Includes bibliographical references (p. [483]-509) and index.

Machine generated contents note: Why Egyptians filled Tahrir Square to bring down Hosni Mubarak and what it means for our understanding of the causes of prosperity and poverty -- 1.So Close and Yet So Different -- Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, have the same people, culture, and geography. Why is one rich and one poor? -- 2.Theories That Don't Work -- Poor countries are poor not because of their geographies or cultures, or because their leaders do not know which policies will enrich their citizens -- 3.The Making of Prosperity and Poverty -- How prosperity and poverty are determined by the incentives created by institutions, and how politics determines what institutions a nation has -- 4.Small Differences and Critical Junctures: The Weight of History -- How institutions change through political conflict and how the past shapes the present -- 5."I've Seen the Future, and It Works": Growth Under Extractive Institutions --

Contents note continued: What Stalin, King Shyaam, the Neolithic Revolution, and the Maya city-states all had in common and how this explains why China's current economic growth cannot last -- 6.Drifting Apart -- How institutions evolve over time, often slowly drifting apart -- 7.The Turning Point -- How a political revolution in 1688 changed institutions in England and led to the Industrial Revolution -- 8.Not on Our Turf: Barriers to Development -- Why the politically powerful in many nations opposed the Industrial Revolution -- 9.Reversing Development -- How European colonialism impoverished large parts of the world -- 10.The Diffusion of Prosperity -- How some parts of the world took different paths to prosperity from that of Britain -- 11.The Virtuous Circle -- How institutions that encourage prosperity create positive feedback loops that prevent the efforts by elites to undermine them -- 12.The Vicious Circle --

Contents note continued: How institutions that create poverty generate negative feedback loops and endure -- 13.Why Nations Fail Today -- Institutions, institutions, institutions -- 14.Breaking the Mold -- How a few countries changed their economic trajectory by changing their institutions -- 15.Understanding Prosperity and Poverty -- How the world could have been different and how understanding this can explain why most attempts to combat poverty have failed.