This paper distills and extends recent research on the economics of human development and social mobility. It summarizes the evidence from diverse literatures on the importance of early life conditions in shaping multiple life skills and the evidence on critical and sensitive investment periods...

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Note on the 2001 Edition -- Author's Acknowledgments -- The Hundred Years' Peace -- Conservative Twenties, Revolutionary Thirties -- ''Habitation versus Improvement'' -- Societies and Economic Systems -- Evolution of the Market Pattern -- The...