My new book on Mexico and globalization

Randall Kroszner writes a very nice blurb for my new Markets and Cultural Voices: Liberty vs. Power in the Lives of Mexican Amate Painters:

Cowen is a cross between Vasari and de Soto, using the lives of artists in rural Mexico to challenge the development orthodoxy to illustrate how global markets and liberty are the friends, not the enemies, of the rural poor and their cultural expression.  A stimulating interdisciplinary tour de force and a must-read for anyone who cares about development policy.

You can order the paperback here.  Please do consider buying this book, noting that any royalties will go to the artists.  I regard it as the most personal book I have written — recording the story of these artists, and integrating it with economic understanding — has been a personal quest of mine for almost a decade.

Yes I would prefer that this book is free like MR, but the publisher will not cooperate. 

Click here to see one of my favorite images by these painters.  Here is an earlier MR post on one of the Mexican painters, Marcial Camilo.  Here are yet more images.