Books & Media Reviews
Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men
Earlier versions of this book review incorrectly said that the United States has the highest homicide rate in the world. In her book, Mara Hvistendahl describes the United States as the most violent industrialized nation in the world. This version has been corrected....
Reviewed By: Elaine Showalter
Monetization of Food Aid: Reconsidering U.S. Policy and Practice
“Monetization” is one of the more misunderstood and increasingly controversial forms of US food assistance abroad. It has rarely been reviewed by an independent entity. In June 2009, the DC-based non-profit, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, published an important, 56-page rep...
Reviewed By: Steven Hansch

Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira Vieira de Mello and the fight to save the world
Sergio Vieira de Mello was singular in the humanitarian aid world for being at the same time more handsome, well-spoken, charming, and accomplished than any of his contemporaries. He was also intrepid, swooshing in ahead of others in his own emergency agency into post-conflict war zones....
Reviewed By: Steven Hansch

Economics for Everyone: A short guide to the economics of capitalism
The world in which we live is very complicated. As human beings, and, as citizens and people of faith to name just two important roles, we have to understand this if we are going to make human decisions that will advance the well-being and security of the people of the world. Economic relations--co...
Reviewed By: Lane Vanderslice

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Updating and expanding on his earlier Plan B and Plan B 2.0, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, is Lester Brown’s most urgent call yet for a rapid and all-out restructuring of the world’s economy. Economist and president of Earth Policy Institute, Brown builds an excellent case for th...
Reviewed By: Kristin Saucier
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
Published on the heels of Jeffrey Sachs’ The End of Poverty and William Easterly’s White Man’s Burden, Paul Collier presents another, more balanced, view of the causes of and solutions to poverty in his book, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About ...
Reviewed By: Kristin Saucier

The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism is very impressive indeed. This is, however, not immediately evident, a sense that is confirmed by Joseph Stiglitz’ review of the book. Even before I read it, I was certain that the Nobel laureate would highlight Klein’s attempt...
Reviewed By: Walden Bello

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
What can you do when you’ve got no job? Barbara Ehrenreich answers this question in detail in Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. She tells us how searching for employment is a job in itself, requiring as much time and energy as having a job, but without the compensation ...
Reviewed By: Paula Smith-Vanderslice

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
This book is an interesting and worthwhile discussion of how to help the world's poorest people. It combines an intellectual history of Sachs and how he came to understand key development factors, an introduction to economic development issues, an explanation of why the poorest people and countries...
Reviewed By: Lane Vanderslice

The World’s Banker
This is a very entertaining and very informative book about international development. This book is about James Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank, the World Bank itself, the largest institution charged with assisting the development of poorer countries, and the development challenges the B...
Reviewed By: Lane Vanderslice