The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Littl...
From one of the worlds best-known development economistsan excoriating attack on the tragic hubris of the Wests efforts to improve the lot of...
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Oct 28, 2007
shaw
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Found this on my friend's bookshelf in Lima. From what I remember of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point (I read a few chapters at a book store cafe a while back), Easterly has a similar approach of simplifying a complex phenomena by coining terms (here, Planners and Seekers) and employing a ton of analogies (like every other paragraph) to make his argument more accessible to a larger audience. He also repeats/emphasizes his points a lot, perhaps for the same reason..(which I found a little annoy
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Jun 21, 2007
Nicemarmot
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William Easterly's poorly written challenge to Jeffrey Sachs and the global aid machine entitled, "White Man's Burden," was a selection from my Global Issues and Ethics book club at the Elliot Bay book company. Here is a link to an excellent review of Easterly's book. www.foreignaffairs.org/2006030... I agree almost completely with the author- Easterly has important points to make about accountability in global aid dispersement but his message is drowned in this book with his abuse of
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Aug 31, 2009
Adrienne
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If you read The End of Poverty, you should read this book. I love the idea of this book, which is to spend foreign aid money, however much, on individual programs that produce good results even, and perhaps especially, those programs that perform well at the individual, family, and village level. That said, the writing and editing of this book leave a lot to be desired. To get your effort's worth, read the introduction and the first few chapters, read the chapters at the end on successful pro
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Sep 28, 2011
melissa/missy
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Aren't you all so happy that now that I'm in school, I can copy and paste my reading journals as goodreads reviews? :)
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time, so I was excited to get started on it. The first chapter, I wasn’t feeling so sure about it. His introduction to global development issues seemed to be very market-heavy, and I kept thinking: Can we pursue this line of thinking without acknowledging the role that globalized market capitalism has played in creating the v More...
I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time, so I was excited to get started on it. The first chapter, I wasn’t feeling so sure about it. His introduction to global development issues seemed to be very market-heavy, and I kept thinking: Can we pursue this line of thinking without acknowledging the role that globalized market capitalism has played in creating the v More...
Jun 15, 2011
Frank
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Overall a pretty disappointing sequel, of sorts, to his earlier "The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics." The latter remains one of my favorite books, examining as it does the long, convoluted history of economic thought on development and how different theories, from Rostow's "Takeoff" to a singular focus on population control, or education, have, when implemented, failed to lift the Third World out of poverty. It was both a won
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Feb 11, 2011
Ryan
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This first quarter or so is reasonably interesting and brings a sort of political economy approach to understanding why development is often ineffective. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the book is a series of cherry picked positive and negative examples designed to support the thesis. They're not wrong, per say, but pointing out one Ghanian who has made good in life without development assistance doesn't really prove that development assistance doesn't help anyone.
Easterly acknowl More...
Easterly acknowl More...
Jun 17, 2010
Ed
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Easterly is highly critical of the approach of which he was a part for many years. As an economist with the World Bank he was one of the "Planners", those involved in aid and development that he criticizes for being the main architects of failure in the first world's attempt to help the poor of the world.
Top down planning from those not involved in the areas to be helped lead to wasted efforts, refusal to take responsibility and very loose goal setting allowing almost anyt More...
Top down planning from those not involved in the areas to be helped lead to wasted efforts, refusal to take responsibility and very loose goal setting allowing almost anyt More...
Feb 14, 2011
Jason
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A book that says grand ideas are utopian can be a bit of a frustrating read. What other ideas does Easterly suggest? Despite this drawback, Easterly has done a good job criticizing how aid is currently handled and making a case for smaller, more targeted interventions rather than just money drops. His hope that aid organizations focus their missions on the needy than the donors, is somewhat naive, however. Donors are not typically aid experts and appealing to their wishes adds to NGO prestig
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Jan 01, 2010
Juha
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The New York University professor and former World Bank economist, Bill Easterly, provides a scathing critique of the grand plans to transform entire Third World societies through development aid, as promoted by academic and other luminaries such as Jeffrey Sachs and Bono, as well as by many bilateral and multilateral development agencies. Building on a thorough historical analysis and deep understanding of how the development business works, Easterly convincingly argues that such utopian plans
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Dec 08, 2008
Rob
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As with all development books, some of the data here is hotly contested. Shortly after reading this book, I stumbled across a different study of mosquito nets in Africa that reached the opposite conclusion from the study that Easterly cites.
His overarching point seems in general to hold - the solution is to decentralize aid. It's a general economic point that I think most people can get on board with at a basic level. Instead of politicians/bureaucrats picking and choosing specifi More...
