Authors: Matt Ridley

The Rational Optimist (59 page)

ALSO BY MATT RIDLEY

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns On Nurture

(Originally published as
Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes us Human
)

Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code

Copyright

THE RATIONAL OPTIMIST
. Copyright © 2010 by Matt Ridley. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Originally published in Great Britain in 2010 by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

FIRST U.S. EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ridley, Matt.
   The rational optimist : how prosperity evolves / Matt Ridley.
     p. cm.
   ISBN 978-0-06-145205-5
1. Wealth. 2. Practical reason. 3. Optimism. I. Title.
   HB251.R54 2010
   339.2—dc22

2010004907

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