'A classic' - Simon Kuper, Financial Times
'Brilliant' - James O'Brien, author of How to be Right
The five laws that confirm our worst fears: stupid people can and do rule the world.
Since time immemorial, a powerful dark force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness.
Carlo M. Cipolla (1922 - 2000) was an Italian economic historian, Fulbright Fellow and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Cipolla was elected as a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1989 and awarded the International Balzan Prize for Economic History in 1995. He also held honorary degrees in Italy and Switzerland.
His classic treatise The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity was first published in 1988 and has sold more than half a million copies worldwide in over ten languages.