His overarching point seems in general to hold - the solution is to decentralize aid. It's a general economic point that I think most people can get on board with at a basic level. Instead of politicians/bureaucrats picking and choosing specifi More...
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Dec 10, 2009
Jessica Barrett
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This is one of the more disturbing books I have read, in the sense that it challenged my world view and made me question my field of study at the time (international development). In fact, this book really steered me in another direction at a crucial time in my life, while I was in grad school at NYU where Easterly is a professor. For those who work in international development, the idea that such well-intentioned projects may actually do more harm than good is deeply unsettling. Even more so
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Mar 20, 2009
Brian
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Easterly's conclusion is controversial because he recommends a market solution to the problem of poverty in Africa. He argues that the best relief efforts are spear-headed by "searchers"--those who work locally to address real needs that emerge through effective systems of feedback. "Planners," on the other hand, develop "big plans" for saving Africa, like buying a million mosquito nets and shipping them to Africa, where they sit in crates in warehouses unused.
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Oct 17, 2011
Trish
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When this book was first recommended to me, I quietly asked, "It's not racist, is it? The title bothers me" and for the first chapter of the book, it continued to do so. In this case, he's not literally talking about actual white men, but instead quoting Rudyard Kiplings poem, "White Man's Burden" 1899. The ideas he puts forth in this book are similar to the ones I've developed while living out here in The Gambia. 1) NGOs/Aid, free of independent critique go unchecked 2) They
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Oct 23, 2011
Kathleen
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The answer to all of your questions regarding international aid organizations, and why we don't seem to ever get anywhere.
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Dec 11, 2010
gargamelscat
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Despite what should have been interesting material I found I had to force my self to finish the book after leaving it aside for many months.
Well researched at times it felt a bit too driven by statistics. The ideas in it - bottom-up rather than top-down - are not radical.
I would have liked a bit more outrage and naming of culprit organisations besides anodyne targets like IMF and World Bank. More gossip, back-stabbing and revelation of dirty deeds would have really livene More...
Well researched at times it felt a bit too driven by statistics. The ideas in it - bottom-up rather than top-down - are not radical.
I would have liked a bit more outrage and naming of culprit organisations besides anodyne targets like IMF and World Bank. More gossip, back-stabbing and revelation of dirty deeds would have really livene More...
Dec 14, 2010
Rachael
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This quote from the book pretty much sums it up:
“Westerners: don’t do things to or for other people without giving them a way to let you know—and hold you accountable for—what you have actually done to or for them.”
He took a few hundred pages to get there, but it was an interesting and important read (also amusing and conversational in tone -- helpful with this subject matter). For the past year or so I have been supporting Kiva.org, the microlending organization, and w More...
“Westerners: don’t do things to or for other people without giving them a way to let you know—and hold you accountable for—what you have actually done to or for them.”
He took a few hundred pages to get there, but it was an interesting and important read (also amusing and conversational in tone -- helpful with this subject matter). For the past year or so I have been supporting Kiva.org, the microlending organization, and w More...
May 17, 2010
Michael
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I can't say that I agree with everything the Easterly says in this book, nor can I say that I completely trust his perspective, but his argument is compelling and worth listening to. To often people scramble about in an aimless effort to do "good" without taking the time to evaluate their efforts and see if they really are doing good. Easterly challenges many of the established practices of foreign aid and scrutinizes the results of the trillions of dollars that have been given to deve
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Jan 23, 2011
Mary
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This is an excellent little book built on the thesis that poor people aren't stupid. How refreshing is that? Still, when Easterly came to BYU and said that there was really nothing we can do for the poor, eh, I'm willing to suspend efficiency for a little ways. I know I like it when people give me presents and flowers. But I can see how important it is for us to be judicious and look to the numbers for results!
It's called White Man's Burden and its author, William Easterly, p More...
It's called White Man's Burden and its author, William Easterly, p More...
Nov 20, 2008
cole
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Easterly's work is a must read for anyone who is considering how they can lend a hand in the fight against poverty and suffering in the world. to that extent, it is both encouraging and sobering. by drawing a distinction between Planners - those who propose big, utopian projects meant to solve all the worlds problems - and Searchers - those who hit the ground, figure out what is actually going on and what tangibly helps - he creates a framework for assessing the failure of global aid and the lit
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Mar 10, 2009
Adr
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I've been interested in Development on and off since a few courses on Development Communications in college. More than that, however, this book ended up on my list as a sort of follow-up to Guns, Germs and Steel. That first book examined why the Rest ended up so poor, while this statistic-heavy yet surprisingly readable exploration of the failure of post WW2 foreign aid by an insider tackled "why are they still so poor in spite of all the attempts to rectify the situation."
