The White Man's Burden

Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

By: William Easterly

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

In his previous book, The Elusive Quest for Growth, William Easterly criticized the utter ineffectiveness of Western organizations to mitigate global poverty, and he was promptly fired by his then-employer, the World Bank. The White Man's Burden is his widely anticipated counterpunch - a brilliant and blistering indictment of the West's economic policies for the world's poor. Sometimes angry, sometimes irreverent, but always clear-eyed and rigorous, Easterly argues that we in the West need to face our own history of ineptitude and draw the proper conclusions, especially at a time when the question of our ability to transplant Western institutions has become one of the most pressing issues we face.

©2006 William Easterly (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Easterly forcefully argues that an ambitious new round of Western aid programs will help the suffering poor only if those who manage them wake up from the ideological fantasy of global omniscience and begin the difficult search for piecemeal local approaches, rigorously monitoring the results of every project." ( Booklist)

Good content, terrible narration

The content was great but the narrator was VERY difficult to listen to. His intimations often made it difficult to follow the narrative.

A Bit Repetitive

I thought the author did a great job explaining the pitfalls of the West’s involvement in poor economies. At the end of the day, the disconnect is that the West often just throws money at a problem rather than spending the appropriate amount of time first understanding the problem before coming up with an adequate solution.

awesome book

great breakdown of what has worked and what hasn't in the aid sphere. Should be a required read for anyone working in the institutions that provide aid for poor countries.

terrible narrator or something

I read some of the chapters and they weren't that bad but listening to this audiobook was like listening to someone read me a text book. I can't place my finger on what went wrong.

I think the editors should have recommended the author cut out more superfluous material as he tended to repeat himself over and over or go off on tangents.