The Conquest of Peru by Prescott

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i think it's a consensus that the dominant innovations did come from england, if i remember correctly. And what your book lays bare in a very brutal and an important way is how badly bad it isn't does ndo justice to it how brutally many of the colonizers treated the native people. In the casef the spanish and enlightened america, ah, just a brutal serfdom and slavery and an extractive relationship. And then you contrast with the british relationship in north america. North versus south America turned out very differently decades and then centuries later. It was nothing like what was happening in latin america. They couldn't do that because there were no

Daron Acemoglu of MIT and author (with James Robinson) of Why Nations Fail talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book: why some nations fail and others succeed, why some nations grow over time and sustain that growth, while others grow and then stagnate. Acemoglu draws on an exceptionally rich set of examples over space and time to argue that differences in institutions--political governance and the inclusiveness of the political and economic system--explain the differences in economics success across nations and over time. Acemoglu also discusses how institutions evolve and the critical role institutional change plays in economic success or failure. Along the way, he explains why previous explanations for national economic success are inadequate. The conversation closes with a discussion of the implications of the arguments for foreign aid and attempts by the wealthy nations to help nations that are poor.