Aid & International Development
Last updated: March 11, 2024
In this section experts in aid and international development choose books that look at our attempts—and failures—to tackle global social problems such as poverty, displacement and disease. It also looks at responses to natural disasters.
Climate change expert Khurshid Alam chooses five books that look at natural disasters, and outlines some of the key political issues that relate to disaster management. Investigative reporter Gary Rivlin looks at Hurricane Katrina, the response to it in New Orleans and what that can tell us about American society. Immunologist Arthur Ammann talks about HIV/AIDS and the lessons history can teach us in dealing with plagues.
Turning to manmade problems, former British foreign secretary David Miliband talks about refugees and Roger Thurow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs talks about hunger. Jo Boydon, Professor of International Relations at Oxford talks about raising children, particularly in the developing world, and the particular challenges and complications that can throw up. Clare Lockhart looks at failed states.
Beyond that we have a myriad interviews looking at solutions to the world’s problems, including on vaccines, public health, breakthroughs in development, children and the millennium development goals, saving the world, changing the world for good (with Mia Farrow), aid work, a world without poverty (with Muhammad Yunus), and humanitarian intervention—to give you some idea.
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1
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
by His Holiness the Dalai Lama -
2
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy -
3
Exhaust the Limits: The Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder
by Charles F Dambach -
4
Connexity: How to Live in a Connected World
by Geoff Mulgan -
5
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Fundamentalism, Radicalisation and Terrorism
by Jessica Yakeley and Paul Cundy (eds.)
The best books on Peace, recommended by Steve Killelea
The best books on Peace, recommended by Steve Killelea
Efforts to bring about peace have often focused on eliminating the conditions of war, violence and terrorism. But as Steve Killelea—founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace and the annual Global Peace Index—explains, the foundations of sustainable peace are radically different from the absence of war and violence. Here, he recommends five books that shed light on the building blocks of peace and explains why ‘positive peace’ is so important.
The best books on Effective Altruism, recommended by Will MacAskill
Should you feel responsible for helping the world become better? And if so, how should you use your time, money, and career to have the biggest possible impact? These are the questions addressed by the effective altruism movement. One of its leading figures, Will MacAskill, recommends the best books to answer them.
Arthur Ammann recommends the best books on the HIV/Aids Plague
When dealing with epidemics, science does not have all the answers and relying on a new miracle drug is not always the solution. We must also learn the lessons of history, argues the veteran doctor of the HIV/Aids epidemic, Arthur Ammann. He picks the best books on ‘plagues.’
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1
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
by Madeleine Albright -
2
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence -
3
The New Threat from Islamic Militancy
by Jason Burke -
4
Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence
by Jonathan Sacks -
5
Little Bee: A Novel
by Chris Cleave
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
One out of every 122 people in the world today is displaced by conflict. David Miliband, president of the IRC, chooses five books to help us think constructively about refugees and the causes of the current crisis.
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Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children
by Viviana A Zelizer -
2
Social Development
by H. Rudolph Schaffer -
3
The Roads of Chinese Childhood
by Charles Stafford -
4
The Child in the City
by Colin Ward -
5
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
The best books on Children, recommended by Jo Boyden
The best books on Children, recommended by Jo Boyden
We all know how children should be brought up, and rarely question the cultural norms that underly that certainty. But what does that mean for the policies we try to impose on the developing world? Jo Boyden, professor of international development at Oxford University and director of its Young Lives study, picks books that question our assumptions about how to successfully raise a child.
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City of Refuge
by Tom Piazza -
2
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
by Douglas Brinkley -
3
Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City
by Jed Horne -
4
Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security
by Christopher Cooper and Robert Block -
5
New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape
by Peirce F. Lewis
The best books on Hurricane Katrina, recommended by Gary Rivlin
The best books on Hurricane Katrina, recommended by Gary Rivlin
Katrina was not a natural disaster but an engineering one, says the journalist and author. He chooses the best books on Hurricane Katrina, ranging from a novel to a geographical biography of New Orleans.
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1
Polio: An American Story
by David Oshinsky -
2
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
by Arthur Allen -
3
The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis
by Paul Offit -
4
Microbe Hunters
by Paul de Kruif -
5
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic
by Steven Johnson
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
The Best Vaccine Books, recommended by Seth Mnookin
The history of vaccines is fascinating, and we highly recommend all the books discussed in this interview with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus and Professor of Science Writing at MIT. These are gripping reads that tell the story of vaccines, medicine’s greatest life-saver, and the risks people took to find them.
The best books on Public Health, recommended by Thomas Frieden
Infectious disease expert—and former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—Thomas Frieden, takes us inside the world of fighting epidemics, eradicating disease and confronting the preventable damage we do to ourselves.
The best books on Breakthroughs in Development, recommended by Rajiv Shah
The head of USAID says ending poverty is within our grasp, and explains why development and a flair for business can be a happy combination
The best books on Rural Women in the Developing World, recommended by Khushi Kabir
The Bangladeshi campaigner for lifting women out of poverty says village life has been wrongly idealised. It is not a harmonious whole, with the elders looking after the interests of all the villagers alike