Moore Lappe ,
Joseph Collins ,
Peter Rosset , and
Luis Esparza
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Agricultural
| Commercial Policy
| Comparative
| Consolidation & Merger
| Cooperatives
| Debt & Deficits
| Development & Growth
| Econometrics
| Economic Conditions
| Economic History
| Economic Policy & Development
| Exports & Imports
| Free Enterprise
| Inflation
| International
| Labor & Industrial Relations
| Macroeconomics
| Microeconomics
| Money & Monetary Policy
| Natural Resources
| Privatization
| Public Finance
| Statistics
| Sustainable Development
| Theory
| Unemployment
| Urban & Regional
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Services & Welfare
| Poverty
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Work
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Agricultural Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
-
Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet
-
The Paradox of Plenty: Hunger in a Bountiful World
-
Democracy's Edge: Choosing to Save Our Country by Bringing Democracy to Life
-
The Fatal Harvest Reader
ASIN: 0802135919 |
Book Description
In this completely revised and updated edition of the most authoritative book on world hunger, three of our foremost experts on food and agriculture expose and explode the myths that prevent us from effectively addressing the problem. Drawing on and distilling the extensive research of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First), Lappé, Collins, and Rosset examine head-on the policies and politics that have kept hungry people from feeding themselves around the world, in both Third and First World countries, as well as the misconceptions that have obscured our own national, social, and humanitarian interests. Written in a straightforward, easy-to-read style, World Hunger: Twelve Myths shakes many tenaciously held beliefs; but most important, it convinces readers that by standing together with the hungry we can advance not only humanitarian interests, but our own well-being.
Customer Reviews:
This book can be used as a fertilizer.......2006-06-19
A friend of me, who lives in Europe, lent this book to me, some months ago.I'm an agronomist and I live in Brazil.As an agronomist, I found this book so bad, that I didn't read all of it.
On chapter 5, this book claims that "Green Revolution" wasn't an answer.In fact the "Green Revolution" gave food fo billions of people in the world.Today, because of modern agronomy there's more per capita food than any other time in world history.
On chapter 7, this book is against free market, as a good solution.Well even recognizing the failures of free market, I should tell you that any other possiblity is far worse.We must remember that Lenin, Stalin,Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung killed more than 100,000,000 people, by hungry.And any of these marxist was using "free market" to produce all this famine.
In fact,modern agronomy ( mecanization, fertilizers, bigger farms, transgenic seeds,etc.) gave to the mankind better and cheaper food.
Another fact is that old agriculture produces food at a very high price and low quality also.If we return to agriculture from about 100 years ago, the majority of world population will be sentenced to death by famine.
Claiming absurds about agriculture, this book can be used as a fertilizer.
"Famines are not natural disasters,but social disasters".......2005-09-09
This book is only 270 pages including about 75 pages of notes and references and tries to cover a massive issue.Not only is the solution to hunger a huge problem but is different all over the world,even different issues within a single country or area.Therefore it will require the wisdom of Methusala and the strength of Goliath to make inroads.
The world abounds in theories and agendas of how to end hunger and all efforts are hampered by power structures,politics and on top of all that,injustice.
The authors tackle what they claim are generally accepted myths about hunger.They are:
1 There's Simply Not Enough Food.
2 Nature's to Blame.
3 Too Many Mouths to Feed.
4 Food vs. Our Enviroment.
5 The Green Revolution is the Answer.
6 Justice vs.Production.
7 The Free Market is the Answer.
8 Free Trade is the Answer.
9 Too Hungry to Revolt.
10 More US Aid will Help The Hungry.
11 We Benefit From Their Hunger.
12 Food vs. Freedom
Overall an excellent effort to dispel many commonly accepted myths.
Invaluable, Illuminating, Empowering.......2002-09-15
World Hunger: Twelve Myths clearly identifies the root causes of hunger as stemming from inequity and lack of true democracy, dispelling entirely the common belief that inadaquate food production is to blame. In their plain spoken and positive eloquence, the authors overwhelmingly succeed in conveying otherwise dauntingly complex global social and economic dynamics that contribute to world hunger and how each must be changed to honestly address the plight of the poor.
World Hunger: 12 Myths should have a permanent home in school curricula, libraries, and in the hands of people of all ages wishing to better understand and improve the world in which they live.
