Hailed as &;a magisterial critique of top-down social planning&; by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail&;sometimes catastrophically&;in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters.
&;One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.&;&;John Gray, New York Times Book Review
&;Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.&;&;New Yorker
&;A tour de force.&;&; Charles Tilly, Columbia University