Thomas Sowell’s book, Wealth, Poverty and Politics, provides a thorough explanation as to why nations and groups of peoples developed at different rates, how and why they rise or fall as a group or empire. There are only a few sections which I do not find convincing, such as his arguments on group differences in IQ and his complete rejection of the genetic hypothesis.
To summarize the ideas of the book, Sowell shows that 1) population differences emerged because geography has never been egalitarian, 2) cultural and geographical isolations are great impediments to development, 3) equal opportunity will not create equal outcomes between groups, 4) education is not human capital and has sometimes caused negative outcomes, 5) exploitation of the poor through either slavery or imperialism does not explain prosperity status, 6) poverty and inequality are so ill-defined to the point that comparisons are meaningless, 7) the government has a duty to please the masses through dubious tactics at the expense of economic performance.