An excellent resource.......2002-05-17
Over the years, many myths have emerged about the subject of world hunger. People think that if this or that should happen, hunger will disappear, and no longer will westerners have to look at pictures of starving babies in Africa. This book explodes many of those myths.
Some people think that population (or overpopulation) is the problem. Others think that there simply isn't enough food available, or that nature, with her floods and droughts, is the culprit. Still others think that the solution lies with free trade, or letting the market provide, or with the Green Revolution, with its heavy emphasis on pesticides and other chemicals. Other possibilities are that the poor are simply too hungry to revolt, or that the US should increase its stingy foreign aid budget.
The authors place the blame elsewhere. All over the world, there has been a huge concentration of land in fewer and fewer hands, forcing poor and middle-class peasants off the land (in the US, witness the decline of the family farmer). Structural adjustment programs from places like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (part of the requirements when asking for a loan) require a country to reorient its agriculture toward items that are easily exportable rather than items that can feed their people. Another requirement is the removal of internal tariffs and other barriers to the import of grain and other foodstuffs. It results in a flood of cheaper (usually American) agricultural products reaching the market, driving local farmers out of business. The countries that one thinks of when hearing "famine" actually produce enough food to feed their people. The only problem is that much of it has to go overseas to help pay the foreign debt.
This book is excellent. It presents a potentially complex subject in a clear, easy to understand manner. It contains a list of addresses to contact for more information, and is a great activism reference.
Excellent Warning Against Market Fundamentalism.......2002-04-03
This book does an excellent job of showing how despite the economic growth that has been spurred worldwide thanks to deregulation, liberalization of trade and finance, and improvements in information technology, adherence to market fundamentalism has contributed to creating stark disparities in the distribution of wealth between developed and developing nations, as well as within those nations themselves.
Nevertheless, globalization, for whatever faults it possesses, has made the people of the nations of the world feel more connected than ever (In fact, I'm writing this from Japan, where I have lived for seven years). this book sensibly points out that In order to come up with a food policy that will minimize hunger worldwide, naturally poverty must also be reined in. It seems to me that in order to significantly reduce poverty, all nations must make a fundamental shift in their foreign policy away from acting for the benefit of national interests and toward the benefits of the human race as a whole. I cannot say whether mankind is ready for such a change at this juncture.
However, The book concludes that the freedom to eke out a living (the problem of the poor) supersedes the right to accumulate unlimited wealth (the hoarding of wealth by a small number of people). While this is most certainly true, it also seemed to oversimplify the problem of disparity of income based on the very facts presented in the book. While the book did denounce communist regimes at one point in the book, I felt that the conclusion of the book unneccessarily demonized wealthy individuals and major companies and called the proletariat of the world to unite.
For this weakness in its conclusion, I can only give this work four stars, but still I do strongly recommend giving a careful read to this text for the invaluable information it provides on this terrible problem.
Book Description
The Man Who Fed the World provides a loving and respectful portrait of one of America's greatest heroes. Nobel Peace Prize recipient for averting hunger and famine, Dr. Norman Borlang is credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives from starvation-more than any other person in history? Loved by millions around the world, Dr. Borlang is recognized as one of the most influential men of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Delivery of a Great Story of an Amazing Man.......2007-09-29
Just by reading the jacket copy, one can glean that Norman Borlaug was an amazing man. In this biographical tome by Borlaug's friend and colleague, we follow Borlaug's life.
We are pulled into the story by an unassuming man toiling in the fields being ambushed by a pickup truck full of reporters and photographers, eager to talk to the latest Nobel Prize recipient, and carried by Hesser's exceptional writing through an uplifting story of how a man who flunked a college entrance exam made huge strides in ending world hunger.
I recommend this book to those interested in the life of Norman Borlaug, those studying world hunger and the efforts to end it, and to those looking to learn how to write an exemplary biography.
A life-changing read.......2007-03-25
The Man Who Fed The World an authorized biography by Leon Hesser
Norman Borlaug's life, written by Leon Hesser, is more than magnanimous. It is impressively humble.
Hesser's remarkable, well-written book, is a wonderful story of the simple life of an Iowa farm boy whose extraordinary determination led him on a lifelong journey to feed a starving world. A young Norman Borlaug, scarred by the effects of the Great Depression witnessed, first hand, how food changes peoples lives.
