Acumen Fund's Official Lens!

A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul

'Brilliant and terrifying' - "Observer". more...0 points

'Brilliant and terrifying' - "Observer". I had to be the man who was doing well and more than well, the man whose drab shop concealed some bigger operation that made millions. I had to be the man who had planned it all, who had come to the destroyed town at the bend in the river because he had foreseen the rich future. 'Salim, the narrator, is a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast of Centeral Africa. Salim has left the coast to make his way in the interior, ther...0 points

In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty

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The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank by David Bornstein

The Price of a Dream tells the remarkable story of more...0 points

The Price of a Dream tells the remarkable story of the Grameen Bank, the groundbreaking "village bank" that has revolutionized the way people around the world fight poverty. The Bank's model--providing collateral-free "micro-loans" for self-employment to millions of women villagers in Bangladesh--has inspired and shaped the thinking of economists, policy makers, business people, development workers and a generation of social entrepreneurs. Both liberal and conservative policy circles have champi...0 points

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier

In the universally acclaimed and award-winning The more...0 points

In the universally acclaimed and award-winning The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier reveals that fifty failed states--home to the poorest one billion people on Earth--pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines much-needed light on this group of small nations, largely unnoticed by the industrialized West, that are dropping further and further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards. A struggle...0 points

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who more...0 points

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It's our nature. Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they're enabling countless new tribes to...0 points

The Give-Back Solution: Create a Better World with Your Time, Talents and Travel (Whether You Have $10 or $10,000) by Susan Skog

An unprecedented surge of ordinary people are using more...0 points

An unprecedented surge of ordinary people are using their time, talents, and travel to make a better world. What's Your Part of the Give-Back Solution? Reaching out and supporting others brings out the best in all of us. Giving back strengthens America-but the under-appreciated secret is that it lifts us up, too. Part call-to-action, part inspiration, part practical research guide to make-a-difference opportunities, The Give-Back Solution captures the idealism and generosity sweeping our country,...0 points

Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat by Sarah Murray

Today the things we eat and drink have crossed oceans, more...0 points

Today the things we eat and drink have crossed oceans, continents, and even airspace before reaching the dinner table. The complex systems and technologies devised throughout the centuries to deliver our food supply reveal surprising things about politics, culture, economies--and our appetites. In Mumbai, India's chaotic commercial capital, men use local trains, bicycles, and their feet to transport more than 170,000 lunches a day from housewives to their husbands, with almost no mix-ups. Modern...0 points