How long does it take to read The Wealth and Poverty of Nations?
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes takes about 11 hours 55 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 11 hours 55 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1998. 650 pages, about 178,750 words.
24 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 19 hours 52 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 11 hours 55 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 7 hours 27 minutes |
The page count is the median across 3 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
David S. Landes tells the long, fascinating story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cultures lead to - or retard - economic and military success and material achievement. Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early through the interplay of a vital, open society focused on work and knowledge, which led to increased productivity, the creation of new technologies, and the pursuit of change. Europe's key advantage lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war, transportation, generation of power, and skill in metalwork. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that tipped the balance of world economic power. Today's new economic winners are following much the same roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed to duplicate this crucial formula for success. The key to relieving much of the world's poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us - lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work of history.
Subjects: Economic development, Economic history, History, International economic relations, National income, Poverty