The Man Who Fed The World is an inspiring book of one man's hope, vision, and the intestinal fortitude to relentlessly pursue his goal to relieve human suffering. And for the millions of the world's starving who were unable to personally express their gratitude Norma Borlaug, on October 20, 1970, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
A huge thank you to Leon Hesser for bringing the world this book!
Marsha is a writer, speaker, and author of Emerald's Garden How to grieve, mourn and recover from loss. See [...]
An important nonfiction book to read.......2007-03-08
Good reading for anyone who cares about alleviating hunger in the world; something we should all care to know more about.
Inspiring book .......2007-02-22
Nice work! This book captures the spirit of a man that passionately seeks ways to help people in other geographies. The author shows how Norman empowered those he wanted to help by giving them new tools to succeed, a far superior approach to charity.
One of the Quiet Heros.......2006-11-17
In Jimmy Carter's introduction to this book he points out the Norman Borlang has the distinction as one of the 100 most influential individuals of the 20th century.
Dr. Borlang was the 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Price. This was awarded for his work in saving the lives of more people - hundreds of millions, perhaps over a billion - from starvation than any person in history.
He, as much as any other individual deserves the title, The Father of the Green Revolution. In the late 1960s, most experts said that global famines in which billions would die would soon occur. Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, 'The battle to feed all of humanity is over... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.' Ehrlich also said, 'I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971,' and 'India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.'
Thanks to Dr. Borlaug, Paul Erlich was wrong.
Note that this doesn not mean that the problems are over. The Green Revolution plants take more water, more fertilizer (made from oil) than the older plants. There is an ongoing debate about biotechnology and food supplies. And of course, population growth cannot continue forever. But without Dr. Borlaug there would have been a lot more dying. And besides this just might sound like Paul Erlich.
Dr. Borlaug (now 91) lived a life filled with satisfaction, awards, and the knowledge that he has helped to feed millions.
Book Description
What really happens when the World Bank imposes its policies on a country? This is an insider's view of one aid-made crisis. Peter Griffiths was at the interface between government and the Bank. In this day-by-day account of a mission he undertook in Sierra Leone in 1986, he tells the story of how the World Bank, obsessed with the free market, imposed a secret agreement on the government, banning all government food imports or subsidies. This is a rare and important portrait of the aid world which insiders will recognize, but of which the general public seldom gets a glimpse.
Customer Reviews:
A real-world mystery story.......2007-02-12
The Economist's Tale is a slightly-fictionalized account of Griffiths' short-term consulting gig in Sierra Leone. The events in the story take place in 1986, so the information here isn't directly applicable to the present situation, but it will be of interest to (and accessible to) both economists and laymen all the same.
This is not a book about economic theory. Nor is it about the World Bank, per se. Rather, it's about the way people respond to incentives, and how the unintended consequences of their actions can combine to create a disaster.
The story reads almost like a mystery, told as it is through diary entries that reveal the puzzle as Griffiths himself pieced it together. It's a bit self-congratulatory and defensive, but in a way that I found easy to forgive as I got caught up in the adventure. I'd recommend it to anyone.
A must-read.......2005-12-29
The Economist's Tale is a clunkily-written but still gripping story of corruption, dogmatism and a barely-averted famine in Sierra Leone in 1986. The author, working on food policy for the World Bank and seconded to the Sierra Leonian government, discovers that:
- The country lives mainly on rice (the backup crop, cassava, has all been eaten over the last two years).
- Nobody knows whether or not enough rice is being grown to feed the country (there are two different scientific studies of production that differ by 80%). Some rice is imported, but anything from 20-100% of it is smuggled out of the country again, and nobody knows how much.
- The currency, the leone, was held at an overvalued rate to the dollar. Imported rice was half the price of home-grown rice and the monopoly exporter was so inefficient that cocoa and coffee growers saw about 20% of the price they might have seen on the open market. So no-one's growing anything.
- Now the leone's been floated at the World Bank's insistence, it's collapsed in value by a factor of 10. But production is too low for native producers to take advantage: imports will go up in price long before the exchange comes into the country to buy them.
