Culture and Prosperity: The Truth About Markets - Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor15 reviews John Kay Collins, 2004 An Inconvenient Truth + history matters + worth the money Every year, around about the time of the G8 summit, we're bombarded by dozens of well-intentioned pleas from celebrities and... well, people who listen to them, for the powerful nations of the world to make things better in the poor nations of the world. The assumption is that given enough dollars ...             Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence1 review Ronald Inglehart, Christian Welzel Cambridge University Press, 2005 A Scientific Reexamination of Modernization This is a major study by any standard. It presents both a grand synthesis and a great depth of hard data to back it up, and I can see nothing that would cast it in serious doubt. Inglehart and Welzel make a very strong case that for the most part socioeconomic conditions drive popular values and ...             American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword4 reviews Seymour Martin Lipset W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 Chapter 6 by itself is worth the price. + The Land of Opportunity- analyzed + book reviews As someone lucky enough to be employed at an American university, I really appreciated Chapter 6: "American Intellectuals-Mostly on the Left, Some Politically Incorrect." On page 188 we read [as a quote] "American academic Marxism is politically irrelevant and marginal and compensates for its ...             Status Anxiety17 reviews Alain De Botton Vintage, 2005 Important Satire + very thought provoking + Entertainingly thought-provoking + two different audio versions + A good way of avoiding misery             The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon Susanna Hecht, Alexander Cockburn Harpercollins, 1990 A deeply informed and searching work on the most pressing ecological issue of our time. A great deal of attention has been focused recently on the destruction of the rain forests. This book explains why the forests are being felled, how this destroys the land, the animals, the people, and the world's climate.             Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism29 reviews Benedict Anderson Verso, 1991 An amazing introduction + Imagine that...! If you want a scholarly introduction to nationalism and its history, this is an excellent book to start with. Anderson begins with a discussion of how the concept of the nation first came into being, with emphasis on the factors that enabled people to imagine communities beyond their immediate ...             Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment79 reviews Martin Seligman Free Press, 2004 Right at the top! + Happiness it is! + The Starting Point To Finding Happiness + Interesting! + Test your happiness levels and learn what can inffluence them             Modernization and Postmodernization4 reviews Ronald Inglehart Princeton University Press, 1997 best data on global change + Modernization Theory is Not a Dead Horse Ignore the only other review about this book, which is tremendously silly and obviously written from a right-wing perspective. It is not true that Inglehart opposes materialist and postmaterialist values against tradition: in fact he creates a multi-dimensional model in which the opposition between ...             The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke85 reviews Elizabeth Warren, Amelia Warren Tyagi Basic Books, 2003 A sobering but worthwhile read Back in the mid to late 60s, average real income in the U.S., which is just economic terminology for income adjusted for inflation, started to decline for the first time. Once that trend gets started in a country, for whatever reason, it's almost impossible to reverse, as any economic historian ...             The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies4 reviews Robert E. Lane Yale University Press, 2001 Happiness, not good enough as a goal? + Modestly topples most of conventional economics + A good start to a big question This book is probably the most complete Western book about happiness. Robert Lane recommends that to the goal of happiness should be added the goals of justice and personal development. He uses "happiness" with the meaning of "satisfaction with life", or with "Subjective Well Being" (SWB). The ...             Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't703 reviews Jim Collins Collins Business, 2001 Worth for its price + A good look at what companies can do to manage talent + Good to Great + Good to Great review             Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs5 reviews Paul Willis Columbia University Press, 1981 Still The Best Ethnography in Sociology + How a Cultural Study Should Be Done + A landmark effort at synthesizing theoretical frameworks I came to Dr. Willis's Learning To Labor as a Ph.D. student at York University, Toronto. I was profoundly moved both theoretically and personally. Willis gives us a theoretical way of articulating macro and micro perspectives which shows how the two arise in dialectical fashion, e.g. class ...             Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West10 reviews Timothy Garton Ash Vintage, 2005 For a freer world + A Wise Post-Mortem on the Post-Western World, but? + A must-read for anyone in the West interested in foreign affairs This book has an essentially beneficial and humane message. It advocates greater cooperation between the European Union and the United States in promoting and extending democratic freedoms throughout the world. It points to the trend in the world towards extension of democratic freedoms and ...             The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest2 reviews Andrew Revkin Island Press, 2004 Entire coverage and understanding the amazon and brazil. + Inspirational account of the struggle to save the Amazon It is a shocking reality that gives you entire understanding about amazon and its' people and environment. You will get lost in this beautifully written very sad real story. Thanks to andrew revkin. This book seriously today, needs stronger marketing to reach out to more people especially to the ...             China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World82 reviews Ted C. Fishman Scribner, 2005 A warning to the US + Rapid Rise to Super Power + A Challenging Portrait + Great service             Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress51 reviews Lawrence E. Harrison, Samuel P. Huntington Basic Books, 2001 it really does matter + Culture Matters For those who wonder why some people are doing well and some aren't, this is a good book. Particularly excellent is the section on why Africa is such a mess by Daniel Entounga-Manguelle.             The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics. Jane Bennett Princeton University Press, 2001 It is a commonplace that the modern world cannot be experienced as enchanted--that the very concept of enchantment belongs to past ages of superstition. Jane Bennett challenges that view. She seeks to rehabilitate enchantment, showing not only how it is still possible to experience genuine wonder, but how such experience is crucial to motivating ethical behavior. A creative blend of political ...             So Human an Animal: How We Are Shaped By Surroundings and Events5 reviews René Dubos Transaction Publishers, 1998 Profound, subtle + Most Excellent + A wonderful, astonishing book. + A wonderful, astonishing book.             The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse86 reviews Gregg Easterbrook Random House, 2003 Good quick book to make you think + Enjoyable, Thoughtful Read + Makes you reflect on what happiness really is I was drawn to this book because of TMQ, what Mr. Easterbrook writes for ESPN. If you like that, then I would suggest you take a little bit, and enjoy a book that makes to think. Well thought out and written, with no bias for anything than the truth he describes. Enjoy.             The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization84 reviews Peter M. Senge Doubleday Business, 2006 Seminal Work + The Fifth Discipline + Excellent! + Don't Become Road Kill!