Fans pick 100 books like Your Money Or Your Life

By Eric Toussaint,

Here are 100 books that Your Money Or Your Life fans have personally recommended if you like Your Money Or Your Life. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Human Development

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Author Of International Justice and the Third World: Studies in the Philosophy of Development

From my list on development economics and ethics are intertwined.

Why are we passionate about this?

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins are retired members of the Philosophy staff of Cardiff University, where they individually and jointly taught undergraduate courses in Philosophy and History of Ideas, and magistral courses in Social Ethics. They also supervised doctoral students in fields including development ethics; former students of theirs hold professorships in places ranging from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa and to Jahangirnagar (Bangladesh). Robin Attfield is currently completing his twentieth published book; several of his books have concerned our international responsibilities. From 1990 they became aware of a serious gap in the philosophical literature with regard to international development, and managed through their joint book to begin plugging it.

Robin's book list on development economics and ethics are intertwined

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Why did Robin love this book?

Barry was impressed by the force of Des Gasper's argument that under the influence of economic theory the development of the poor countries of the global south is often conceived far too narrowly.

Gasper argues instead for the relevance of development ethics in exploring what social provisions are desirable for a fulfilling human life.

Barry was also persuaded by the way in which Gasper draws upon the work of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum (amongst others) to articulate a rich and fruitful concept of human development, which includes not just provision for the meeting of basic human needs but also for the social conditions required for people to have the positive freedom to pursue their own goals in life.

By Des Gasper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ethics of Development as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A self-contained introduction to the field of ethics and development for students, practitioners and the general reader. The Ethics of Development asks what is good 'development', of societies and for people. It looks at how equating development with economic growth has been challenged, examining whom that growth benefits or harms and which aspects of life it values or excludes and can favour or damage. It goes on to explore an alternative conception -- that of 'human development', meaning achievement with respect to a wider range of values and the advancement of people's freedom to achieve well-reasoned values. The book synthesises…


Book cover of Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Justice and Development

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Author Of International Justice and the Third World: Studies in the Philosophy of Development

From my list on development economics and ethics are intertwined.

Why are we passionate about this?

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins are retired members of the Philosophy staff of Cardiff University, where they individually and jointly taught undergraduate courses in Philosophy and History of Ideas, and magistral courses in Social Ethics. They also supervised doctoral students in fields including development ethics; former students of theirs hold professorships in places ranging from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa and to Jahangirnagar (Bangladesh). Robin Attfield is currently completing his twentieth published book; several of his books have concerned our international responsibilities. From 1990 they became aware of a serious gap in the philosophical literature with regard to international development, and managed through their joint book to begin plugging it.

Robin's book list on development economics and ethics are intertwined

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Why did Robin love this book?

Robin loves the way that this book displays how even a Kantian basis (not home territory for him) shows why poverty should not be tolerated.

It underlines how extreme poverty undermines the exercise of rational agency, and thus the proper functioning of human beings.

Onora O’Neill argues cogently that morality precludes the employment of force or fraud, and gives rise to universal principles applicable both within and between societies. Population policies, for example, should depend on the informed consent of those affected.

By Onora O'Neill,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Faces of Hunger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of World Ethics: The New Agenda

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Author Of International Justice and the Third World: Studies in the Philosophy of Development

From my list on development economics and ethics are intertwined.

Why are we passionate about this?

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins are retired members of the Philosophy staff of Cardiff University, where they individually and jointly taught undergraduate courses in Philosophy and History of Ideas, and magistral courses in Social Ethics. They also supervised doctoral students in fields including development ethics; former students of theirs hold professorships in places ranging from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa and to Jahangirnagar (Bangladesh). Robin Attfield is currently completing his twentieth published book; several of his books have concerned our international responsibilities. From 1990 they became aware of a serious gap in the philosophical literature with regard to international development, and managed through their joint book to begin plugging it.

Robin's book list on development economics and ethics are intertwined

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Why did Robin love this book?

This work, from a former President of the International Development Ethics Association (IDEA), illuminatingly sifts the major theories of international relations, of development and of related theories of ethics.

