Welcome to our library

Microcredit in International Development

• Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven
• Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, by David Roodman (Reviewed by Steve Wanta March 2, 2012)
• Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus

International Development

What Went Wrong with Traditional Development Models

• Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, by Dambisa Moyo
• The White Man’s Burden – Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, by William Easterly
• The Elusive Quest for Growth – Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, by William Easterly
• The Trouble with Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working, by Robert Calderisi
• The Bottom Billion – Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, by Paul Collier
• The Other Path – The Economic Answer to Terrorism, by Hernando de Soto
• The Mystery of Capital – Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, by Hernando de Soto

Alternative Ideas on Development and Related Subjects

• The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley
• Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science, by Ian Plimer
• Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth
• Copenhagen Consensus Website, by Bjorn Lomborg et al
• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid-Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad
• Creating a World Without Poverty – How Social Business Can Transform Our Lives, by Muhammad Yunus

Classic Economics that Support Our Economic Development Model

• In Defense of Global Capitalism, by Johan Norberg
• The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek
• Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman
• Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, by Joseph A. Schumpeter

Other Recommended Reading in Development

• Poor People, by William T. Vollmann
• Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism – And the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, by William J. Baumol et al

Environmentalism’s Impact on World Poverty

• Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, by Stewart Brand
• Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: the Making of a Sensible Environmentalist, by Patrick Moore
• Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, by James E. McWilliams
• Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, by Robert Bryce
• Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Lomborg
• Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth

What We’re Reading on the Whole Planet Foundation Team

The following books were read and reviewed by Whole Planet Foundation Team Members. The ones we liked the best ended up in the educational sections above.

• Women in War – The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador by Jocelyn Viterna 
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Poor Economics by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee
• The Walmart Effect reviewed by Charles Fishman
• The Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter & Allison H. Fine

Armando Huerta

• Women in War – The Micro-Processes of Mobilization in El Salvador by Jocelyn Viterna
• Favela, Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio de Janeiro by Janice Perlman

Brian Doe

• The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan
• Social Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century by Georgia Keohane
• The Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy by Robert Neuwirth
• The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa, by Deborah Brautigam
• Success in Africa: CEO Insights from a Continent on the Rise by Jonathan Berman 
• The Idealist by Nina Munk

Claire Kelly

• How the West was Lost by Dambisa Moyo
• Journey Without Maps by Graham Greene
• Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela

Daniel Zoltani

• Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary by Stewart Brand
• Destructive Emotions; How We Can Overcome Them: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama by Daniel Goleman
• Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems by Michael Strong
• A Fistful of Rice: My Unexpected Quest to End Poverty Through Profitability by Vikram Akula
• Value Chain Finance: Beyond Microfinance for Rural Entrepreneurs
• Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity Through Business by John Mackey
• Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, by Steven E. Kooni

Genie Bolduc

• The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
• The Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow
• Sufferings in Africa by Captain James Riley
• Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia

JP Kloninger

• In Spite of the Gods – The Strange Rise of Modern India, by Edward Luce
• Power Hungry, The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future by Robert Bryce
• First Principles by John B. Taylor
• Poor Economics – A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
• Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo

Joy Stoddard

• Africa’s Moment, by Jean-Michel Severino and Olivier Ray
• The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley
• Starved for Science, How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa by Robert Paarlberg
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
• Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• Africa: How 17 Countries are Leading the Way by Steven Radelet
• Stealth of Nations by Robert Neuwirth
• Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker

Katelyn Gorski

• The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor by William Easterly

Lauren Evans

• Arrow of God, by Chinua Achebe
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
• What is the What by Dave Eggers
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
• Africa’s Moment by Jean-Michael Servino and Olivier Ray
• No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
• The Gift of Fear – and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
• The Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter & Allison H. Fine

Magatte Wade

• Rwanda, Inc.: How a Devastated Nation Became an Economic Model for the Developing World by Patricia Crisafulli

Morgan Peretti

• Poor Economics – A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
• Portfolios of the Poor by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven
• Last Hunger Season by Roger Thurow

Philip Sansone

• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
• Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day, by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven
• Banker to the Poor, by Muhammad Yunus
• Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa, by Dambisa Moyo
• The White Man’s Burden – Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, by William Easterly
• The Elusive Quest for Growth – Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, by William Easterly
• The Trouble with Africa – Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working, by Robert Calderisi
• The Bottom Billion – Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, by Paul Collier
• The Other Path – The Economic Answer to Terrorism, by Hernando de Soto
• The Mystery of Capital – Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, by Hernando de Soto
• Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, by Stewart Brand
• Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: the Making of a Sensible Environmentalist, by Patrick Moore
• Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, by James E. McWilliams 
• Power Hungry: The Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future, by Robert Bryce
• Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, by Bjorn Lomborg
• Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth
• The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, by Matt Ridley
• Heaven and Earth: Global Warming the Missing Science, by Ian Plimer
• Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth
• Copenhagen Consensus Website, by Bjorn Lomborg et al
• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid-Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad
• In Defense of Global Capitalism, by Johan Norberg
• The Road to Serfdom, by F.A. Hayek
• Free to Choose, by Milton and Rose Friedman
• Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, by Joseph A. Schumpeter
• Poor People, by William T. Vollmann
• Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism – And the Economics of Growth and Prosperity, by William J. Baumol et al

Stephanie Manciagli

• The Future of Microfinance: A Collection of Essays 
• Poor No More by Peter Cove
• The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor by William Easterly

Steve Wanta

• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia
• Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
• More Than Good Intentions: Improving the Ways the World’s Poor Borrow, Save, Farm, Learn, and Stay Healthy by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel
• No Ancient Wisdom, No Followers: The Challenges of Chinese Authoritarian Capitalism by James McGregor
• Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance, by David Roodman

Victor Quiroz

• Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day by Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, Orlanda Ruthven
• Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey & Rajendra Sisodia
• Free to Choose by Milton & Rose Friedman
• Getting Better – Why Global Development is Succeeding – and How We Can Improve the World Even More by Charles Kenny
• Brilliant, Crazy Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos by Sarah Lacy
• A Capitalist Manifesto: Understanding the Market Economy and Defending Liberty by Gary Wolfram
• The Walmart Effect reviewed by Charles Fishman

Zoe So

• The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohammed (Fiction) – Somaliland, Somali Civil War