by Nobel Laureate
Muhammad Yunus

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Creating a World Without Poverty

Notable Reviews

The Scottsman

Free Market Beats Free Food in Fight Against Poverty
This book is a must-read for policymakers or philanthropists, and its conversational style and straightforward logic also make it appealing to the layperson. Read the full review.

Big Think

Summing up Muhammad Yunus, “Creating a World Without Poverty”
Businesspeople of all persuasions should read the first two chapters, and keep going if they have an interest. And they should have an interest — the book is clearly written and social business is a growing phenomenon (witness Google’s emerging Foundation, in the news last week for announcing its plans). Read the full review. Read the Washington Post reprint.

USA Today

The Year of Living Smart: Compelling reads
Muhammad Yunus shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on behalf of the world's poor. Now, the Bangladeshi banker and economist is bringing the lessons he has learned to a wider audience in the book "Creating a World Without Poverty," published by PublicAffairs Books and available this month. "He's created amazing programs that have been transformative in the Third World," says Charlotte Abbott, a contributing editor of the "Publishers Weekly" calendar of upcoming titles. "He's a very inspirational figure." Read the review online. (Review located one third down the page)

Boston Globe

'Banker to the poor' finds way to branch out
To Yunus, people in the rich world are too fatalistic about resolving poverty, viewing it as a problem so big and so complicated that many just give up. With a little fresh thinking, programs can be developed that both support and make use of the creative gifts of the poor, he writes. Read the full review.

Guardian Unlimited

Business Books: Banker to poor goes beyond microlending
In a new book, "Creating a World Without Poverty" (PublicAffairs, $26), the Bangladeshi economist describes social businesses as those dedicated to social causes rather than profit. Read the full review.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

Nobel Prize Winner Discusses Social Business
Muhammad Yunus, who shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with the company he founded, Grameen Bank, explores the possibility of exploiting capitalism to eradicate poverty through "social businesses" — companies that are "cause-driven rather than profit-driven" and cover costs but do not return profits to investors, or else are profit-driven companies owned by poor people. Read the full review.

 

Publishers Weekly

This volume efficiently recounts the story of microcredit, then discusses “Social Business,” organizations designed to help people while turning profits. French food giant Danone’s partnership to market yogurt in Bangladesh is described in detail, along with 25 other businesses that operate under the Grameen banner. Infused with entrepreneurial spirit and the excitement of a worthy challenge, this book is the opposite of pessimistic recitals of intractable poverty’s horrors. Read the full review. (Review located toward bottom of page.)

 

The Austin-American Statesman

Muhammad Yunus' 'Creating a World Without Poverty'
Such skepticism aside, "Creating a World Without Poverty" succeeds in imparting the optimism that allows Yunus to keep struggling against the overwhelming forces arrayed against the Bangladeshi poor. By unlocking the potential of the overlooked — poor mothers, uneducated beggars, migrant laborers — he has shown himself to be one of Mohandas Gandhi's unlikely heirs, even if he clothes his beneficent message in bullet points. After all, Gandhi took as his symbol the spinning wheel, the instrument of the small scale, self-employed artisan, and said, "He who spins before the poor, inviting them to do likewise, serves God as no one else does." Read the full review.

 

Notable Interviews and News Coverage

New York Times

Many Are Already at Work on Fulfilling Gates’s Vision
Conspicuously missing from the appeal, which asserted that human nature is not just driven by greed but also by concern for our fellow beings, was any reference to the work and thinking of the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. The microfinance innovator, who is known as the “banker for the poor,” recently wrote a book, “Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism,” that foreshadows Mr. Gates’s newfound social philosophy. Read the full article.

Seattle Times

Business Q&A | Microcredit pioneer describes "social business"
Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work pioneering microcredit, is traveling around the U.S. to talk about his new book, "Creating a World Without Poverty." Read the full Q&A.

Houston Chronicle

Nobel laureate urges creation of more socially responsible businesses
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus founded a bank that has helped 7.5 million beggars and borrowers escape abject poverty in his native Bangladesh. Today, he encouraged about 1,800 Houstonians to do what they could to change the world by using business techniques to solve everything from poverty to pollution. Read the full article. Listen to related podcast.

Santa Barbara Independent

The Man Who Is Creating a World Without Poverty
In this interview from December 2007, UCSB Professor Richard Appelbaum (Sociology and Global & International Studies) and Professor Yunus discuss the origins and reasons for the success of the Grameen Bank, as well as Yunus’s call (in his latest book, Creating a World Without Poverty) for the creation of “social businesses” where profits would go not to investors but for poverty reduction. Read the full article.

KSBY Santa Barbara

Nobel Peace Prize winner visits Santa Barbara
Muhammad Yunus hosted a lecture Wednesday evening. The Bangladesh native is on a mission to wipe poverty off the face of the earth. Read the full article.

View this video: Muhammad Yunus on poverty and microfinance Listen to an Excerpt