Readers will value, as Robin does, seeing how all these theories interrelate and support development that recognises human needs. This is a work at the interface of Applied Philosophy and International Relations, and embodies an insightful analysis of connections between these fields. 

By Nigel Dower,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked World Ethics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

World Ethics: The New Agenda identifies different ways of thinking about ethics, and of thinking ethically about international and global relations. It also considers several theories of world ethics in the context of issues such as war and peace, world poverty, the environment and the United Nations. Key Features: * Rejects the idea of international scepticism and the 'morality of states' * Demonstrates the distinction between a global ethic as a theory and as social reality * Defends the claim that we are world citizens with global duties The second edition has been substantially revised to take account of recent…


Book cover of Hunger and Public Action

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Author Of International Justice and the Third World: Studies in the Philosophy of Development

From my list on development economics and ethics are intertwined.

Why are we passionate about this?

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins are retired members of the Philosophy staff of Cardiff University, where they individually and jointly taught undergraduate courses in Philosophy and History of Ideas, and magistral courses in Social Ethics. They also supervised doctoral students in fields including development ethics; former students of theirs hold professorships in places ranging from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa and to Jahangirnagar (Bangladesh). Robin Attfield is currently completing his twentieth published book; several of his books have concerned our international responsibilities. From 1990 they became aware of a serious gap in the philosophical literature with regard to international development, and managed through their joint book to begin plugging it.

Robin's book list on development economics and ethics are intertwined

Robin Attfield and Barry Wilkins Why did Robin love this book?

Drèze and Sen convince me (Robin) that the remedies for persistent malnutrition differ from those for famine, and involve institutional change, rather than emergency relief.

Hunger is often due not to a local lack of food, but to lack of access to food that is in principle available, and often plentiful. Relatedly, development is a process of change that protects, restores, strengthens, and expands people’s valued and valuable capabilities.

Robin relishes their view that developing nations need the freedom to question prevailing values.

By Jean Dreze, Amartya K. Sen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hunger and Public Action as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This study is devoted to an analysis of the problem of hunger in the modern world and of the role that public action can play in combating it. The book is divided into four parts. The first attempts to provide a coherent perspective on the complex nutritional, economic, social and political issues involved in analysing the problem of hunger in the modern world. The second part deals with famine prevention, paying special attention to Africa. The third part focuses on chronic undernourishment and related deprivations. Parts two and three include a number of case studies of successful public action for…


Book cover of How Lives Change: Palanpur, India, and Development Economics

Thomas A. Timberg Author Of The Marwaris: From Jagat Seth to the Birlas

From my list on India now.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been trying to understand India’s evolution especially its economic path for the last half-century— by reading, traveling, and writing on aspects of that evolution. Originally this started with the Cold War concern about how a democracy would navigate using a democratic political system. So I took appropriate courses in college and graduate school, worked in India in the Peace Corps, and then spent a little under a decade teaching about it a doing research. For the following five decades I have continued my interest and publishing and studying. Whether I have understood much is for others to determine but these are my five book nominees.

Thomas' book list on India now

Thomas A. Timberg Why did Thomas love this book?

This is ostensibly the third book documenting the history of a North Indian village from 1950 until today, but it also records much of the anthropological literature documenting the development in other villages in India over that period which parallels that in many other villages of South Asia. Viewed in the context of statistical data which is collected on a much broader scale this confirms the remarkable economic evolution India has experienced from basketcase to development model.

By Himanshu, Peter Lanjouw, Nicholas Stern

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How Lives Change as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Development economics is about understanding how and why lives change. How Lives Change: Palanpur, India, and Development Economics studies a single village in a crucially important country to illuminate the drivers of these changes, why some people do better or worse than others, and what influences mobility and inequality.

