The Idealist

The Idealist Synopsis

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Bloomberg Forbes The Spectator

Recipient of Foreign Policy's 2013 Albie Award


In 2006, Jeffrey Sachs-celebrated economist, special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, and author of the influential bestseller The End of Poverty- launched the Millennium Villages Project, a daring, $120-million experiment designed to test his theories about ending poverty. For six years, Nina Munk shadowed Sachs on his trips to Africa, listened in on conversations with heads-of-state and humanitarian organizations, and immersed herself in the lives of people in two remote African villages.  Munk came to understand the real-life issues that challenge Sachs's formula for ending global poverty. The Idealist is the profound and moving story of what happens when the abstract theories of a brilliant, driven man meet the realities of human life.