Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
30 used & new from £4.00
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Paperback)

by Paul Collier (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £4.00 (40%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 22? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
24 new from £4.10 6 used from £4.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover £16.99 £11.89 23 used & new from £6.00
Paperback 9 used & new from £7.81

Frequently Bought Together

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It + Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa + The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good
Price For All Three: £21.27

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good

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
4.5 out of 5 stars (8)  £6.29
Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa

Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa

by Dambisa Moyo
3.6 out of 5 stars (17)  £8.99
Development as Freedom

Development as Freedom

by Amartya Sen
3.9 out of 5 stars (14)  £6.99
The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

by Jeffrey Sachs
4.1 out of 5 stars (16)  £7.69
The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence

The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence

by Martin Meredith
4.6 out of 5 stars (37)  £7.03
› Explore similar items

Product details

Product Description

Tim Harford, Financial Times columnist and author of The Undercover Economist
This is an arresting, provocative book. If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read it. If you don't care, read it anyway. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
Fluent, thought-provoking book. (David Smith, The Observer )

Rarely can a book on this subject have been such a pleasurable read. (David Smith, The Observer )

Every politician should read this. (Simon Shaw, Irish Mail on Sunday. )

There are hundreds of books on development but none as well written and authoritative as Paul Collier's 'The Bottom Billion' (Edmund Conway, Daily Telegraph )

Every politician should read this. (Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday )

This is a short book, but one which brilliantly challenges conventional views about development and aid. (Nick Rennison, Sunday Times )

This extraordinarily important book should be read by everyone who cares about Africa. (Max Hastings, Sunday Times )

A splendid book... rich in both analysis and recommendations... read this book. (Martin Wolf, Finacial Times )

It will change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty. (Martin Wolf, Financial Times )

Set to become a classic. His book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the thankless task of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty. (The Economist )

An arresting, provocative book. If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read this book. If you don't care, read it anyway. (Tim Harford, author of 'The Undercover Economist' )

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(6)
(5)
(5)
(3)
(3)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 14 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
88% buy the item featured on this page:
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It 4.6 out of 5 stars (31)
£5.99
Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa
4% buy
Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa 3.6 out of 5 stars (17)
£8.99
It's Our Turn to Eat
3% buy
It's Our Turn to Eat 4.5 out of 5 stars (20)
£9.09
The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
3% buy
The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence 4.6 out of 5 stars (37)
£7.03
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

31 Reviews
5 star:
 (20)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is worth buying, reading and acting on, 24 Nov 2007
By T. Leunig "Dr Tim Leunig" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It (Hardcover)
This is a first rate book that deserves to be read widely. It is aimed at the intelligent general reader, rather than at the economist or the development wonk. That said, most of them would enjoy reading it too, and would gain a lot from doing so. It is based on many years of top-quality research.

The book sets out the "4 traps" that can and do consign a country to poverty: conflict, natural resources (such as oil and diamonds), being landlocked with bad neighbours, and suffering bad governance. It also sets out the possibilities: looking at how countries like China, India, Vietnam etc have developed remarkably well in recent years. It then goes on to look at the sorts of policies that can be used to get the bottom billion on track to follow the path set out by the emerging economies. Those policies are (as expected) aid and trade, but Collier also sets out a role for transparency and even military intervention. Not to depose bad regimes, but to prevent (and occasionally reverse) coups, in the Sierra Leone model. A friend in the Aid-Biz told me once that that intervention was so successful that the people of SL would happily have voted to make Tony Blair their constitutional monarch. The book also explains the different strengths and weaknesses of each approach in different circumstances.

The prize for getting policies towards the bottom billion correct is immense: it would mean that, within my lifetime malnutrition would be abolished. No child would go to bed hungry. We have seen how fast change can happen - in Japan early this century, in Korea after the war, and, as mentioned, in any number of East and South Asian countries today.

We can do this, and Collier sets out much more convincingly than Sachs, Easterly or most aid agencies, how to do this. As citizens we need to press our leaders to advocate the policies in this book. If we do that, then, together we can make a dramatic difference.

