Table of Contents
Praise for Charles Kennys Getting Better________________
Provocative.... Our image of African stagnation is closely tied to our fixation with GDP, Kenny suggests, producing a highly distorted picture of reality.
The Nation
Kenny offers a lighthearted critical survey of what economists have had to say about the determinants of economic growth, but he argues that growth, although important and desirable, should not be the main objective.
Foreign Affairs
Original, unusual, and radical thinking.
Mark Bittman, New York Times Opinionator Blog
The real question is not whether foreign aid and local government programs can workits which programs work and which do not. The most hopeful part of Mr. Kennys hopeful message is that progress in health, education and human rights may ultimately bring economic progress as well.
David Leonhardt, Economic Scene, New York Times
Kennys book sheds an extremely underrated light on the positive aspects of global development and how the 21st century is ushering in the best of times in terms of health, education, political freedoms and access to infrastructure and new technologies, benefiting even the poorest in the world.... We love good news, and Kenny certainly delivers.... Be sure to check out Kennys new bookits a great read.
One
An antidote to the pessimism many of us feel about the state of the world.
Huffington Post
[Getting Better is] persuasive and a very pleasant short book.
Matt Yglesias, Think Progress
[A] tremendously bracing book.
Choice
Gloom and doom have long been the default view of global poverty. It would take a clear-eyed and courageous researcher to show that the orthodox viewpoint is wrong. Such a researcher has finally appeared in Charles Kenny, who shows convincingly that most trends in human well-being worldwide, and region by region, are happily, dramatically positive. Read this delightful book and you will never look at global economic development the same way again.
William Easterly, Professor of Economics at New York University and author of The White Mans Burden: Why the Wests Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good and The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
Getting Better makes an important point.... Kenny employs a whole range of examples to illustrate these major empirical findings in ways that make the story quite enthralling.
Jeni Klugman, director and lead author of the United Nations Development Programs Human Development Report; Foreign Policy Book Club (online)
Charles Kennys terrific new book, Getting Better, covers a wide range of global development issues.... And Kenny makes a convincing case that the quality of life in poorer countries has improved greatly over the yearsand will likely continue to improveeven if incomes in those countries remain stubbornly difficult to lift.
Bradford Plumer, associate editor of the New Republic; Foreign Policy Book Club (online)
[A] fantastic new book.... In our bad-news-first world, these successes have received too little attention; lets hope that Kennys book gives the pessimists pause.
Garett Jones, BB&T Professor at the Mercatus Center and Researcher at the Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University; Foreign Policy Book Club (online)
[Kennys] writing is good pop economicschatty, humorous and at times elegant.... Hes also an ace killer fact merchant and a voracious trawler of research and statsdefinitely a gold mine for time-starved development advocates.... An excellent run-through of the shifting (and frequently circular) tides of received wisdom on growth and development.
Duncan Greene, Oxfam International, From Poverty to Power Blog
Charles Kenny... has written an excellent, factually informed, and sophisticated account of the changes in income and quality of life in development over recent decades in a fully engaging way.
Lant Pritchett, Harvard Kennedy School, Population and Development Review
Getting Better is a wonderful book: a great read, a compelling argument, and what will be a controversial bottom linethat growth is not after all necessary for poverty reduction. In a surprising riposte to GDP-focused economists and aid skeptics, Charles Kenny brings readers not just Malthus, Arthur Lewis, Sen and Sachs, but Kipling, Tolstoy, and the unfortunate Mungo Park. Here is a thoughtful and sweeping take on what we dont know about why countries grow and what we do know about how ideas and technology and yes aid are improving lives everywhere.
Nancy Birdsall, President of the Center for Global Development
Charles Kenny is one of the best and deepest writers on economic growth and its relationship to quality of life in the modern world. This book represents the pinnacle of his thought.
Tyler Cowen, Holbert C. Harris Professor of Economics, George Mason University
This nuanced and brilliant book is a must-read for anybody who wants to understand the complexity of development. Kenny doesnt traffic in trite or facile diagnoses or solutions; instead, he compellingly lays out both the obstacles to success and the good reasons to be hopeful. I learned more from this book than from any other book Ive ever read: its chock-full of important facts, corralled masterfully. Enjoy, and be illuminated!
Felix Salmon, finance blogger for Reuters
The novelty of Kennys book is its factual character. All his arguments are backed by facts about the development experience of different countries. This gives the book a certain liveliness which you rarely find in works about economic development.
EH.net
Getting Better is... a refreshing departure from the current pessimism with respect to global development.... [Getting Better has a] powerful message that the future is bright. In the midst of negativity, Charles Kennys Getting Better provides a bold and refreshing vision for how we can build on existing substantial progress.
The Business Economist (London)
Kenny is hardly sanguine in his view of developmental progress, nor unrealistic about the challenges that the majority world still faces, but he wants the massive quality of life improvements that have already taken place to be fully acknowledged... so that they can, in turn, spur further progress.
African Business
Let Charles Kenny take you on a historical birds-eye view: itll do you good.... This is an immensely useful book because it forces readers to focus on the things that really matter, on the major trends. [Kenny] draws a compelling and uplifting picture of progress across the globe, neatly packaged in a small, highly readable book.
Enterprise Development & Microfinance
Charles Kenny... one of the most thoughtful people writing on development these days, has produced a fascinating and informative book.... Getting Better is a counterweight to the growing cadre of development assistance naysayers.... Kenny has done the international aid community a great service by reminding us that there is more to development than income and that our report card in these other areas is good.
