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Matt Ridley

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) Paperback – Illustrated, June 7, 2011

by Matt Ridley (Author)

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“A delightful and fascinating book filled with insight and wit, which will make you think twice and cheer up.” — Steven Pinker

In a bold and provocative interpretation of economic history, Matt Ridley, the New York Times-bestselling author of Genome and The Red Queen, makes the case for an economics of hope, arguing that the benefits of commerce, technology, innovation, and change—what Ridley calls cultural evolution—will inevitably increase human prosperity. Fans of the works of Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel), Niall Ferguson (The Ascent of Money), and Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) will find much to ponder and enjoy in The Rational Optimist.

For two hundred years the pessimists have dominated public discourse, insisting that things will soon be getting much worse. But in fact, life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.

An astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history—from the Stone Age to the Internet—The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

Print length

480 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 7, 2011
Dimensions

5.31 x 1.08 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

9780061452062
ISBN-13

978-0061452062
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The chapters tracing the human story from 50,000 years ago through the seventeenth century are themselves worth the price of admission, with vivid storytelling illuminating the huge role of markets and trade in material progress…Read The Rational Optimist for its fascinating history of trade and economics.” -- New York Times Book Review

“A superb book…Elegant, learned, and cogent…a far-reaching synthesis of economics and ecology, a triumphant new demarche in the understanding of wealth and poverty…Inspiring.” -- George Gilder, National Review

“A very good book…a rich analysis…Ridley is a cogent and erudite social critic…He bolsters his argument with an impressive tour of evolutionary biology, economics, philosophy, world history.” -- Washington Post

“A fast-moving, intelligent description of why human life has so consistently improved over the course of history, and a wonderful overview of how human civilizations move forward.” -- John Tierney, New York Times

“Chock-full of in-your-face challenges to conventional wisdom…Ridley is a sworn enemy of Cassandras and Chicken Littles. In The Rational Optimist, he covers 200,000 years of human history to make a compelling case that over the millennia poverty declined, disease retreated, violence atrophied, freedom grew and happiness increased.” -- The Oregonian (Portland)

“A delightful and fascinating book filled with insight and wit, which will make you think twice and cheer up.” -- Steven Pinker

“The Rational Optimist teems with challenging and original ideas…No other book has argued with such brilliance and historical breadth against the automatic pessimism that prevails in intellectual life.” -- Ian McEwan

“Ridley eloquently weaves together economics, archeology, history, and evolutionary theory…His words effortlessly turn complicated economic and scientific concepts into entertaining, digestible nuggets.” -- Barrett Sheridan, Newsweek

“Invigorating…For Mr. Ridley, the market for ideas needs to be as open as possible in order to breed ingenuity from collaboration.” -- Trevor Butterworth, Wall Street Journal

“The Rational Optimist will give a reader solid reasons for believing that the human species will overcome its economic, political and environmental woes during this century.” -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Back Cover

In his bold and bracing exploration into how human culture evolves positively through exchange and specialization, bestselling author Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. An astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history—from the Stone Age to the Internet—The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061452068
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Illustrated edition (June 7, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061452062
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0061452062
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.08 x 8 inches

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Customer Reviews:
1,269 ratings

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Matt Ridley

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Matt Ridley's books have been shortlisted for six literary awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (for Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters). His most recent book, The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture, won the award for the best science book published in 2003 from the National Academies of Science. He has been a scientist, a journalist, and a national newspaper columnist, and is the chairman of the International Centre for Life, in Newcastle, England. Matt Ridley is also a visiting professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		18%
3 star		4%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jim E.

An internal or self-contradiction

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

An impressive polemic, with plenty of data worth considering relative to humanity's long march into a "better" life--for, er, most of us? Several of the critical reviews hint at what I consider Mr. Ripley's basic sleight of hand, so I'll get to it and suggest that you read several of the 3 or 2 or 1 stars. Ridley has a lot of fun at the expense of the pessimists among us, and it's true that Malthus, Ehrlich et al have been famously wrong about mankind's ability to adapt to adverse conditions.
But try to think of humanity as an organic whole (difficult, but in a sense we're not that different from the insect biomass--consider the typical traffic flow in any big city, or our ability to organize air traffic flow around any large airport--ignoring the rare disasters. Ants and bees have their problems too.).
If that be granted, which part of human identity is it that really sparks the creative fires that light the way to innovative change? Is it entirely the happy go lucky smiley face side? The guy with the big grin in the first canoe to get to the European sailing ship loaded with trinkets? Or his wife who's threatened to leave him if he doesn't get some baubles in exchange for the exotic fruit they've been throwing into the island's garbage pit for years? That guy or girl who designed a more effective spearhead--was that person motivated by the love of beautiful objects with barbed edges, or by gnawing hunger and the fear of starvation?
More to the point(!): if our great-grandchildren are going to be significantly better off than we are, despite millions more of vehicles terrestrial and celestial, a colossal pileup of trash on land, on and under the sea, and in the air, and regardless of what the scientific consensus is telling us, won't that require just a smidgen of grousing by grumps like me, to goad the engineers and scientists with the promise of fame and fortune? As the incredibly well-rounded Tina Turner so forcefully put it, "It takes two, baby."

17 people found this helpful

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bob merrill

Many arguments are circular... but interesting contrasts with archaic vs modern day

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2020

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For the most part the author's slant is "Governments are Bad and unfettered business is good. Free enterprise is good and liberal causes mostly bad. Global warming is not a big deal and most if not all green energy is a waste of time and long live fossil fuels." OK, his arguments in many of these comparisons are pretty convincing on the surface, but a deeper plunge into any one topic might conflict with the writer's views. But the single greatest criticism is that he often uses Macro Data to prove micro arguments and visa versa. This type of reasoning tends to be fallacious in many instances. Overall his book does drive the reader into a lot of introspection to wit it did challenge my assumptions about how the world has worked in the past and how that history impacts current thinking. This is a book that every liberal should read and take note and every conservative should do the same as his research gores a number of conservative cows as well. A painful read for this liberal at times, but a good read otherwise. Recommended.