Then he works out by interviews and legwork that, in fact, the country depends on the imported rice to avoid a famine. And then the government signs a deal with the World Bank, his employer, to get an emergency loan of $5 million, in return for which they will stop all rice subsidies and slash their rice imports by almost 90%. And the private importers who might import enough rice to make up the difference won't, because they can't afford to sell it below the market rate and, being all Lebanese, they'd rather not get involved than risk starting a race riot by being seen as price-gouging. As the only person who knows all the facts, he has to persuade the government to break its deal with the World Bank without starting a turf war, making the decision take so long that a famine happens anyway, or destroying his own future career.
It's an excellent book. The lessons:
- Economics is all about incentives. No matter how ideal a market solution might be in theory, if the incentives aren't lined up right the market won't work.
- A currency whose liquidity is so small that its value is changed by importing a single expensive car probably shouldn't be floating.
- Corruption is everywhere, and corruption kills. The state electricity company is unreliable, so everyone uses personal, much more inefficient generators, so there isn't enough oil.
- Dogmatism also kills. You can't un-distort a market overnight. There's a lovely moment when a British Conservative starts explaining to the Americans how privatisation isn't really that great an idea.
Recommended to anyone who's interested in development economics, africa, politics, food, globalization, the World Bank, racism, colonialism, and any of the other ways that people end up treating people the way they do. And it has a happy ending!
Changed my understanding of third world poverty.......2005-05-07
This is an absolutely riveting book. I heard of it through a brief mention at Brad DeLong's website, and ordered it because of the comments by the previous reviewers. I can only agree with their comments -- this book should be required reading for anyone interested in globalization, poverty, and the real world constraints that often prevent idealistic anti-poverty efforts from succeeding. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Insighful and sad account.......2005-01-28
A good book, known by few, written by an even less well known author, to which I am grateful. As (probably) most of the other readers, I learned about this book from a (very positive) book review published on the "Economist".
This book tells a first person account of how bad economics, corruption, or "simple" incompetence almost caused a famine of immane proportion in Sierra Leone, in the 80s, with the important "contribution" of the World Bank. The author (at the time a consultant for the World Bank) tells us how he managed to avert the crisis, a deed that many did not appreciate, and that caused him professional troubles later on.
It is a mistery how this book can be so little known. It is well written, and above all quite deep. Mr Griffith clearly shows to be a skilled and informed economist. I found particularly compelling the pages that discuss how economic "data" should be often taken with a grain of salt, or two. Especially in poor countries, "data" are sometimes nothing else that guesses (sometimes educated, sometimes not), and this may lead to enormous policy mistakes. Unfortunately, people's lives may put at stake by such mistakes. One point that Mr Griffith powerfully makes is that economic policy is not simply boring material to be debated by politicians and discussed in the ivory towers of academia, but it is something REAL that has sometimes the potential of deciding about the fate of millions of people. Unfortunately, policy is the hands of men, and this book amply shows once more how little trust we should have in men.
Overall, this is quite a compelling reading, much more than the insipid "Globalization and its discontent" by Stiglitz, a world-class economist that has produced a little polemic book that could have been memorable, and instead has disappointed everyone, except uncritical anti-globalization protesters. If you are looking for a deeper account of the potential evil of economic policy and the World Bank, this book is highly recommended.
P.S. By the way, contrary to what some extremist may believe, the World Bank is not only made by evil individuals who only care about their career. The World Bank is a very complex institution, and I can assure you that committed, serious, and conscientious individuals abound in there. Whether they have a major role in how the World Bank actually works in Developing Countries is something I still have to find out...
Andybody Who Cares Should Read This.......2004-06-28
An excellent, excellent book in several ways. Anybody who cares - about society - conservative, moderate, or liberal should read this. All economists, political scientists, politicians, and students of these fields should read this book carefully. The Economist's Tale is a true morality play. It looks at the way economics plays out in real-life using the framework of food policy in Sierra Leone. The author is not against market forces - but as economic theory has recognized in the last few decades - markets work (or don't work) with many attendant frictions and imperfections. Unfortunately, in the tale told within this book, people die because of these frictions.
The Economist's Tale is also quite interesting and riveting as a read. It is also a quick read. One learns much about Sierra Leone among other non-economic subjects. It appears nobody else has rated this book yet - which tends to indicate that few people have read it - a sad state of affairs.
