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The article reviews the book "We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa," by Ashwin Desai.

Reviews the book "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans," by David Stoll.

Reviews the book "The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath," by Kevin Phillips.

A review of the book "Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row," by Forrest Stuart, is presented.

Reviews the book "The Nature of Mass Poverty," by John Kenneth Galbraith. INSET: Films Worth Seeing..

Reviews the book "Prelude to Riot: A View of Urban America From the Bottom," by Paul Jacobs.

Reviews the book "Mental Health of the Poor," edited by Frank Riessman, Jerome Cohen and Arthur Pearl.

In this moment of history that has been described by democracy champion Larry Diamond as a 'democracy recession', is it helpful to argue by taking no prisoners and not letting inconvenient truths get in the way? In The tyranny of experts, Bill Easterly uses his trademark blend of insight and relentlessness to detail two big and important ideas: that underlying the prescriptions of all too many development practitioners is the hidden presumption of governance by well-intentioned autocrats; and that, by contrast, free societies offer the opportunity for people, societies and economies to thrive. But the book's mode of argumentation and its substance are at odds with much recent scholarship on how institutions evolve in the course of development. As this literature underscores, countries diverge from one another in the patterns of leads and lags through which public sector capability and the rule of law strengthen. In some settings statebuilding leads; in others, a strengthened rule of law comes first. Both sequences are fraught with risk and the potential for unintended consequences. Rather than engage with the challenges posed by this scholarship, The tyranny of experts dismissively brushes aside any and all complications, counterexamples and other inconvenient truths. In this era of evident challenge and complexity, overheated, argumentative enthusiasm can no longer substitute for the hard practical work that needs to be done. We need to move on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Globalization and Global Justice: Shrinking Distance, Expanding Obligations" by Nicole Hassoun.

The article presents reviews of the book "The Bureaucrat and the Poor: Encounters in French Welfare Offices," by Vincent Dubois, translated by Jean-Yves Bart.

A review of the book "Poor Economics," by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo is presented.

Gregory Elliehausen of Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System reviews, 'No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans.' by Michael S. Barr. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: 'Eleven papers explore the financial constraints and choices of low-income families and examine the ways that low-income families use services through both formal and informal financial institutions, focusing on households in the Detroit area. Papers discuss managing money; banking for all; preferences for plastic; which way to the bank?; borrowing to make ends meet; high-cost homeownership; living on the edge of bankruptcy; expensive tax refunds; paying to save; behaviorally informed regulation; and crisis and reform. Barr is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Experiences of Poverty in Late Medieval and Early Modern England and France," edited by Anne M. Scott.