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 Man’s Burden is his widely anticipated counterpunch—a brilliant and blistering indictment of the West’s economic policies for the world’s 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.
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"I work in the development sector, I live a developed country, however, I'm originally from a civil war country, so I'm called in the book as local.This book speaks my mind and to my soul, I suffer from bureaucracy and I live in the lack of coordination between agencies. I wish every single worker in the domain read this book. it is on my list to re-listen and read.The negative part is it is now a bit outdated, however, the subject is never outdated, it is sad-funny that a 15 years old book still describe the situation of international aid and intervention, there is some progress, as the survey and feedback from the local community more common now, but still, it is a long way. I hope it is re-written today, I will buy the new version for sure.most of my feedback is on the narration, the chapter partition is a bit confusing in the application, also the narration could do better if there are a subtitle or a header.but it worth it, I subscribed to buy it."
— Mo (5 out of 5 stars)
Easterly forcefully argues that an ambitious new round of Western aid programs will help the suffering poor only if those who manage them wake up from the ideological fantasy of global omniscience and begin the difficult search for piecemeal local approaches, rigorously monitoring the results of every project.
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William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and a director of NYU’s award-winning Development Research Institute. He lives in New York City.