The emerging world was poor and illiterate just forty years ago. Today, over 70 per cent of the world’s middle class resides in the erstwhile poor countries; world income inequality is down to levels last observed in 1870; and there has been a large reduction in absolute poverty. What accounts for such rapid development and catch-up? Distinguished economist Surjit S. Bhalla’sThe New Wealth of Nationsoffers a short answer– the spread of education. The book breaks a new ground. Besides identifying the fallacies in anti-globalization rhetoric– voiced by Brexit and Trump supporters– it points out a major lacuna in current attempts to measure wealth inequality. Through a series of compelling arguments, anecdotes, studies, calculations, tables, and charts, Bhalla emphatically reminds us that education is the new wealth, and is in fact, currently of a greater magnitude than financial wealth, and much more equally distributed.