Book review: Poverty from the Wealth of Nations: Integration and Polarization in the Global Economy since 1760, by M. Shahid Alam

This book basically seeks to answer a question that has confounded many authors: Why did the West become so much richer than the rest? Where David Landes took more than 500 pages to address this question, M. Shahid Alam, Professor of Economics at Northeastern University in Boston (USA), requires just 180 pages of text. Of course it is possible to give a brief answer if you keep it simple. Alams answer is simple: todays less-developed countries suffered from a lack of autonomy as a consequence of European imperialism since the mid-eighteenth century. As colonies and dependencies, they were not allowed to map out their own future, invest in education and infrastructure, and more importantly use trade barriers to pursue import-substituting industrial policies on which to base their further industrialization and development. There are some nuances, but thats basically it.