Culture Matters

This title looks at why some countries and ethnic groups are better off than others, and the role that cultural values play in the shaping of nations' and peoples' political, economic and social performance. Prominent scholars and journalists ponder the question of why, at the beginning of the 21st century, the world is more divided than ever between the rich and the poor, between those living in freedom and those under oppression.

Lawrence E. Harrison is a senior fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and the author of Who Prospers? and The Pan-American Dream.Samuel P. Huntington is the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor of Government at Harvard University and the author of The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of the World Order.