Book Description
In 1981 ten men starved themselves to death inside the walls of Long Kesh prison in Belfast. While a stunned world watched and distraught family members kept bedside vigils, one "soldier" after another slowly went to his death in an attempt to make Margaret Thatcher's government recognize them as political prisoners rather than common criminals.
Drawing extensively on secret IRA documents and letters from the prisoners smuggled out at the time, David Beresford tells the gripping story of these strikers and their devotion to the cause. An intensely human story, Ten Men Dead offers a searing portrait of strife-torn Ireland, of the IRA, and the passions -- on both sides -- that Republicanism arouses.
Customer Reviews:
Soldiers for Freedom.......2007-07-11
This is an amazing book - a riveting, heartbreaking story of the 10 hunger strikers who died a slow and painful death for what they believed. How many of us would even condiser doing this, let alone actually endure the agony (which could last more than two months) as our bodies shut down? For folks that don't understand the depth of dedication of these men, this is an excellent documentation of their deepest thoughts. I was so angry I wanted to scream, and so sad I couldn't keep from crying. These ten are definitely included in the roll of honor for Ireland's greatest men. May the rest in peace.
Sound, Sensitive Treatment of a Delicate Subject.......2006-12-11
"Ten Men Dead" is the story of the 10 1981 Irish Republican Army hunger strikers. All starved themselves to death protesting both the British occupation of Northern Ireland and their own treatment in Long Kesh Gaol. TMD is as much about the families and loved ones involved as it is about the 10. TMD is well researched and documented, despite the cries of at least one previous reviewer, claiming it to be "fiction". TMD is not "fiction"! In fact, author Beresford was granted extraordinary access and cooperation by the IRA high command. The powers that were allowed Beresford to research scores of "comms", secret messages smuggled in and out of Long Kesh in "body orifices" of prisoners. The comms circulated behind the prison walls in the same shadowy and earthy fashion. The author has performed a first rate job of painting the background and context of a very grim situation. TMD is fast moving and rapid reading. It maintains suspense and interest throughout, though many readers will already be aware of the outcome. A nice postscript closes the circle for some of the families and supporters. Books like TMD allow Irish Americans to stay connected with the home country without being consumed by "the Troubles". We owe it to ourselves to periodically do so. Like many,if not most, previous books and movies concerning Ireland, TMD assumes a prior knowledge of that country's strifes and difficulties. Eager readers without such insight should pick up the drift quickly enough. On a closing note, this reviewer was truly saddened by some of the reviews which follow below. The harsh and mean-spirited tone of some is a perfect example of the difficult atmosphere good people on both sides of the "the Troubles" must face every day.
Seriously biased.......2004-08-16
Beresford tries to explain away his lack of sources by referring to this book as a work of journalism, not history. If this is the type of journalism Mr. Beresford practices, it's about high time he be employed by the Fox News channel or by Michael Moore. Very biased, writing almost entirely from the prisoners' point of view. I don't believe there is anything wrong with writing from their point of view, however, I disagree with trying to present it as "journalism." Nevertheless, this is a fascinating peek into the mind of the IRA and why they do things the way they do.
History or historical fiction?.......2003-05-18
I read this book as a text for a class I took about resistance movements. (I have my own views on the Irish question, but this is not the appropriate place to express them.) This book was certainly interesting, ..., the author dropped the ball in some places, leaving some holes in the narrative. Because of these gaps, this book was not the easiest to read. In addition, it was difficult for me to keep various groups and individuals straight throughout the book. A glossary and a list of characters would have been useful.
The thing that I disliked most about this book is that while it purports to be a history of the Irish hunger strike, the author is not a historian, but a journalist. (This is not to say that journalists can't write history, only that they write history differently than historians.) As Beresford himself notes, "Apart from the comms [IRA communications] as published, no attempt has been made to provide sources for infomation in the book. It is an exercise in journalism, rather than scholarship." (Page 1). Therefore, can this book be considered history? Given the lack of references (no bibliography or footnotes) and the obviously large amount of fictionalization, I would approach this book as historical fiction rather than history. It would be interesting to see what would happen to the story in the hands of a historian.
