The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

Interview on the bestseller by the American historian David Landes

Dear readers,

For the third episode of the Why the West podcast, I am delighted to welcome Richard Landes, an American historian specialist in medieval Europe.

We discussed The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, the bestseller by his father, David Landes, an American historian and Harvard professor who passed away in 2013. Published in 1998, this book seeks to answer the question: why did the West dominate the world, and not the other way around?

You can watch the interview on the Why The West YouTube channel (click here).

Unfortunately for English speakers, the interview is in French (Richard Landes is fluent in the language of Molière), but YouTube's automatic English subtitle translation tool works very well! Click the Parameter button at the bottom right of the video to activate it.

This episode covers:

• Was the fall of the Roman Empire actually good for Europe?

• The European Middle Ages: a period of great innovation! The example of the invention of eyeglasses;

• How marriage rules played a key role in the economic rise of the West;

• The West’s rise: culture or geography? A debate with Jared Diamond;

• Colonization: the West didn’t have a monopoly on it;

• The role of monks in Europe’s economic growth;

• Did the Christian view of an organized God encourage the birth of modern science?

• Why could the Industrial Revolution have happened in China?

• The invention of invention in the Western Middle Ages.

Enjoy watching!

Guillaume

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