Most Popular Books by James Robinson

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories.

Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including:

   - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West?
   - Are America's best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority?
   - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More
philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson's breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions?

Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

The classic super-hero series STARMAN, starring a Gen-X super-hero, is re-presented in high quality format.The super-heroic legacy of Starman is renewed in these stories, in which Jack Knight - antiques collector and dealer - inherits the name and powers of his father's old Starman identity from his older brother, who has been assassinated. In this volume, Jack's disturbing dreams drive him to New York City to meet his father's old friend, Wesley Dodd, the Sandman of the 1940s, and learns of another Sandman - an alien who came to Earth as a hero of the 1970s. Features spectacular artwork by Eisner Award winner Tony Harris, illustrator of EX MACHINA.

Bursting from the pages of BRIGHTEST DAY comes an all-new team-up of the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America!

The return of the hero called Jade in the pages of BLACKEST NIGHT heralds the release of the powerful Starheart that empowers her father, Green Lantern Alan Scott. Now this chaotic force is unleashed on Earth, causing magic to go wild – and new metahumans to emerge! It's more than one super team can handle, but can even the combined efforts of the Justice League and the Justice Society contain the light and dark power wielded by one of their own?

A New York Times Bestseller!

Earth's greatest heroes have defeated grave threats from Apokolips, but not at a grave price. Left in their stead is a group of young, untrained hereoes who pick up the pieces in the dusty aftermath. The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and the Atom are humanity's nascent guardians, but not the ones we've all known and revered. These are different heroes, in a strange and foreign world with dangerous new villains. This is Earth 2.

Award-winning writer James Robinson (STARMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE) joins forces with artist Nicola Scott (SUPERMAN, TEEN TITANS) to remiagine the classic Justice Society of America for DC COMICS--THE NEW 52 universe--and sometimes in controversial, unconventional fashion. Don't miss one of the most talked about graphic novels in recent memory!

Someone has Spider-Man in their crosshairs and the only person in the Marvel Universe who can save him is...Peter Parker's sister?! As the web-slinger meets family he never knew, will she end up becoming his greatest ally...or the one who damns him? And what does the KINGPIN have to do with it? This all-new, original graphic novel, written by Eisner Award Winning writer Mark Waid (DAREDEVIL) and acclaimed author James Robinson (Superman), and fully painted by the legendary Gabriele Dell'Otto (SECRET WAR) comes to you in a high-end, oversized format to give you the web-slinger's darkest hour - and greatest triumph!