The book is just beautifully written, filled with bon mots and witty observations, speckled with devastating and at times irreverent dismissals of opposing views. Landes's contribution to this literature is first and foremost in raising the level and style of the debate. Finally, while the historical record is rich and immense, it is far from clear if it will ever allow a sharp discrimination between alternative hypotheses. Second, theory is of little help: economics, politics, sociology, psychology, and geography all play a role, but none produces a single consensus view of what matters most. If one is against free markets, one can either deny the historical fact of Western predominance altogether or condemn it squarely.

If one believes in free markets, the West's commitments to them explains it all. Almost everything about the topic is in dispute, and because the rhetoric of this literature almost invariably turns on the 'for example' variety, little persuasion has actually occurred. Birdzell's How the West Grew Rich (1986), as well as some newcomers, most notable among which are Charles Kindleberger's World Economic Primacy (1996), Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997), and Thomas Sowell's Conquests and Cultures: An International History (1998). Jones's The European Miracle (1981), Mancur Olson's Rise and Decline of Nations (1982), and Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. The current stock of books on the subject contains some classics such as Eric L. Landes's new book, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (1998), the public at large. The question of the rise of Western Civilization to economic and technological domination continues to fascinate scholars and, judging from the huge publicity surrounding the publication of David S.

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