Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, And Poverty

". . . bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece."--The Washington Post

"This is an intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve. It should be widely read."--Financial Times

"Why Nations Fail is a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor."--The Wall Street Journal

"The main strength of this book is beyond the power of summary: it is packed, from beginning to end, with historical vignettes that are both erudite and fascinating."--The Observer (UK)

"A brilliant book."--Bloomberg

"Why Nations Fail is a wildly ambitious work that hopscotches through history and around the world to answer the very big question of why some countries get rich and others don't."--The New York Times

"A wonderfully readable mix of history, political science, and economics, this book will change the way we think about economic development."--Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

"Without the inclusive institutions that first evolved in the West, sustainable growth is impossible, because only a truly free society can foster genuine innovation and the creative destruction that is its corollary."--Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money

"Two centuries from now our great-great-great grandchildren will be, similarly, reading Why Nations Fail."--George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001

"It's the politics, stupid! That is Acemoglu and Robinson's simple yet compelling explanation for why so many countries fail to develop. But they also document how sensible economic ideas and policies often achieve little in the absence of fundamental political change."--Dani Rodrik, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"A brilliant and uplifting book--yet also a deeply disturbing wake-up call."--Simon Johnson, co-author of 13 Bankers and professor at MIT Sloan

"This highly accessible book provides welcome insight to specialists and general readers alike."--Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man and The Origins of Political Order

"This intimate connection between political and economic institutions is the heart of [the authors'] major contribution, and has resulted in a study of great vitality on one of the crucial questions in economics and political economy."--Gary S. Becker, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1992

"This not only a fascinating and interesting book: it is a really important one . . . to understanding the successes and failures of societies and nations."--Michael Spence, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001

James A. Robinson, a political scientist and an economist, is the David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University. A world-renowned expert on Latin America and Africa, he has worked in Botswana, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. He is also the co-author of The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty.