Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

By Francis Fukuyama

Categories: Business & Money, Politics & Social Sciences

Trust (1995) is Francis Fukuyama's study of how culture shapes economic life. He argues that a society's level of trust, its ability to cooperate outside the family, determines how easily it can build large private companies. He compares low-trust, family-centered societies such as China, France, Italy and South Korea with high-trust societies such as Japan, Germany and the United States, and he warns that American social trust is eroding.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “In more academic nonfiction, Francis Fukuyama, who has amazing range but also real depth.”