11 people found this helpful

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artemis 1291

i dare to be an optimist.

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2018

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The world is not getting closer to its end. On the contrary, it has been much improved in terms of social and cultural developments in addition to the conditions of human life in general since mankind started recording history of own. The fallacy of popular pessimistic views on the impending end of the world resulting from overpopulation, a lack of food, or any other apocalyptical reasons befitting a doomsday scenario, arises out of sheer ignorance of the nature of the human progress and/or of willful negligence of acknowledging it so as to populate epidemic scare across the globe for sensational attention and personal gains on the part of the popular authors of such doomsday scenarios.

This book by Matt Ridley is indeed a fresh breath of air that gives people of the world a beacon of truth. Ridley asserts on the grounds of rational evidence and explanation that the progress of the human race within the historical times ranging from the ancient Greek/Roman times to the modern time has been made possible by collective human intelligence by which we exchange our ideas, skills, and knowledge in the form of specialized division of labor. This social collectivism, whether tacitly or unconsciously realized by doers, apperatins to synchronicity, a kind of inter-brain entrainment in which information based on experience is exchanged between individuals, which is also known as collective phenomenon. This collective intelligence is a vital essence of cultural evolution which results from selection by imitation of successful institutions and habits. It is this element of cumulative culture that makes us singularly different from beasts. Since this social trait is innately preprogrammed in mankind, there is no inevitable end to specialization of efforts and talents that keeps this collective phenomenon going. In fact, more jobs will be produced in more specialized areas contrary to brooding premonition that technology will push out manpower from work.

In sum, Ridley aims to enlighten readers about the necessities of changes as part of cultural evolution for the betterment of mankind and the world itself. In the human history, no other time period has produced the better living conditions and cultural developments than those we have now due to a continued cumulative cultural evolution, which links to the evolution of the origins by natural selection. This book renders me a feeling that how wasteful it would be fretting about the uncertain and dark future that looks darker by popular theories of dysopic economic and social future. Just as Ridley will remain a steadfast rational optimist, I will continue to perform demands imposed upon daily tasks of life as a contribution to the orderliness and constancy of the world as m ancestors did because I know the world will not fall in calamity. as long as we as a collective body of the human race exist.

18 people found this helpful

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zel22

Required reading ...only if you can read.

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2017

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You had better be up at the graduate level in economics, engineering and a few other disciplines, but if you are, this is a very informative analysis. It should be required reading for the staff of all politicians who would then translate for their boss into the comic book level version. Maybe we would avoid all the insanity we are exposed to these days. I left the news media out since they are too ignorant to get this information. There are times when Mr Ridley gets a bit repetitious, but I will forgive him since the analysis is so good. Already reading some of his other works.

15 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

legionsofcaesar

An Interesting and Thought Provking Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2020

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I found this on Mark Zuckerburgs top 5 books that everyone should read. As someone who has left wing beliefs, I found it to be a very interesting book that refuted many of my own ideas on why we should remain optimistic at a time of almost complete political apathy. While I didn't agree with the book in entirety, I found it to be very thought provoking and would certainly recommend to all those who are interested in creating a brighter future for all.

13 people found this helpful

Danpuel

Excellent book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2019

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It's a sad truth that pessimism reins supreme today. Fact is the world is getting better and has been steadily since the industrial revolution. If people understood this, and more importantly understood *why* the world is getting better, we would be able to accelerate the pace of improvement and lift the whole world out of poverty.

If you want to read an optimist's account of the world today, this book is a must. I just finished it and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Lord Ridley's vision is refreshing and illuminating and his writing style is crisp and clear. 5/5.

9 people found this helpful

Marco Ferrari

This is how positive thinking should be used

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2020

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This book is thoroughly enjoyable, albeit slightly longer than expected in some sections. The data and hypotheses are laid out clearly and take into account opposing views, so they build on existing debate rather than stifling it. This book is aging well because it focuses on principles rather than on tactics. It fills one with hope, whilst also not shying away from our responsibility in making things happen

3 people found this helpful

Jonathan D.

Networking is good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2020

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Rational, optimistic and occasionaly humurous, this book extolls the virtues of networking. All these terms sound modern, but the concepts, according to Matt Ridley, go back to the dawn of humankind.
In a nutshell: Isolation is bad. Networking is good.
There are professional reviewers who have covered more ground than me on this, but this is the general picture.

One person found this helpful

EPMUL91

Great read, but

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

I really enjoyed this book, it can labour some points but it's highly readable and engaging. However sometimes you do feel the author is determined to get to a particular conclusion on a given topic and spins it in a certain way to do so. A valid counter-point to this might be that the book is called the 'Rational Optimist' afterall but I do feel it falls down in these areas objectively speaking. The most glaring example being his brief discussion of nuclear arms and the potential for mankind to wipe itself out. Whilst he's right that the threat of nuclear annhiallation is reduced now in comparison to where we were in the 80's, he could do with re-reading the closing remarks of Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' and ponder the fact that we are still in a position where, in the long perspective, we are at risk of destroying our entire existence.
Overall though a great read and it has gave me a newfound respect for the human propensity for trade and specialisation. To be read with an open-mind and prior knowledge of the authors political and economic views.

9 people found this helpful

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