» Update your details

• Synopsis
• Reviews
• Product details
• Interview

• Biography
• More titles by Jeffrey D. Sachs

Synopsis

The global economic system now faces a sustainability crisis, Jeffrey Sachs argues, one that will overturn many of our basic assumptions. The very idea of competing nation states scrambling for power, resources and markets will soon be outdated. The world has become much too crowded and dangerous for more ‘Great Games’ in the Middle East or anywhere else. The defining challenge of the twenty-first century is now to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate: we will flourish – or perish – together. We will have to learn that there must be common ground between rich and poor, among competing ethnic groups, and between society and nature.

The central theme of Jeffrey Sachs’s new book is that we need a new economic paradigm: global, inclusive, cooperative, environmentally aware, science-based. The alternative is a worldwide economic collapse of unprecedented severity. Prosperity will have to be sustained through more cooperative processes, relying as much on public policy as market forces to spread technology, address the needs of the poor, and to husband threatened resources of water, air, energy, land, and biodiversity. New forms of politics – built on scientific networks, corporate social responsibility and globally agreed goals – will replace capital-city-dominated national diplomacy and intrigue. National governments will become much weaker actors.

If we do the right things, there is room for all on the planet. We can achieve four key goals: prosperity for all, the end of extreme poverty, stabilization of the global population and environmental sustainability. Common Wealth points to the course we must take to achieve them, for the sake of our common future.

Reviews

Critic Review:

'Clear and compelling arguments that will leave you keen to sign up to his grand plan...a truly inspirational book'
BBC Focus

'A...timely and significant work...written with admirable clarity'
The Telegraph

'It is difficult to think of any other single-volume work where this multiplicity of threats is discussed with such coherence, humanity and passion.'
Spectator

'I find his passion and commitment to global problem-solving genuinely impressive.'
The Independent

Interview

Publishing Director Stuart Proffitt on Common Wealth by Jeffrey D. Sachs

This is a book about how we should address the great, and interconnected, global challenges of the twenty-first century. Our task, Sachs argues, is to achieve truly sustainable development, by which he means finding a global course which enables the world to benefit from the spread of prosperity while ensuring that we don't destroy the eco-systems which keep us alive and our place in nature which helps sustain our values. How do we move forward together, benefitting from our increasing technological mastery, avoiding the terrible dangers of climate change, mass famines, violent conflicts, population explosions in some parts of the world and collapses in others, and world-wide pandemic diseases? How do we steer global politics when there are now so many who believe they are entitled to a hand on the steering wheel?

In answering these questions, Common Wealth examines, digests and judges vast quantities of information from many different fields of study which bear on each of the interconnected areas of politics, economics and ecology. Sachs shows that there are different ways of managing the world's technology, resources and politics from those currently being followed, and that it should be possible to adopt policies which reflect long-term and co-operative thinking instead of, as currently, disregard for others and ever-increasing barriers to solving the problems which we collectively face. It is a book which appeals equally to both head and heart, and one which no globally thinking person can ignore.

Product details

Shipped within 24hrs.
FREE UK Delivery on orders of £25 or over

• Full delivery details

• » View your basket