World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

Amy Chua explores the relationship between economic disparities and ethnic tensions in an honest and substantive work that withstands the test of time. Her thesis reveals a pattern repeating across the developing world where small ethnic minorities control vast portions of national wealth while majorities remain in poverty. Through articulate historical analysis—from Chinese communities in Southeast Asia to Jewish oligarchs in post-Soviet Russia—she shows how these groups' economic success, combined with democracy's empowerment of impoverished majorities, creates explosive social conditions. Chua then connects these patterns to Western history, from white economic control in the post-Civil War South to America's current position as the world's market-dominant minority. She attempts to tackle possible solutions, arguing that market-dominant minorities themselves must take voluntary action to reduce tensions. This short is an essential asset for understanding macro dynamics and the intractable nature of global inequality.