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Jul 11, 2008
Blair
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When I began my education on international development, I was pretty short of practical experience in the field - so like many folks in that position (I had also just graduated from college), I became enamored with Jeffrey Sachs's theories of development - big plans, the Millennium Development Goals, the UN and so forth.
At the risk of sounding high and mighty, that is the crowd that Sachs appeals to - those without much experience in international development. Now, years later, I hav More...
At the risk of sounding high and mighty, that is the crowd that Sachs appeals to - those without much experience in international development. Now, years later, I hav More...
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Jan 18, 2009
Austin
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This book challenges the belief that the West can deliver "big plan" solutions to the Rest. The assertion is that "Planners" develop idealistic aid packages without understanding those they intend to help, have no accountability in the outcome of the process, and have no feedback from anyone close to the situation. Billions of dollars are wasted through this because politicians, the IMF, the World Bank,etc love big plans and they can't really be held accountable for failed
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Oct 23, 2011
Easterly argues that individuals rather than agents such as governments, the UN, or the WHO know their poverty and disease best and know how to solve them best. Big top-down plans implemented from the outside can't understand the specific and utterly foreign and complex social, political, cultural, geographic, and economic environments in which individuals operate. This is why trillions of dollars of aid to poor people over the decades have not had an impact on their poverty. It's not working. S
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Jul 07, 2008
Chrisiant
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I enjoyed reading this. I find Easterly's ideas fresh and plausible, and his background explanations and ideas written in a humorous and very accessible way. He uses practical examples and lots of solid political science to back up his assertions. His charts are hilarious (especially check out pp. 314-16 The Cold War Interventions Chart), his tables are plentiful and clear.
His basic thesis is that foreign aid is dominated by "Planners", who implement top-down, all-encomp More...
His basic thesis is that foreign aid is dominated by "Planners", who implement top-down, all-encomp More...
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Apr 05, 2008
Daniel
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This book is what happens when someone has an idea for a long article in the Atlantic Monthly and decides to turn it into a book. It's interesting, makes a persuasive case for its central thesis (i.e., planning foreign aid on a large scale is about as successful as planned economies of Communist yesteryear), and is reasonably well-written, but it makes its point early and just drones on about it for a long time. At the end, the author launches into a review of the Cold War sins of the US and the
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Jan 03, 2008
Dean
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions the old adage goes and pretty much sums up William Easterly's conjecture in The White Man's Burden. Easterly, an economist specializing in economic growth and foreign aid, is skeptical of the Utopian Planners that are involved in foreign aid. The book has numerous examples where foreign aid has done little to no good to actually making things worse for the receiving country.
Easterly's position is that the West wastes time (millions are More...
Easterly's position is that the West wastes time (millions are More...
Oct 23, 2011
Max
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I would have to say that The White Man's Burden is the best book I've read on development so far and I would recommend that anyone interested in development should read it. That being said, the one problem with the book is that it does not really stand alone as a study of a development. It's strength lies in the thorough, thoughtful, and intelligent critique of current development policy and theory. I would perhaps recommend reading Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty as an introduction before
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Oct 21, 2007
Dan
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The overall argument is that in the foreign aid world, "Planners" can't/don't understand local circumstances so they try to spend money as it pleases them and/or in ways that they've learned in completely different circumstances, while "Searchers" look for what works in the specifics of the situation. Planners are the World Bank, the UN and Jeffrey Sachs, Searchers are entrepreneurs throughout the developing world.
I'm giving 5 stars for his knowledge, insight an More...
I'm giving 5 stars for his knowledge, insight an More...
Jul 19, 2007
Elizabeth
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Indescribably important for anyone interested in developement work. William Easterly is an ex-World Bank economist, now a professor, interested in why the U.S. and U.S.-backed organizations like the IMF and the World Bank continue to pour money into sweeping schemes to end world poverty when they've yet to show effectiveness (the book can be loosly described as a response to Jeffrey Sach's The End of Poverty--what William Easterly considers a 'sweeping scheme'). The essential question is: why
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Apr 25, 2010
Andy
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An important book that makes important points with which I agree, but not especially well-written. Easterly argues that Western aid organizations are failing in their mission to lift up the world's poor because they are too focused on their own utopian ideals rather than smaller, more practical and achievable goals, and are not held adequately responsible for their successes and failures.
I agree. The mindset that the West can come into poor countries and fix things for them has plag More...
I agree. The mindset that the West can come into poor countries and fix things for them has plag More...
