Book Review: The White Man's Burden by William Easterly

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 (Penguin Publishers)

William Easterly is a former World Banker staffer and is currently a professor at NYU. Building on his extensive research and personal experience in the field of international development, The White Man’s Burden delivers a strong critique of the efforts of the “developed” world to assist the “developing” world with foreign aid. Combining personal stories and clearly stated research, Easterly argues the $2.3 trillion loaned as development assistance since the end of WWII has not only failed to improve the lives of the worlds’ poorest, but has often resulted in greater poverty and oppression. He also illuminates development success stories that have happened without - or even in spite of - assistance from developed nations. These ideas represent a direct attack on the dominant development paradigm in international policy circles at the world’s leading development institutions.

Easterly’s writing style is engaging and manages to paint the complex economics of international development in very human terms. For those who have read or are familiar with The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs (reviewed here last month), Easterly’s work speaks directly against the assumptions that undergird Sachs’ Millennium Development Goals. This book is strongly recommended for anyone concerned with how to alleviate global poverty and address our global community’s needs effectively. While it is easy to be swept up in the excitement and possibility of alleviating extreme poverty through the MDGs, Easterly suggests that these goals are achievable if the developed nations stop trying to serve as savior to the poor.

Robin Pendoley
Curriculum Director
Thinking Beyond Borders

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