A Farewell to Alms
A Brief Economic History of the World
Recommended by Rajiv Shah, and 1 others. See all reviewsRanked #24 in Economic History
Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms," Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation, geography, or resources--explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations.
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Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of A Farewell to Alms from the world's leading experts.
Rajiv Shah It’s a very exciting book that shows how for hundreds, even thousands of years basic economic progress was largely stagnant. As economies were able to produce more food, populations grew. You didn’t have rapid compound increases in living standards until around 1800. Around then, the industrial revolution and its precursors created a massive divergence. Some countries and some societies got on a pathway towards growth – towards better health, longer life expectancy, higher income per person and more investment in education. While other countries remained on a slower-moving pathway. (Source)
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