The Least Among Us (The New York Times, July 1, 2007)
Summary: Professor of history at Harvard University, Niall Ferguson, critically reviews Paul Collier’s book The Bottom Billion, which casts aside foreign aid for more controversial solutions to Africa’s problems.
Topic: Should the state department of the Obama administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Mainstream Journalistic
What Is It? Book Review in the New York Times
Title: The Least Among Us
Publication Information: The New York Times, July 1, 2007
Author: Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University
Location: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/books/review/Ferguson-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Accessed: February 13, 2009
Support:
• Paul Collier, author of The Bottom Billion and former World Bank economist
• Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
• William Easterly, author of White Man’s Burden and former World Bank economist
Ferguson cites Sachs’s book as being one end of the foreign aid spectrum and Easterly’s as being the other end, while Collier’s falls right in the middle. Ferguson compares and contrasts the contents of these three books and concludes that while Sachs’s might be “too saintly” and Easterly’s might be “too cynical,” Collier’s is the most realistic. Myriad quotes are pulled from The Bottom Billion for support.
Audience and Agenda: The New York Times is arguable the U.S.’s national daily newspaper of record. It has received 98 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper in history. It circulates to more than 1.1 million on weekdays and 1.6 million on Sundays. They have a massive audience, so they must stay fairly unbiased and middle-of-the-road in order to appeal to as many people in their audience as they can. They are funded by subscriptions and advertising.
Usefulness: Though this article is technically a book review, it contains a lot of statistics and information regarding the effectiveness of foreign aid from The Bottom Billion. It places this book in the middle of the spectrum, saying Collier’s opinion is less polarizing and more empirical than both Sachs and Easterly. Ferguson states that Collier makes more convincing arguments about the causes of poverty and offers more feasible solutions, ultimately making his book the most useful. Collier comments on four overall factors contributing to the continued poverty of many African nations and debunks any myths pertaining to how effective foreign aid and NGO aid can be. He provides empirical data to back up his claims and offers some solid, if controversial, solutions that the west must partake in if peace in Africa is ever to be within reach. He ultimately argues that foreign aid doesn’t solve all the nation’s problems and that some kind of hands-on intervention, whether it be financial or military, is necessary to dig these countries out of the holes they are in now. This is a book review, so Ferguson is being critical of Collier’s work, he’s not trying to sell it, so it’s a less biased point of view and is more likely to point out the any flaws in his logic or reasoning. In response to whether the state department should double foreign aid, this article would support the argument that other avenues should be attempted first.
Works Cited:
Ulrich’s periodicals directory from the UO link
Niall Ferguson’s Wikipedia page
