1 - "To many people engaged in the effort to mitigate the effects of poverty around the globe, the World Bank is a black box. Its development contributions and its great potential are hindered by processes and systems that obscure rather than illuminate. David Shaman undertook yeoman efforts to reform the institution, using modern communications technology to achieve more transparency. Now in this superb book, Shaman reveals the resistance he faced and offers important recommendations for reform. He explores the crisis of identity that has plagued the Bank since its creation: Is it a financial institution requiring appropriate confidentiality and the discretion of a bank, or is it a development agency whose mission requires openness, participation and widely-shared results metrics? Shaman leans toward the latter. This view merits deeper reflection and debate which this book should provoke."

J. Brian Atwood, Dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and former Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development

2 - "Impressive, as it is highly readable while thoroughly researched. Compelling."

Jo Ritzen, President, Maastricht University, former World Bank Vice President, and author of A Chance for the World Bank

3 - "This is a knock-out of a book. It tells the inside story of how a small group of "guerrilla" staff members, initially working on environmental issues, wheeled and dealed to get the World Bank to accept unedited presentations of its activities both to its own staff and to the wider public. And of how some Bank managers out-machiavellied Machiavelli in their efforts to wrestle control from them so that they could use the technology (webcasting to stream video content over the Internet) to present a more sanitized version of the Bank in line with corporate objectives. I know of no other study which illuminates the "street-level" politics of a multilateral organization so well, or which shows culturally quite different notions of "transparency" and "accountability" being used as weapons in bureaucratic struggles over budgets and authority."

Robert H. Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development, London School of Economics, noted expert on the World Bank and recipient of the Leontief Prize in Economics 2008

4 - "A fascinating and frightening expose of the World Bank's operations. An insider's intimate view of how an organization meant to help the developing world actually hindered progress. A must read!"

Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Founder/Director, Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute, USA

5 - "In this book David Shaman takes us on a conducted tour of what many regard as one of the world's more extraordinary institutions, the World Bank. This is in the context of his efforts to promote B-SPAN, an internal World Bank service he launched to provide video coverage of important events and analyses both to the Bank itself and to its external stakeholders. He captures very well the mix in the Bank of everything from enormous ability focused on advancing the cause of the poor to bureaucracy devoted to empire-building and the denial of information, with no holds barred in naming his adversaries and identifying their defects. Given this mix, you can rely on finding something to love or hate in the Bank, depending on one's prejudices."

John Williamson, Senior Fellow, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, and author of phrase "Washington Consensus"

6 - "This is an inside story about the World Bank and the challenges it is facing, from outside and within. It is a story about accountability. It is a personal account of an expert, who has tried to bridge the gap between a bureaucracy and the people that should be served. The story is frightening and challenging at the same time. The world needs this Bank. But Bank reform is due. I hope this book is widely read."

Jan Pronk, Professor of Theory and Practice of International Development at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, former Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD and former Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation

7 - "David Ian Shaman's "The World Bank Unveiled" is required reading for anyone who believes public institutions should be transparent and accountable. His hard-won insights provide valuable guidance for concerned citizens and government watchdogs."

Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

8 - "David Shaman's The World Bank Unveiled offers an unparalleled account of the inner workings of the Knowledge Bank experiment under James Wolfensohn. As the leader of one of the innovative projects - B-SPAN - that were part of attempts to transform the Bank into a more transparent and humble partner for development, Shaman is able to provide a fascinating case study of the way that this vision withered in the face of the powerful existing culture of the Bank. Whilst there have been many books this decade from ex-Bank staff questioning the Bank's role in poverty reduction and development, Shaman's is by far the most significant account of the Knowledge Bank experiment, its potential and its ultimate demise."

Simon McGrath, Professor of International Education and Development, University of Nottingham and co-author of Knowledge for Development? Comparing British, Japanese, Swedish and World Bank Aid

9 - "The World Bank is a big agency with an even bigger mission. How does it manage constantly to reinvent itself from within? David Shaman gives us an insider's account of a crusade within the Bank by staff with a shared passion for sounder environmental policies, and a belief in transparency. He details with relish the battles, allies, and enemies which shaped their successes and setbacks. Early on a senior colleague tells him that in bringing about change "it is better to ask forgiveness than permission". The fact that this credo works for the reformers highlights a strength in the less-than-totally-disciplined Bank - the flipside of the disparaging observation once made that the World Bank is a "travelling seminar". Shaman's tale reveals life within that travelling seminar and the possibilities which emerge when an organization is requestioned from within."

Ngaire Woods, Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford , and author of The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank, and their Borrowers

10 - The World Bank Unveiled is a well written, lengthy tome that is part history of the World Bank - especially focusing on the wheeling and dealing behind B-Span, part personal memoire, part scathing critique, and part policy prescription. These parts can be hard to balance. Yet while Shaman is clearly a man on a mission to make the World Bank more transparent and more accountable, the book offers numerous credible insider details as it builds its case, and for the most part avoids being overly self-congratulatory or ideological. From selecting its presidents to self-evaluation of project effectiveness, the World Bank lacks transparency. However deserved critiques of the World Bank may be, at least some of these critiques spring from a deeper source over which the World Bank has only partial responsibility. No one really knows how to cause development. It is an art as much as a science, and either way, it is a field marked by failure and inefficiency. That said, those whose job it is to help the starving and the poor have a special responsibility to go beyond the call of duty to be effective. Whatever those in the World Bank and its stakeholders make of Shaman's book, I hope they confront it, and make themselves more effective as they respond. My research suggests that organizations become more effective as they increase their efforts and abilities to explain themselves. I endorse Shaman's call for more transparency at the World Bank.

Dan Lindley, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, and author of Promoting Peace with Information: Transparency as a Tool of Security Regimes

11 - David Shaman’s account of his team’s efforts to bring greater transparency to World Bank operations is unique in its details. His recall of the day-to-day intrigues that constantly worked to undermine the establishment of B-Span as a window into the Bank’s deliberations, and its interactions with external actors, is prodigious. A clear dividing line is evident between dedicated staff who give top priority to the Bank’s mission, and those who give top priority to their own personal agendas. While some may consider this work a bit long, the detail is important as it provides a riveting and in-depth look at, not only the Bank, but, how all bureaucracies work. In sum, Shaman aptly describes how an institution is pulled down to its lowest common denominator by self-serving bureaucrats who care more about their own position in the hierarchy, than about the achievement of the institution’s objectives. Many revelations and many lessons to be learned.

Steve Berkman, former World Bank staffer and author of The World Bank and the Gods of Lending

12 -By all measures, this book is an historic masterpiece of work valuable to every one around the world, living in poor or rich countries. I highly recommend its translation into all working languages of the UN and encourage holding an International Conference to elaborate on its issues and discuss its new operational model and the practical steps that lead the way to go further toward its implementation.

Dr. Faika Elrefaei, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Egypt

13 -Much has been written and said about the World Bank from outside commentators and polemicists. But apart from some notable exceptions ( high officials after they left the Bank, the Wapenhaus Report and some Independent Evaluation Group internal reports ) little has been said from inside the Bank about the nefarious effects of "Bank culture" and how to change it, if only to reduce it's spillovers on the problems of global poverty. This book makes a good case that the slippery ethical slopes where World Bank managers engage in bureaucratic combat over turf and budget, have a deep and far-reaching effect on how our taxpayer dollars, euros and yens ( as well as yuans and rials ) are used in attacking global poverty. The amount of detail the author brings to bear - chapter and verse -- is hard to discount out of hand. This book should be read not as an attempt to paint the World Bank as "rotten" (it isn't!) , but rather as a painstakingly detailed documentation of how even one bad apple can spoil a perfectly healthy bunch, and how personal ambition can supersede serving client interests while hiding behind what are called prudent, fiscally responsible or sound personnel management principles. This book will be of interest to all social scientists interested in sustainable development and the reduction of poverty -- and in particular those from all disciplines with an interest in the root causes of organizational dysfunction.

Claude I. Salem , Executive Director of Partnerships for Capacity Development, an educational non-profit for rural development professionals in Africa . Formerly a Sr. Advisor to WBI and Program Development Manager at the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN)