The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good,   ISBN:9780143038825

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Great book with a lot of good, well cited data. It's a tough read though.

Customer Rating: 

This is a very good book, though it is a little disheartening in places. Where his rival, Jeffrey Sachs, is an idealist, Easterly is a pessimist, and also to an extreme. Overall, though, his book is interesting and insightful, and, in some places, it does show promising potential solutions to poverty. I don't agree with everything Easterly writes, but, if you're interested in development economics or poverty alleviation, this book is absolutely a must-read.

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Professor Easterly lays out convincing analysis for the lack of results in areas of foreign aid and development. His synopsis of altruistic planners developing overambitious plans with little historic and cultural knowledge of the people they want to "help" enlightens readers. Easterly proscribes no overarching strategy or plan, rather a new approach to actually having an impact. He proposes that small, targeted piecemeal efforts with accountability have been the only assistance that has made a true impact. His recommendations will be sure to receive resistance in the aid community, as well as by policy makers appealing to US constituencies. However, those who count the unfortunate people in developing countries as their accountable agents will find this book helpful.
Professor Easterly speaks from experience as an economist with the World Bank for over sixteen years. As someone who understands global economic assistance from the inside, his legitimacy carries weight. His humor finds an audience with those of us who have been struggling on the ground trying to enact policies and interventions dreamed up in Washington, New York, London, and elsewhere. The cheeky attitude adds the right touch to the basic economic models and logic referenced within.
This is applied economics at its best. Well worth the read for all policy makers and implementers, whether in government, the military, NGOs or other philanthropists.

Customer Rating: 

This is an interesting book as long as it stays on topic: why aid efforts do little good. The author's answer -- that there is too much bureaucracy and not enough entrepreneurship -- is given using coined jargon but the author is himself a creature of bureaucracy and that's the way it talks.

But about half-way through, the book becomes a screed about what the author believes to be the West's foreign policy mistakes for the last 150 years. Their is nothing new or interesting in this, whether you agree with it or not. The book is worth about half its price unless you really want to read, for the umpteenth time, a solidly liberal analysis of everything from colonialism to Iraq.

Customer Rating: 

I've been living and working in Africa for over 23 years and this book hits the nail on the head. I've seen so many of my projects and those of my colleagues fail because we didn't apply the principles in this book. It is still difficult, but small, family-sized projects are the most sustainable and easier to monitor. This book has been a great aid as I continue to learn how to stand with the people we live among.