The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (W W Norton & Company; 1998)

ISBN 0393-04017-8 USA $30.

CAN. $39.

F

or the last six hundred years, the world's

wealthiest economies have been mostly

European. Late in our century, the balance has begun

to shift toward Asia, where countries such as Japan

have grown at astounding rates. Why have these dom­

inant nations been blessed, and why are so many

others still mired in poverty?

The answer lies in this important and timely book,

where David S. Landes, taking his cue from Adam

Smith's The Wealth of Nations, tells the long, fascinat­

ing story of wealth and power throughout the world:

the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers,

the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a

process, attempting to understand how the world's cul­

tures lead to—or retard—economic and military suc­

cess and material achievement.

Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered

early through the interplay of a vital, open society

focused on work and knowledge, which led to

increased productivity, the creation of new technolo­

gies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage

lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war,

transportation, generation of power, and skill in metal-

work. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses

and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that

tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's

new economic winners are following much the same

roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed

to duplicate this crucial formula for success.

The key to relieving much of the world's poverty

lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach

us—lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work

of history.