An amazing thought-provoking book, that is extremely well researched and provides a detailed walkthrough of history, society and the political machine that profiteered of the back of racism, genocide and exploitation.  It helps to explain how and why racism and colonialism came about and why they flourished.  There is a lot of challenging and confronting information, both facts and opinions that are going to challenge the reader (of all races, genders and socio-economic backgrounds) in the book, don't shy away from them.  Not everyone has to agree with everything Andrews writes but the reflection and knowledge gained is well worth it.  Even for well-read people, this provided completely new information and interpretation such as the involvement of the IMF and World Bank in certain countries, the 'aid' that is always with a string attached, BRIC countries' success from following previous colonialism blueprint etc. But it is written in an extremely approachable manner.  This for me was a 4.75  due to 1. I really didn't like how Andrews compared people's pain and suffering and found some more 'painful' than others.  A misogynist society and violence against women culture is dismissed as (etc all colour of women are raped but white women benefited from slavery so their pain is not as big as of black women being raped).  I think that all experiences are individuals and should never be ranked (we need to get to the route of the culture that justifies the pain and the horror not dismissing different people's experience of it.)  2.  The burn it to the ground attitude of his towards current politics, systems and culture.  I understand why he sees this as the only option but to me, the biggest weakness of this argument is that he never addresses the (death toll, violence, confusion this would cause and risk of a 'new and different set of oppressors rising to the top) and if the new world order will be any better than the last when it would have to be fought for with violence and death.