"This book represents an initial attempt to compare China, Japan, and South Korea, three close geographical and cultural neighbors whose developmental trajectories, though divergent in the past, have been moving more recently toward convergence"--

Phelps explores what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal...