Today’s essay has spurred me to dust off and re-read Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” published in 1997 by W. W. Norton & Company. My dilemma now is whether to start the re-reading or first finish reading Prof. Brands’s latest book, “AMERICA FIRST Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War,” Doubleday (2024).
I read their book "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
Colonial powers were always extractive. But if they left colony, the gap ruling it was filled by local people of an extractive mindset who then simply did to their fellow citizens what the previous colonizer.
As to China and India, I think there's a bigger historical reason for the success of China even as an authoritarian nation vs India. China has a thousands of year history of pyramidal and bureaucratic governance and systems. While China had peasants and lords as classes in society, this is not the same as the caste system in India in which Dalits are routinely discriminated against and even killed with impunity. This may have some impact on economic success.
Today’s essay has spurred me to dust off and re-read Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” published in 1997 by W. W. Norton & Company. My dilemma now is whether to start the re-reading or first finish reading Prof. Brands’s latest book, “AMERICA FIRST Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War,” Doubleday (2024).
I read their book "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" by Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
Colonial powers were always extractive. But if they left colony, the gap ruling it was filled by local people of an extractive mindset who then simply did to their fellow citizens what the previous colonizer.
As to China and India, I think there's a bigger historical reason for the success of China even as an authoritarian nation vs India. China has a thousands of year history of pyramidal and bureaucratic governance and systems. While China had peasants and lords as classes in society, this is not the same as the caste system in India in which Dalits are routinely discriminated against and even killed with impunity. This may have some impact on economic success.