This is an interesting narrative and it is worth reading. However, if you want to read real history, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
The 1981 Hunger Strike.......2003-05-16
Ten Men Dead is an inside look on how the British govenment's criminalizational policy failed and how it will continue to fail. In 1976 the British Government ended what was known as "Special Category Status" simply an official Prisoner of War status for paramilitary detainees arrested prior to that time and implemented a policy of "Criminalization". This meant new political detainees would no longer be granted the POW status but be treated as common criminals. They would be incarcerated in the infamous "H-Blocks" at LongKesh known as the Maze. An escalating series of protests began: Refusal to wear prison uniforms. TheBlanket Men. The No-wash Protest and finally the Hunger Strike.
Customer Reviews:
"Low lie the fields of Athenry".......2007-09-18
"By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
'Michael, they have taken you away
For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn'
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay..."
THE GREAT HUNGER is the definitive history of the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1849. When the Englishwoman Cecil Woodham-Smith published this book in 1962 she was vilified and branded a Communist by the British establishment which had spent the previous 120 years explaining away what is undoubtedly the greatest European famine since antiquity. Estimates of the dead are difficult to quantify. Conservative historians put the number at 1-2 million; others place it closer to 6,000,000. At least another 1.5 million Irish fled their homeland.
Like most disasters, "An Gortha Mor" seems both inevitable and avoidable in retrospect. The Irish population exploded in the first half of the 19th century reaching an official 8.2 million (and an unofficial ten million) just before the Famine. But unlike Britain, which had become heavily industrialized and was moving confidently into the modern and scientific Victorian Era, Ireland was sunk in a morass of poverty and dejection. The average Irish countryman led a life no better than the poorest serfs of Imperial Russia of the day, and the Irish were subject to all manner of legal restrictions, mass unemployment, subsistence agriculture, exploitation by landlords, and eviction at whim from the land and their homes, often just a rude mud cabin. With no education, and few skills other than potato farming, eviction meant almost certain death for husbands, wives and children. Often, they were driven even from the bogs where they'd found shelter after being put out.
The Blight, too, meant certain death for far too many. Eating nothing but potatoes and buttermilk, these most wretched people literally had nothing at all to sustain them after the crop turned into a glutinous, stinking mass of black rot. They died in droves, particularly in the poor west of Ireland, bleak and rocky Connaught. The typhus which followed killed more.
As hideous as all this seems, Cecil Woodham-Smith tells us that the Blight was only one factor in the disaster that overtook the Irish. More insidious was the attitude of the British administration which largely stayed hardset in its laissez-faire attitude, refusing to step in and feed the Irish, refusing to interfere with the free market economy of the day, and worst of all, refusing to grasp that the market economy only works when people have money or skills to trade for products and services. In 1845, Ireland was still a pre-capitalist economy, and the mercantile approach of the British simply could not be applied there; still, the British tried, and blamed their own failure to address the Famine on their convenient perceptions of Irish intransigence and laziness.
Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan may be one of the most hated figures in Ireland even to this day. Effectively the head of British efforts at Famine Relief, Trevelyan was unenamored of the Irish, he was a rock-ribbed capitalist, and, though moral and moralistic to a fault, was also just as singleminded, blind to the suffering of the populace, but fixed on promoting Irish efforts at self-help. He bought a parsimonious 100,000 Pounds Sterling worth of unmilled American corn, and doled it out to provide for the eight million Irish. Amazingly, Trevelyan kept food EXPORTS flowing out of the country at pre-Famine levels throughout (!) Nothing could interfere with trade.
A disciple of the philosopher Thomas Malthus, Trevelyan cast a cold and dispassionate eye over Ireland's circumstances, seeing them as a form of natural population control. At the same time, the British placed the country under virtual martial law, decreeing "seven long years Transportation way on down to Van Diemen's Land" (Tasmania) for minor infractions and acts of desperation (such as stealing corn).
Was this, as many have posited, an organized genocide? Certainly, there were those among the British who despised the Irish to that extent. On the other hand, if this had been an organized killing field, then why did the British do anything at all to help the Irish, little as it was?
