Want to know what books Rajiv Shah recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Rajiv Shah's favorite book recommendations of all time.
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Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank.The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A... more Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank.The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A second transformation of agriculture is now required--specifically, Gordon Conway argues, a "doubly green" revolution that stresses conservation as well as productivity. He calls for researchers and farmers to forge genuine partnerships in an effort to design better plants and animals. He also urges them to develop (or rediscover) alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, improve soil and water management, and enhance earning opportunities for the poor, especially women. less 
Roger ThurowGordon was the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and earlier the Rockefeller Foundation had been one of the backers of the original green revolution, started by Norman Borlaug, a plant breeder from Iowa. This book basically takes a look beyond the green revolution and at what needs to happen next in terms of securing food supplies and ending hunger. So, it explores the next stage of the... (Source)
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A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’s scientists to find a solution.
This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air,... more A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’s scientists to find a solution.
This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives. Their invention continues to feed us today; without it, more than two billion people would starve.
But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and high explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically. Today we face the other unintended consequences of their discovery—massive nitrogen pollution and a growing pandemic of obesity.
The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of two master scientists who saved the world only to lose everything and of the unforseen results of a discovery that continues to shape our lives in the most fundamental and dramatic of ways. less See more recommendations for this book...
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"This book demonstrates that smart, well-constructed investments in global health can achieve a widespread impact on the way people live."
--Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator
This series of twenty case studies illustrates real-life proven, large-scale success stories in global public health. Drawing from a rich evidence base, the accessible case write-ups highlight experiences in scale-up of health technologies, strengthening of health systems, and the use of health education and policy change to achieve impressive reductions in disease and disability, even in the... more "This book demonstrates that smart, well-constructed investments in global health can achieve a widespread impact on the way people live."
--Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator
This series of twenty case studies illustrates real-life proven, large-scale success stories in global public health. Drawing from a rich evidence base, the accessible case write-ups highlight experiences in scale-up of health technologies, strengthening of health systems, and the use of health education and policy change to achieve impressive reductions in disease and disability, even in the poorest countries. An overview chapter draws attention to factors that contributed to the successes. Discussion questions help to bring out the main points and provide a point of departure for independent student research. This volume is an updated and expanded version of the popular and influential book Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health, published in 2004 by the Center for Global Development.
Useful as a stand-alone text or as a complement to Essentials of Global Health, this book will give your students a clear and inspiring picture of how global public health efforts have made a difference in the lives of people around the world.
Looking for more real-life evidence? Check out Cases 1, 3, 6, 7, & 13 in Essential Case Studies in Public Health, Putting Public Health into Practice. less See more recommendations for this book...
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Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms," Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation, geography, or resources--explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations.
Countering... more
Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution--and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it--occur in eighteenth-century England, and not at some other time, or in some other place? Why didn't industrialization make the whole world rich--and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer? In "A Farewell to Alms," Gregory Clark tackles these profound questions and suggests a new and provocative way in which culture--not exploitation, geography, or resources--explains the wealth, and the poverty, of nations.
Countering the prevailing theory that the Industrial Revolution was sparked by the sudden development of stable political, legal, and economic institutions in seventeenth-century Europe, Clark shows that such institutions existed long before industrialization. He argues instead that these institutions gradually led to deep cultural changes by encouraging people to abandon hunter-gatherer instincts-violence, impatience, and economy of effort-and adopt economic habits-hard work, rationality, and education.
The problem, Clark says, is that only societies that have long histories of settlement and security seem to develop the cultural characteristics and effective workforces that enable economic growth. For the many societies that have not enjoyed long periods of stability, industrialization has not been a blessing. Clark also dissects the notion, championed by Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs, and Steel," that natural endowments such as geography account for differences in the wealth of nations.
A brilliant and sobering challenge to the idea that poor societies can be economically developed through outside intervention, "A Farewell to Alms" may change the way global economic history is understood.
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Rajiv ShahIt’s a very exciting book that shows how for hundreds, even thousands of years basic economic progress was largely stagnant. As economies were able to produce more food, populations grew. You didn’t have rapid compound increases in living standards until around 1800. Around then, the industrial revolution and its precursors created a massive divergence. Some countries and some societies got on a... (Source)
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