I found the Maddison reading to be very informative. The writing style is different to most of the text books I’ve used in the past, so at first that threw me off, but after a few pages I got used to it. I thought the book did a good job of explaining how and why different countries grew (or didn’t grow) the way they did. The charts and tables included in the text helped me understand how different regions growth compared in different areas. I also liked how the book doesn’t just look at one country or region at a time, but several of them. I think looking at how each of the countries economies interacted together to become what they are today gives a you better perspective than you would get by just looking at just one country’s economy by itself.