If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read this book. * The Economist *Īn arresting, provocative book. His book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the thankless task of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty. It will change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty.

rich in both analysis and recommendations. * Max Hastings, Sunday Times *Ī splendid book. This extraordinarily important book should be read by everyone who cares about Africa. This is a short book, but one which brilliantly challenges conventional views about development and aid. There are hundreds of books on development but none as well written and authoritative as Paul Collier's 'The Bottom Billion' * Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph *Įvery politician should read this. * David Smith, The Observer *Įvery politician should read this. Rarely can a book on this subject have been such a pleasurable read.

As he demonstrates that these billion people are quite likely in danger of being irretrievably left behind, Collier argues that we cannot take a 'headless heart' approach to these seemingly intractable problems rather, that we must harness our despair and our moral outrage at these inequities to a reasoned and thorough understanding of the complex and interconnected problems that the world's poorest people face.įluent, thought-provoking book. Collier identifies and explains the four traps that prevent the homelands of the world's billion poorest people from growing and receiving the benefits of globalization - civil war, the discovery and export of natural resources in otherwise unstable economies, being landlocked and therefore unable to participate in the global economy without great cost, and finally, ineffective governance. In this elegant and impassioned synthesis from one of the world's leading experts on Africa and poverty, economist Paul Collier writes persuasively that although nearly five billion of the world's people are beginning to climb from desperate poverty and to benefit from globalization's reach to developing countries, there is a 'bottom billion' of the world's poor whose countries, largely immune to the forces of global economy, are falling farther behind and are in danger of falling apart, separating permanently and tragically from the rest of the world.

The bottom billion review