Woodham-Smith's tales of people living in bogs, of coffinless mass funerals, of fever patients being abandoned by their terrified relations, of Ireland starving to death, cannot help but touch the reader. The British are presented as less calculating than more stupid, unable to adjust their thought processes to meet the crisis. Conditions were so awful that when the Irish left Ireland (on rotten-bottomed Coffin Ships, like as not), their arrival in American and Canadian ports can be summed up shortly: NO IRISH NEED APPLY.
More than just a history of the Potato Famine, THE GREAT HUNGER is an indictment of the too-common human propensities of blaming the victim, making gestures instead of taking action, and that of ultimately doing nothing. The truth behind every human tragedy can be found in the pages of THE GREAT HUNGER.
This is an essential read.
A Masterpiece.......2007-05-24
I have read and reread this history several times and bought copies for
my sons.
I don't believe anyone can understand the Ireland of today without
this touching and tragic reference.
FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF THE FAMINE.......2006-03-16
In this account of the Famine,the author paints a picture of events which led up to ,and caused the Famine, the international poliics of the day, the weather patterns, the logistics of providing relief to so many destitute people.
Written factually and without blame it is a most interesting and informative read, I am glad I bought it.
Worthwhile Reminder.......2006-02-03
This history book reminds us that the Irish were mistreated in their homeland and in the USA when they first arrived. It tells of the heroic efforts to help the impoverished, illiterate populace and of the failed attempts by the British government to deal with a culture so foreign to their own.
It is a reminder of how far the Irish have come since the Celtic Tiger is rampant and people from Eastern Europe and the third world are going to Ireland for jobs and better lives.
Cecil Woodham-Smith is a British woman.
Had to read it for class.......2005-09-19
I had to read this novel for a college course on the British Empire. It is definitely not an easy read, but is extremely interesting if you can get through it (which I of course had to, to write a paper on it..). It is definitely one of the better assignments I have had to do.
Anyway, I just wanted to leave a comment, that I think its ridiculous that a handful of people that reviewed this book did not even realize that the book is written by a woman...
Book Description
Here, in this first biographical study of James Joseph Sylvester, Karen Hunger Parshall makes a signal contribution to the history of mathematics, Victorian history, and the history of science.
A brilliant Cambridge student at first denied a degree because of his faith, Sylvester came twice to America to teach mathematics, ultimately becoming one of Daniel Coit Gilman's faculty recruits at Johns Hopkins in 1876 and winning the coveted Savilian Professorship of Geometry at Oxford in 1883. He held professorships of natural philosophy, worked as an actuary, was called to the bar, and taught mathematics to cadets training for engineering and artillery posts in the British Army. During his long, distinguished career he also edited England's Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics and established the American Journal of Mathematics, the first sustained mathematics research journal in the United States.
Situating Sylvester's life within the political, religious, mathematical, and social currents of nineteenth-century England, Parshall penetrates the myth of this venerated figure, revealing how he lived, the choices he made and why, how the world in which he lived affected him -- and how he affected that world. The story of Sylvester's life sheds light on the evolution of mathematical thought. It also examines the ways in which mathematics may be done and what factors may shape a mathematician's ideas. Parshall explores the development of academic professionalization, nineteenth-century mathematical culture, and the emergence of modern algebra as a mathematical discipline. She highlights the human side of what many view as that most arcane and otherworldly of intellectual endeavors, mathematics, which indeed answers to such diverse factors as religion, ego, and depression.
Books:
- A Darkening Stain
- American Horticultural Society Pruning & Training (American Horticultural Society Practical Guides)
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants
- Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Jones and Bartlett Series in Breastfeeding/Human Lactation)
- Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically
- Business Survey Methods (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics)
- Chicago Apartments: A Century of Lakefront Luxury (Urban Domestic Architecture Series)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Accelerated Learning Handbook: A Creative Guide to Designing and Delivering Faster, More Effecti
- Tarot Cafe, The Volume 5
- History: Fiction or Science
- Paint It Black: A Novel
- Painting Beautiful Watercolors from Photographs
- Nutrient Requirements of Horses: Sixth Revised Edition
- Raising Christians - Not Just Children
- Wallbangin': Graffiti and Gangs in L.A.
- Infrared Spectroscopy in Conservation Science
- MEDICINAL HERBS AND POISONOUS PLANTS
Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
Microfinance Handbook: An Institutional and Financial Perspective (Sustainable Banking With the Poor)
The Economics of Microfinance
The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story
