getAbstract names its books of the year in the 20th getAbstract International Book Award
LUCERNE, Switzerland, October 15, 2020 – getAbstract, the leading provider of compressed knowledge, presents the getAbstract International Book Award for the 20th time. This year’s winners in the English-language category are Think Outside the Building by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Good Economics for Hard Times by Esther Duflo and Abhijit V. Banerjee. The getAbstract International Book Award was presented for the second time in cooperation with German business magazine Capital.
Since 2001, the getAbstract International Book Award has been presented annually to books that make a particularly important contribution to current economic, social and business-related topics. Previous winners include Robert J. Shiller, Benoît Mandelbrot and Chris Anderson. Traditionally presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the prize is awarded symbolically in this exceptional year. Discover the nominees and shortlist here.
The winners are:
Esther Duflo and Abhijit V. Banerjee: Good Economics for Hard Times, Allen Lane
“In Good Economics for Hard Times, MIT-economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit V. Banerjee discuss the major societal issues facing humanity – migration, inequality, climate change, democratic recession – along with some economic key concepts such as free trade or the growth imperative. Migration leads to wage dumping? No evidence. Free trade automatically leads to more growth? Nope. On each of the major issues, the 2019 Nobel Laureates expose false statements, myths and popular ideological misconceptions – to counter with surprising empirical data. This pleasingly sober approach alone would be worthy of an award. But the fact that the book also makes exciting and well-founded suggestions for solutions, and is understandable even to non-experts, makes it one of the two best books of the year.”- Andreas Neisser, Jury Member
Rosabeth Moss Kanter: Think Outside the Building, Public Affairs/ Perseus Books
“Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s book Think Outside the Building inspires readers with the ‘optimism of activism.’ We already have the leaders we need to solve the world’s most pressing problems, the distinguished Harvard professor says – we just need more of them. Since no single institution is in charge of society’s most complex issues, they require clever, creative and courageous problem solvers who build bridges and don’t let institutional barriers hold them back. Kanter’s hopeful book is a passionate and inspiring call to think in larger dimensions, consider more voices, tackle problems from various angles and dare to think big.” – Haike Finch-Schattka, Jury Member
Readers’ Choice Award
New this year: For the first time, readers could cast their votes online in the Readers’ Choice Award. This year’s winner of the Readers’ Choice Award (English-speaking category) is Subtle Acts of Exclusion by Tiffany Jana and Michael Baran.
Selection process and jury
This year, we were confronted with events that we could not have foreseen when we started compiling the longlist. The selection had to reflect many aspects of 2020, and I believe we succeeded.
Arnhild Walz-Rasilier, getAbstract’s vice president
From more than 10,000 new releases in 2019 and 2020, ten finalists were selected, balanced in terms of content, style, and diversity. The jury consisted of Arnhild Walz-Rasilier, Haike Finch-Schattka and Andreas Neisser from getAbstract, and Monika Dunkel and Marina Zapf from Capital.
