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.
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
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1
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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1
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
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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 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.
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1
UNICEF’s 2010 State of the World’s Children Report, Celebrating 20 Years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
by UNICEF -
2
UNDP, The Human Development Report 2003
by UNDP -
3
The No-Nonsense Guide to the United Nations
by Maggie Black -
4
Just Give Money to the Poor
by Joseph Hanlon, Armando Barrientos and David Hulme -
5
The Idea of Justice
by Amartya Sen
The best books on Children and the Millennium Development Goals, recommended by Richard Jolly
The best books on Economic Development, recommended by Pranab Bardhan
What is economic development? What does it take to make it happen? What can we learn from the days Britain was still a developing country? Eminent Indian economist, Pranab Bardhan, recommends the best books to better understand economic development.
The best books on The Poor and Their Money, recommended by Stuart Rutherford
Modern microfinance was born in the late 1970s, and is now viewed as a key way of helping people in poor countries get out of poverty. Author and practitioner Stuart Rutherford recommends the best books to get a basic understanding of microfinance.
