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Charles Kenny
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Your World, Better: Global Progress And What You Can Do About It Kindle Edition

by Charles Kenny (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 19 ratings
Written for the smart and engaged middle school student, Your World, Better looks at how America and the World has changed since the reader's parents and grandparents were young: what has happened to health and wealth, homes, school and work, rights and democracy, war and the environment, happiness and depression. It reports the positive trends, the problems that remain and what we can do about them. All author royalties from sales will be donated to UNICEF.

"Everyone, no matter how old, or how young, should read this. I’m sending to grandkids and their parents." --Nancy Birdsall

"Great read for middle school kids who want to understand how the world is getting better -- and can become even more so!" --Parag Khanna

"If you know a middle school student or teacher, pass this along! Incredibly fresh and honest." --Karen Schulte 

"Kids are taught that everything's getting worse and we're all doomed--factually incorrect, and a message that leads to cynicism & fatalism, not constructive action. An antidote: Charles Kenny's new Your World, Better..." --Steven Pinker
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  1. Reading age
    12 - 15 years
  2. Print length
    201 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    March 18, 2021
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
    Enabled
  7. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08ZJM1BL8
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 18, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 12.2 MB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 201 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ B08Z9VZZF2
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 19 ratings

About the author

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Charles Kenny

Charles Kenny

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Charles Kenny spent fifteen years as an economist in the World Bank, travelling the planet from Baghdad and Kabul to Brasilia and Beijing. He now works at a Washington DC think tank, the Center for Global Development, where he researches and advocates for policies governing investment, trade, technology and migration that would be good for both developing and industrialized countries alike. In addition, he is a widely cited researcher on the economics of happiness. He has a history degree from Cambridge University, Masters degrees from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a PhD from Cambridge University.

Charles was a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and a columnist for Bloomberg Business¸ where he wrote on global development and its impact on the US. He also writes for outlets including the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Time, the Guardian, Vox, Salon and CNN.

He keeps a personal blog at http://www.charleskenny.blogs.com/

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
19 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • JSP
    5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, sincere, and written for children without oversimplifying
    Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Raising our children to be aware of global poverty and feel empowered to do something about it is deeply important to us. I've read Kenny's books for adults and was eager to see what his writing for children would be like. This book exceeded my expectations. It straightforwardly lays out what the world used to be like, and why it's getting better, and how it can get even better. It doesn't talk down to its audience. It isn't ideological, beyond the obvious claims that child mortality is bad and democracy, freedom, sanitation and higher life expectancies are good things we should celebrate and work towards. It genuinely got my kid thinking about how she can make the world a place with more happy people in it, and I'm very grateful.

    I would recommend reading this book with your child, especially if they're on the younger side. It covers some heavy topics, including child death, and I would definitely want to be reading along so I could talk with her about the challenging topics in the book, what her parents believe about them, how she might be feeling, etc.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Sam
    3.0 out of 5 stars Good rough draft but please hire an editor
    Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I love the idea of this book. I have a background in philosophy and history and thought a book about our perceptions on the "goodness" or "badness" of the state of the world within historical context would be right up my ally.

    Unfortunately, I found it difficult to concentrate on the message because the sentences are so poorly constructed and the organization is impulsive. Countless sentences start with "And." There are fragment sentences and there is an odd application of the dash – throughout the book. While each chapter is mostly dedicated to a topic, it reads as an informed stream-of-consciousness more than a final draft.

    Unfortunately my struggle started early. The first chapter, titled “Health” discusses a wide range of things from which people have died. Malnutrition, addiction to pain killers, cancer, and infant mortality. On page 27, for example, is the following paragraph seemingly in answer to these topics:

    "The good news is that most of these deaths and illnesses are preventable. To help deal with the obesity epidemic in the US, provide easy access to exercise and encourage walking, ensure everyone has access to good food, and control the ways that high-sugar and high fat [sic] foods are sold and advertised (they may be 'Grrreat!, but one cup of Frosties has eleven ounces of sugar)."

    Mistaking ounces for grams made me question if this was intentional for sensational purposes or an honest mistake. If it was a sensational switching of labels, the book is more propaganda than fact. If it was an accidental switching of labels (my guess), it made me question every other idea presented after that. This is something a proofreader would have caught.

    I admittedly lean left and am a firm believer in science but this book even felt preachey to me. I read the entire thing because I paid for it but I would not have continued to read it had someone loaned it to me.

    There is a section which functions as an appendix or bibliography suggesting general sources but it is not possible to connect most of the content with specific sources. Making claims without the ability to connect them to sources is something that isn't permitted even in middle school. Please rewrite this and publish a revised edition. There is so much good that could come from a book like this.

    The world needs optimism right now more than ever and the message of the book is good. I just wish this was a better presentation.

    There is so much potential here but don't confuse this with researched or cited unbiassed nonfiction. Unfortunately, the obvious errors make me suspect the rest of the information that is probably really good.

    There are many writers with great ideas who can't write and many people who write beautifully with no great ideas.

    The book is a great rough draft but it's not ready to publish.
    5 stars for the idea
    1 star for the writing
    One person found this helpful
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  • Mead
    5.0 out of 5 stars Inhale this evidence-based breath of fresh air
    Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    With the daily news so depressing, this book is the perfect antidote. It won't lull you into complacency. But it shows the evidence on how much humans have improved the world using collective action together with, and as regulator of, market forces.
    One person found this helpful
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  • sien
    5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, short look at how the world has improved in recent history
    Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2021
    Your World, Better: Global Progress And What You Can Do About It (2021) by Charles Kenny is a very good look at how the world has changed and how it has generally improved that is aimed at older kids.

    In the book Kenny compares how the world is now to how the world was for kids parents and for their grandparents. It works very well. There are chapters on Health, Money and Wealth, Home, School, Work, Violence and War, the reduction in Discrimination, Democracy, Happiness and The Environment. Kenny uses statistics sparsely but well. The book makes the point that in general things are really getting substantially better.

    The chapter on Health is very good, pointing out just how much healthier we are today compared to previous generations. The Chapter on Discrimination makes very good points about how many fewer countries actively discriminate based on race or sexual preferences.

    Recently I was sitting around with my neighbours and there was a discussion about whether there would be a political and social collapse or a major war or an environmental collapse first. While some of these things may happen it’s vital to remember that things have become dramatically better over the past few hundred years and indeed in the lifetimes of the people sitting around the table. It’s also important to remember that at most times people also think doom is around the corner while things continue to get better. It’s very important to point out how things have become better to young adults so they get a real picture of what has been gained in the past.

    Your World, Better, does an excellent job of showing kids and adults how the world has dramatically improved and does so in impressively few pages. It’s very much worth reading.
    4 people found this helpful
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