I really enjoyed this book. The first 3 or so chapters are a little dry but once it gets into the history stuff it gets really good. It also challenged some of my ideas on the state and centralization. I'm not sure it changed my mind exactly but it made a compelling case.

One thing it did convince me of though was its main point, that poverty in a society is the result of non-inclusive political and economic institutions and not cultural or geographic differences or even just ignorance of the leaders of what a society needs to do if it wants to become wealthily.

Plus, maybe best of all, I learned a lot of history I did not know before.