"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 <p/>"A powerful, and in many [ways] insightful, explanation as to why grandiose programs of social reform, not to mention revolution, so often end in tragedy. . . . An important critique of visionary state planning."--Robert Heilbroner, Lingua Franca <p/> 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. <p/> "Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit."--New Yorker <p/> "A tour de force."--Charles Tilly, Columbia University <p/> The Institution for Social and Policy Studies