How Lives Change draws on seven decades of detailed data collection by a team of dedicated development economists to describe the evolution of Palanpur's economy, its society, and its politics. The emerging story of integration of the village economy with the outside world is placed against the backdrop of a rapidly…


Book cover of The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition

Adam Kotsko Author Of Neoliberalism's Demons: On the Political Theology of Late Capital

From my list on understanding neoliberalism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up outside of Flint, Michigan, which during my lifetime went from being a pretty nice place to live to being a perpetual basket case that still doesn’t have clean water. I’ve always been very concerned with the question of what went wrong, and very early in my graduate education, it became clear to me that the neoliberal agenda that started under Reagan has been at the root of the economic rot and destruction that has afflicted Flint and so many other places. That personal connection, combined with my background in theology, makes me well-suited to talk about how political belief systems “hook” us, even when they hurt us.

Adam's book list on understanding neoliberalism

Adam Kotsko Why did Adam love this book?

Davies offers an exceptionally clear and useful definition of neoliberalism: “the disenchantment of politics by economics.” But what really makes this book valuable is the research he has conducted on the office culture of the government officials who are actually implementing neoliberal policy—how they think, what they believe they’re achieving, and how they sometimes deviate from the letter of neoliberal theory while remaining true to its spirit.

By William Davies,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Limits of Neoliberalism as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Brilliant...explains how the rhetoric of competition has invaded almost every domain of our existence."
-Evgeny Morozov, author of To Save Everything, Click Here"

"In this fascinating book Davies inverts the conventional neoliberal practice of treating politics as if it were mere epiphenomenon of market theory, demonstrating that their version of economics is far better understood as the pursuit of politics by other means."
-Professor Philip Mirowski, University of Notre Dame

"A sparkling, original, and provocative analysis of neoliberalism. It offers a distinctive account of the diverse, sometimes contradictory, conventions and justifications that lend authority to the extension of the spirit…


Book cover of The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism

Xenia A. Cherkaev Author Of Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice

From my list on the possibility of collectivist modern life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am interested in how regimes of ethics and property interrelate, and how this interrelation informs political thought: in questions of cooperatives and collectives, customary use-rights, and household economies. I'm an anthropologist by training and geographically I work in Russia. I've written about socialist property law and stolen late-Soviet penguins, Stalin-era mine-detection dogs and perestroika-era saints, möbius bands, 19th-century Russian cheese-making co-operatives, New World Order theories of “The Golden Billion” and other important matters.

Xenia's book list on the possibility of collectivist modern life

Xenia A. Cherkaev Why did Xenia love this book?

72 people died when the Grenfell Tower burned in 2017, hundreds more lost their homes.

As survivors slept out in London's mosques and churches, one politician suggested requisitioning empty investment properties to house them. But the idea was shot down as a violation of human rights: those of the property owners. Whyte's Morals of the Market opens with this historical anecdote to ask how neoliberalism and human rights discourses evolved together.

Working through published and archival sources, the book shows that neoliberal thinkers “developed their own account of human rights as protections for the market order.” To their authors, such claims were not cynical. They were moral: grounded in a political morality that equated social progress with commercial relations, collectivism with moral failure, socialism with civilizational regression.

As people whose social worlds have been shattered by neoliberal policies increasingly turn to right-wing populism for a new kind of collectivist future,…

By Jessica Whyte,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Morals of the Market as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Drawing on detailed archival research on the parallel histories of human rights and neoliberalism, Jessica Whyte uncovers the place of human rights in neoliberal attempts to develop a moral framework for a market society. In the wake of the Second World War, neoliberals saw demands for new rights to social welfare and self-determination as threats to "civilisation". Yet, rather than rejecting rights, they developed a distinctive account of human rights as tools to depoliticise civil society, protect private investments and shape liberal subjects.


Book cover of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley Author Of Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future from the Stanford d.school

From my list on help you design a better future.

Why are we passionate about this?

We are the academic and creative directors at the Stanford d.school. Our students study design, but they really hope to navigate a world of unknowns and make their way to a better future. We believe the best way to do that is not to limit yourself to a single domain or area but to find new possibilities in the overlaps, patterns, and discoveries that linger between ideas. We love books that stretch us beyond the design domain and into new places of inspiration and investigation. The ones on our list have all delighted us with their ability to reframe our thinking about design, even though none are squarely about the topic.

