An economy until recently dependent on peasant farming in harsh latitudes has shaped a stoic national character and an appetite for self-improvement.

ECONOMIST: Education reform

Her impact, at AID and the Ford Foundation and with departments of the Indonesian government, grew out of her deep understanding of village peasant economics, the importance of women in the rural economy, and her love of the people she met in her work.

FORBES: Barack Obama: Underachiever in a Kansas Family of Ph.D's

Despite its fertile soil, Sichuan's economy was such a mess when he took over that some peasant families were having to sell their daughters.

ECONOMIST: The man who came too late | The