William Easterly is a professor of economics at New York University and codirector of the NYU Development Research Institute. He is the author of four books, including The Tyranny of Experts and The White Man's Burden. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. He lives in New York.
Easterly's deep scholarship brings the story to life, celebrating the few who saw clearly, some familiar, many not. An innovative and exhilarating read -- Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics You must read Violent Saviours -- Stephen Haber, Stanford University Easterly has done it again, sharply revising what we thought we knew, but didn't. He shows us the startling unity among tyrannies we imagined were distinct. A triumph of liberal thought -- Deirdre McCloskey, Cato Institute Violent Saviors is Bill Easterly's masterpiece. It brilliantly weaves together the self-serving and arrogant histories of the conquests, enslavements and destructive 'assistance' the West has imposed on the Rest, showing the common patronizing thread that connects them and tracing all these hideous histories to the philosophies that justified them, which Easterly masterfully dissects -- Charles Calomiris, Columbia Business School A nicely contrarian work of interest to aid organizations and policymakers everywhere * Kirkus * Easterly stands alone among almost all development economists for his belief in human agency . . . Easterly's commitment to liberal ideals is powerful -- Financial Times, Books of the Year