While few would deny that culture matters, Harrison would like you to believe that it is all that matters. The book does not present any data to back his twisted arguments apart from self serving anecdotes on every conference he attended and every conversation with minor celebrities. Once you get past the name dropping, however, you find a racist isolationist arguing against NAFTA (he believes that the stereotype that "Mexican are corrupt, have no social consciousness and completely disregard human rights" "is "largely accurate" -pg. 215) and against immigration ( "large numbers of unskilled, uneducated immigrants...confound the high priority objective of steadily increasing high incomes for Americans" ..."our policy must be responsive to the needs of our society, not the failures of other societies" pg. 251). Harrison gets in real conceptual trouble when he repeatedly criticizes economists that emphasize "market signals" to create prosperity. To explain the progress in Chile he has to do a backflip ( the elite there is from Basque descent, he argues). You are left to wonder how he explains the sharply different progress of the same culture in Taiwan and Continental China, in the former East or West Germany , in North and South Korea or in Cuba and Miami, to mention just a few cases. His main argument is that if you are Catholic and brown, you better change your religion, your values and if possible, the color of your skin - but don't ever dare to live in the United States and challenge his culture! Don't waste your time with his book.

A really first-rate book that states the obvious--which, in these PC days we're not supposed to say--and states it lucidly.

Harrison has written one of the most important and provocative books on U.S.-Latin American relations published in the last quarter century. Along with his earlier work, "Underdevelopment is a State of Mind: The Latin American Case", it is required reading for those who wish to understand why more than 50 years of international aid to the region has failed to produce sustainable economic progress, social justice and stable democracies.

Harrison has shifted the focus of Latin America's development crisis to cultural deficiencies and family values. His books are reminiscent of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's analyses of the crisis of the black family, Francis Fukuyama's "Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity", and John McWhorten's recent book, "Losing the Race". Much like Senator Moynihan's writings were dismissed as "racist", time has proven him correct. Harrison's courageous leadership in identifying similar cultural and value weaknesses in Latin American societies has generated the same unproductive name calling from leftists whose prescriptions have repeatedly failed to achieve sustainable development in Latin America. International aid agencies and universities do a real disservice to millions of Latin Americans mired in misery by ignoring Harrison's critical point about the cultural roots of their persistent poverty.

Since so many books on Latin America are poorly written and present distorted views of the region, "The Pan American Dream" is a pleasure to read that makes it ideal for introductory courses and study groups. Chapter Four on the destructive role of American intellectuals and the positive contributions of the United Fruit Company is guaranteed to stimulate intense discussion and debate. Given the rigid leftist orthodoxy that dominates so much teaching about Latin America, Harrison's arguments are a breath of fresh air and reflect a historic paradigm shift in analyzing U.S.-Latin American relations.

It should be noted that a growing number of leading Latin American and U.S. writers agree with Harrison's conclusions. Indeed, Harrison draws extensively on the Venezuelan Carlos Rangel and his 1976 book, "The Latin Americans: Their Love-Hate Relationship with the United States". Those who charge Harrison with "racism" should see similar analyses by Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America's most prominent writers and the book "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" that has been a regional best-seller since its publication in 1996. These and other writers, such as the Argentine Mariano Grandona, and those other academics who contributed to Harrison's most recent book "CULTURE MATTERS: How Values Shape Human Progress" clearly represent a dramatic paradigm shift in thinking about the root causes of underdevelopment. Harrison should be congratulated for his intellectual courage. He merits far greater attention by those concerned with helping the Latin American poor and creating a more positive and constructive Western Hemisphere community of nations.

The thesis of this book is that the economic disparities between the US, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Haiti result from the superiority of WASP culture. The study of the relationship between culture and progress has a long history dating back to Max Weber. This book offers nothing new except a harsher edge that gives it a stench of white-supremacy. Harrison is clearly aware of the potential for charges of racism. He makes extensive use of quotes from blacks and Hispanics to make points that would be offensive coming from a white person. This is reminiscent of the 2000 reform party's black vice presidential candidate whose job it is to state that Pat Buchanan is not a racist, not an anti-Semite, and not a homophobe. Harrison's book purports to be a book on development, rather than a justification for the disparities of wealth between the first and third worlds. Indeed, there are reasonable policy proposals in this book, as well as a decent refutation of dependency theory. However, there is nothing really new here. Economists almost universally rejected dependency theory long before "Underdevelopment is a State of Mind" was first published. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the development literature will come away with nothing more than the simplistic argument that poor people deserve to be poor because of their inferior culture. The book gives no hint as to the fundamental causes of cultural differences. Clearly culture affects economic progress. However, it is equally clear that economics affects culture. The U.S. has a culture conducive to capitalist growth in no small part because it is a wealthy capitalist nation. Any writer sincerely concerned with improving the welfare of poor people should look favorable upon immigration and cultural exchanges. With the fed raising interest rates to choke off US growth and prevent labor shortages, the U.S. can absorb vastly increased levels of immigration. The success of immigrants from very poor countries makes it clear that it is the institutional and cultural restrictions of poor countries that make them poor. They do not bring their supposed "cultural inferiority" with them. The fact that Harrison's book contains diatribes against immigration shows that his concern is with relieving his own guilt about living better than 90% of humanity rather than improving the lives of the bottom 90%.

