Ezra's Bookshelf

Racial Conflict and Economic Development

by W. Arthur Lewis · 144 pages · ~2.5 hrs

EconomicsRace & Identity

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W. Arthur Lewis, the Nobel Prize-winning economist from Saint Lucia, delivered these lectures at Harvard in 1982, analyzing the relationship between racial politics and economic development across different societies. Lewis examines how racial and ethnic divisions shape economic outcomes in contexts ranging from colonial Africa to the United States, drawing on his pioneering work on development economics that earned him the 1979 Nobel. The lectures challenge simplistic accounts that treat racism as merely attitudinal, instead analyzing how economic structures create and reinforce racial hierarchies. Lewis brings comparative perspective to bear on questions that remain urgent: how do multiracial societies distribute economic gains, and what policies might reduce rather than entrench inequality? He examines the economics of apartheid-era South Africa, the legacy of slavery in the Americas, and the dynamics of migration and labor markets across racial boundaries. Lewis writes with the authority of someone who experienced Caribbean colonialism firsthand before becoming the first Black faculty member at Princeton and the first Black Nobel laureate in economics. These lectures represent his mature thinking on questions he grappled with throughout his career, offering economic analysis that refuses to abstract away from historical injustice. The book remains essential reading for understanding how race and development intertwine.

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