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From one of the worlds best-known development economistsan excoriating attack on the tragic hubris of the Wests efforts to improve the lot of the so-called developing world In his previous book, The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly criticized the utter ineffectiveness of Western organizations to mitigate global poverty, and he was promptly fired by his then-employer, the World Bank. The White Mans Burden is his widely anticipated counterpuncha brilliant and blistering indictment of the Wests economic policies for the worlds poor. Sometimes angry, sometimes irreverent, but always clear-eyed and rigorous, Easterly argues that we in the West need to face our own history of ineptitude and draw the proper conclusions, especially at a time when the question of our ability to transplant Western institutions has become one of the most pressing issues we face.
This book investigates why decades of Western foreign aid and institutional intervention have largely failed to alleviate global poverty. William Easterly, a former World Bank economist, utilizes his extensive professional background and empirical data to challenge the prevailing top-down approach to international development. He argues that the West's reliance on 'Planners'—bureaucrats who impose universal solutions—ignores local realities and historical context, ultimately causing more harm than good.
What You Will Find
Economists and policy analysts frequently cite this work as a critical, provocative counter-narrative to traditional development theory. Readers often note the author's rigorous use of data and his sharp, polemical style that challenges the status quo of global aid institutions.
Page Count:
400
Publication Date:
2006-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0199210829
ISBN-13:
9780199210824
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