In this book, professor Harrison makes and excellent aproach among the relationship among culture and development. With great sense of the state of development in Latin America and mainly Central America, Harrison argues that the cultural values and attitudes shape development patterns. A must read book for students, academicicians and politicians interest in the development of nations...

If you are one of those people who disingenously think that all cultures are the same and that cultural attitudes do not impinge on economical issues, move on and keep on reading the same type of pseudo-scholarship that created and sustains all those described in two other works the reader should take into account: "El Manual del perfecto idiota latinoamericano" (The Manual of the Perfect Latin American Idiot")and "Fabricantes de miseria" (Makers of Misery). Otherwise, buy books like this and one day you might learn the truth.

This is a brilliant book that explains everyday confusions about the world. I highly recommend it. And I would like to counter the couple of comments below that suggest that this is a pro-white-Protestant polemic. It does not praise JUST western Protestant thought...there is PLENTY of praising of Eastern thought, such as Chinese Confucianism, and Japanese social attitudes, and of the the Jamaican blacks. These are obviously not white Protestant groups! So to suggest this book is some rash polemic is dead wrong. It's a real eye-opener and quite educational.

This is a brilliant book, that shows that what happens around you affects you. Anyone who doesn't think President Clinton's chronic infidelity, and cronyism, and draft dodging, and all his other scandals, won't result in corruption in other parts of society, should read this book. Corruption spreads like a cancer. When Peter sees Paul get away with something, Peter will try to get away with it, too. This will be an uncomfortable book for some, but should be read.

This is a refreshing book. It's politically incorrect, so the knee-jerk liberals (like those here who gave it one star) won't like it. Reality is reality, whether you like it or not. And this book presents the reality of what works and what doesn't. I would recommend reading Eric Fromm's "ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM," too, because some points that are incorrect in this book, you can see corrected in that book. But most of the points made in this book are correct. Just as a child's parents can make or break his life emotionally, so can culture make or break a country's economic and political life. Harrison is dead wrong in some of the details, but his overall point is dead right, and it's refreshing to see someone make it. This book shows the importance of self-discipline, and, personally, inspired me to become more self-disciplined.

It certainly seems to matter. Why, after all, should Japan have been be rich while Taiwan was poor, if culture did not matter? Or Denmark been a nation of farmers while Holland held dominion over the trade routes of the world? And why, as is asked in one of the most frustratingly tentative essays in this very variable volume, do different immigrant groups to the United States have such very different careers? Of course, it is unfashionable to ask such questions lest someone believe that to say culture matters is to imply that race matters: ie that members of wealthy races are inherently superior to members of poor races. Perhaps that is why the most compelling essays in this book are by an African development economist and a Latin American journalist who exclaim impatiently that of course culture matters and insist that the thing their nations need is to discover the cultural components of economic success and import some. Even more refreshing is the essay by Ronald Inglehardt who brings - gasp - actual measurable data to this debate. Not that anything is quite settled. We are still left with the big questions, like: Why Europe? Why not China? and What was so special about eighteenth century England? On those questions, permit me to recommend two other new books. Nathan Pomeranz's THE GREAT DIVERGENCE, which bends over backwards to prove that China could equally well have given us the industrial revolution, but for a few chance occurances that have nothing to do with culture. And BULLOUGH'S POND by Diana Muir, which, in the course of discussing a number of other things, does lead one to wonder if there may have been something about those Calvinists after all.

This book is a very good compilation of article on the role of culture in development. The compilation includes articles by a large number of premier authors on the subject, including the editors, Michael Porter, David Landes, Jeffrey Sachs, Francis Fukuyama, among others.

The articles deal with many different topics, though the common theme is how culture affect the success of a certain aspect of society, such as health, education, institutions, justice, etc. It does focus on blaming certain cultures for lack of success, but rather it tries to understand the themes that allow certain cultures to outperform others. The lessons do not blame a culture, but rather suggests somewhat modest (and often drastic) change that is necessary to permit a well functioning capitalist economy to exist.

As an economist, I found this book extremely useful in demonstrating the "transaction costs" that a culture may impose on a country, hence reducing its opporutnities for growth. In economics, this is usually studied in theory, but this book provides lively examples of how this is truly the case. However, I do believe that this book would be useful for practitioners in other disciplines.

Culture Matters consists on a series of essays written by well-known scientists and journalists from all over the world. Each of them describes the causes of underdevelopment based on many theories, but mainly through sociological explanations, like culture, values and attitudes.
As a Latin American I can say I finally found a book that brings light into such a controversial issue as the failure of our contries. I was particularly impressed by Carlos Montaner's account of the role of the elites in our societies, and how their corrupt practices have destroyed our economies.
The book fortunately goes beyond the common and naif conclussions of the so called anti-imperialists and intellectuals from the left by succeeding in showing the real factors that bring prosperity and progress into communities. It also enriches Weber's work by adding new and interesting aspects that positively contribute to create wealth and welfare for people.
I highly recommend this book for everyone who is interested in finding explanations for the underachievment of countries instead of blaming "the forces of evil" and economics.