In 1700, Latin America and British North America were roughly equal in economic terms. Yet over the next three centuries, the United States gradually pulled away, and today the gap is huge. Why did this happen? Was it culture? Geography? Economic policies? Natural resources? Differences in political development? The question has occupied policymakers and scholars for decades, and the debate remains intense. In Falling Behind, Francis Fukuyama, acclaimed author of The End of History and America at the Crossroads, gathers together some of the world's leading scholars on the subject to explain th