Carissa and Scott's book list on help you design a better future

Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley Why did Carissa and Scott love this book?

Kate Rayworth speaks our language. This book explains how to develop an economy that takes human and planetary flourishing into account and, most importantly, explains how we might think differently to get there.

This is a 300-plus-page book about economics—to be honest, even we haven't finished it cover to cover—but we feel a little bit wiser and more hopeful every time we crack it open!

By Kate Raworth,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Doughnut Economics as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Financial Times "Best Book of 2017: Economics"

800-CEO-Read "Best Business Book of 2017: Current Events & Public Affairs"

Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times.

Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike.

That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth,…


Book cover of The Political Economy of Education Reforms in Vietnam

Tran Van Hoa Author Of Vietnam's Reforms and Economic Growth

From my list on Vietnam’s reforms and economic growth.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a professional economist and econometrician with over 50 years of teaching and research experience. I've published articles in more than 200 international publications and been on the senior teaching staff of top U.S. and Asian universities. In recent years, I have also been interested in serious scholarly studies on developing economies in Asia and as an economic consultant to several Asian government ministries.

Tran's book list on Vietnam’s reforms and economic growth

Tran Van Hoa Why did Tran love this book?

For readers interested in a sectoral analysis of Vietnam’s reforms and economic growth, the book provides a useful account of one major area of reform in Vietnam, namely education.

Coupled with domestic training and foreign capital inflows, this education sector and its reforms can be said to be a principal contributor to the country’s development and growth. The book also discusses the reform’s rationale and issues and, for policy analysis, describes the consequences for the sector and the economy in recent years.

By Minh Quang Nguyen (editor), James Albright (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Political Economy of Education Reforms in Vietnam as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book, drawing on a political economic perspective of education development, is a comprehensive account of the question "why some education systems flourish while others falter." It provides a state-of-the-art review of the Vietnamese way of education development, figuring out the pitfalls, challenges and opportunities of neoliberal reform. It also sheds new light on the rise of neoliberal capitalism in contemporary Vietnam as the country intensifies its market-oriented economic transition.

Starting from educational development concerns, this book differentiates the growth and development concepts in education. While "growth with limited development" is well reflected in many developing education systems, the Vietnamese…


Book cover of Returns to Education: An International Comparison

Walter W. McMahon Author Of Higher Learning, Greater Good: The Private and Social Benefits of Higher Education

From my list on the returns of higher education.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always been interested in trying to make the world a better place, increasing the well-being of families and nations, and not just in making private profit for myself or for some employer. In working as a consultant on education and development in 22 different countries, many of them poor and developing such as Nepal, Malawi, and Indonesia, I've seen a lot of poverty and inequality, and have also come to see how education, including its effects on fertility rates, health, longevity, the survival of democratic institutions and so forth and especially its financing is at the heart of making lives better, especially for children who are the future of each family and each nation.

Walter's book list on the returns of higher education

Walter W. McMahon Why did Walter love this book?

I strongly recommend this book because it is clearly written, explains the methods of estimation, and provides an excellent overview of the extensive worldwide research on the returns to education based on earnings.

It certainly influenced me. It had a massive impact on World Bank lending policies in support of economic development in developing countries. It replaced the kinds of Bank physical capital investment policies such as those supporting dam construction, projects that included educating only for a few people on how to operate dams, with education sector-wide loans that support primary and junior secondary education of the labor force.

Some of these dams later washed out, and forests were destroyed in support of development. The book shows how the returns to investment in primary and secondary education are higher in developing countries where the labor force is often nearly illiterate than they are to investing in other higher levels…

By George Psacharopoulos,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Returns to Education as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hardback. Jacket a little sunned, worn, with several small nicks along top edge. Boards a little worn at edges only. Previous owner's name label on front endpaper; contents otherwise clean and sound throughout. TPW


Book cover of The Ethics of Development: From Economism to Human Development
Book cover of Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Justice and Development
Book cover of World Ethics: The New Agenda

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