Book Recomendation

I recently finished William Easterly's "White Man's Burden", an incsive critique of Western foreign aid and intervention. Easterly, for many years a World Bank economist, tears apart much of what he did as a working development economist. Easterly, now a professor of economics at NYU, uses his considerable economic acumen to pick apart the current state of foreign aid and the philosophy behind it.

"White Man's Burden" is buoyed by Easterly's extensive on the ground experience working in developing countries, as well as his already metioned economic expertise. I also found Easterly's writing style outstanding. I have enjoyed a lot of good nonfiction by journalists who have a knack for narrative and put that together with great research to write a great book. Michael Pollan is a prime example. But Easterly happens to be an economist with a knack for narrative. Devlopmental economics is not a topic that Easterly researched, or something that his publisher suggested because it is en vougue with the American public. He combines a lifetime of work in the feild of development economics with his great narrative voice. That is what made the book so outstanding for me. In Easterly we are lucky to have a great writer and erudite expert in one person.

I do not agree with everything Easterly argues or all of his conclusions. But the writing and thinking in this book are clear and convincing. If you disagree it will be at the least an entertaining and thought provoking read. If you do agree it will change how think about foreign aid. I was in the middle. And I recomend you find out where you stand for yourself.