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Why do some countries have highly developed economies while other countries remain poor? David S. Landes''s book, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, probes this phenomenon by surveying the economic development of the modern world. Reviewer David Warsh, economics columnist at the Boston Globe, positions the book in the context of other explanations of national development. Unlike economists, who ask only those questions that can be answered with a high degree of certainty, historians seek to see matters whole. They synthesize details from a wealth of sources to create a narrative that satisfies our sense of a full explanation. Warsh finds that Landes has remained true to the historian''s mission, generating an expansive and gripping account of world economic history. Europe became rich, says Landes, because of its temperate climate and its political and religious fragmentation. He stands his ground against "multiculturalist" historians, insisting that other lands fell short economically because of their own internal problems of centralized power and spiritual orthodoxy. Along with the book''s ambitious scope, highly readable prose, and passionate arguments, Warsh finds that Landes still manages to address questions that interest economists. Just as Landes''s previous book helped raise economists'' interest in the centrality of knowledge and entrepreneurship, the rich cultural analysis of Landes''s historical account anticipates much of what may transpire in the next 20 years of technical economic theory.