8 /10 1 Votes8
Language English Publication date 18 May 2010 Pages 448 Country United States of America | 4/5 Goodreads Publisher Harper Media type Print (Hardcover) Originally published 18 May 2010 Page count 448 Nominations Baillie Gifford Prize | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Matt Ridley books, Economics books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Matt ridley the rational optimist
The Rational Optimist is a 2010 popular science book by Matt Ridley, author of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature. The book primarily focuses on the benefits of the innate human tendency to trade goods and services. Ridley argues that this trait is the source of human prosperity, and that as people increasingly specialize in their skill sets, we will have increased trade and even more prosperity.
Contents
- Matt ridley the rational optimist
- Matt ridley on the rational optimist ideas having sex
- Reception
- References
Matt ridley on the rational optimist ideas having sex
Reception
Bill Gates praised the book for critiquing opposition to international aid, but criticised the book for under-representing Global catastrophic risks. Ricardo Salinas Pliego praised the book as a defence of free trade and globalisation. Michael Shermer gave the book positive reviews in Nature and Scientific American before going on to present similar ideas in conference talks, and writing The Moral Arc partly in response. David Papineau praised the book for refuting "doomsayers who insist that everything is going from bad to worse".
George Monbiot criticised the book in his Guardian column. Critics of the book say it fails to address wealth inequality, and other criticisms of globalization.