(The author is an economist, teaching economic history at the London School of Economics)
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-Provoking Analysis and Solutions for a Better World, 28 Sep 2007
This review is from: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It (Hardcover)

Despite well-publicised significant improvements in the average condition of several billion people in our world, there remain some one billion seriously poor people, and their condition is unlikely to improve. They are trapped, by conflicts, by possessing natural resources (sic), by being landlocked with bad neighbours, and/or by bad governance. Additionally, globalization is not going to help those caught in the trap. Do we have a responsibility to help? Yes, says Oxford professor of economics and African studies expert, Paul Collier, we do because we are citizens, and that status demands that we help our fellow human beings.

We are a book group of retired men, with experience in a wide range of disciplines and countries, who have read and discussed "The Bottom Billion". Without exception, we all found Collier's identification of this group of non-developing nations, and the problems they face, highly thought-provoking. We were particularly impressed by his use of researchers from different countries and disciplines, and the quantitative techniques used, to analyse the causes of those countries' problems, the impacts on them, and for identifying potential solutions. The power of these analyses was such that many of our preconceived views were changed and we were left wondering what, if anything, we could do as individuals to help the people of these countries escape from their terrible plight.

The Bottom Billion is very principled treatise that takes a close look at one of the biggest running sores in our world, and offers some solutions where many people may have said, sorrowfully, that no cure exists at all.
Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A joy to read, 2 Jan 2008
This review is from: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About It (Hardcover)
This is a thought-provoking book: the problems of the poorest countries are deeply and cogently analysed and explained, and appropriate policies proposed. It has the added virtue of being written in simple and refreshingly straight-forward language. There is much that is absolutely original here.

The one comment I have is that Collier bases some of his policy prescriptions on the assumption that the only way to develop is through export, which seems to suggest export-led growth and large projects. There is nothing about micro projects and the need to work with the poor to alleviate poverty through the provision of appropriate/intermediate technology.

I e-mailed him about this and received a rapid and courteous reply saying that he did not have space in the book to cover everything and that he agreed that exporting only makes sense as a growth strategy for some countries and that he has no fault to find with the micro approach.

He also suggested I might write this review; so I did.

PS I also thoroughly recommend the lecture on his website.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for anyone with an interest in development
The idea behind Collier's book 'The Bottom Billion' is to use statistical analysis to bring light upon which remedies work well in developing countries, depending upon the problem... Read more
Published 16 days ago by K. Shanahan

4.0 out of 5 stars Simultaneously depressing and uplifting
This is a very thoughtful and accessible book looking at the hard reality of why the poorest countries cannot seem to pull out of their downward spin and join the developing world... Read more
Published 21 days ago by James Powell

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for the informed and layman alike
I had wondered for some time why millions of people across the world are living in absolute poverty but had never looked into it properly. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. S. A. Blake

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed and insightful
This book shatters the pervasive and simplistic view that corruption is the ONLY reasons why countries are poor. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Emeka O

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening
A book that outlines why the poorest billion people in the world are in such a situation. The book attempts to explain why they are trappedin such a situation and what the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by N. Gibbs

5.0 out of 5 stars Rightly famous - countries listed in the sequel
This book is famous and rightly so. It is outstanding for its rigorous academic analysis and for the way it draws its conclusions. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kernel32

5.0 out of 5 stars a very good book
The book is very informative. The reasoning is rigorous. The arguments are sophisticated. It doesn't have the "blame everything on the US" polemics that we see so frequently these... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Yu Liu

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for scholars and practitioners of economic development
Collier analyzes the key reasons for the lack of development of 58 countries he classified as being at the bottom of the pyramid. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Emc2

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bottom Billion book review (by Paul Collier)
The most important book regarding the issues of corruption and political instability in Africa, issues ignored by goverment powers worldwide over the past forty years... Read more
Published 3 months ago by E. Chung

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Review
This is a concise book that covers a lot of ground expounding Paul Colliers research and proposition for more effective development among the poorest nations on earth. Read more
Published 4 months ago by JB

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

More From Paul Collier

Wars, Guns and...

Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in...

"It is always a pleasure to discover Paul Collier's latest thoughts... Read more
£20.00 £13.99

 

Boys Smell

Lynx Africa Body Spray and After Shave Gift set
But we make sure they smell good...

›Discover male grooming at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates