Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat overwhelming
Review: This is really the detailed paper(s) of a conference of political scientists and sociologists explaining the correlation between progress and certain cultural attributes. These political scientists papers often debate and contradict each other. This is certainly interesting. But, it is difficult to extract a main theme out of this book. You also feel that this field is associated with a great deal of political correctness regarding a sensitive issue. So, the language is not always very direct. You often wonder what these political scientists are really saying in between the lines. One great benefit from this book is that it got me acquainted with the 'World Value Survey.' This is an amazing ongoing analysis of different nations culture regarding different axis such as secular vs religious, level of freedom, level of trust in national institution. The World Value Survey has a website with a bunch of free published paper on many aspects of sociological analysis in the book. In the sense, the World Value Survey website is just as good if not better than the book.
Rating: 
Summary: A breath of fresh air
Review: This will be remembered as one of the most important books of the decade. If you are at all interested in issues of international development, economics, or international relations, you must read this book. You need not agree with all or indeed any of it. But do read it.
Rating:
Summary: great collection of works
Review: Though culture provides only part of the reason for modernity and development, Culture Matters provides a great collection of how culture influences things like gender and economics. Some of the essays are really great because they attack such touch issues such as whether cultures need to change in order to allow people to advance. The book also deals with things like cultural relevistm something important to better understand the world. What makes this book interesting is just the time that we're in currently. At the present time, the world is becoming more global. Free trade and the World Trade Organization are growing. Media (often American) is becoming common in all parts of the world and even far reaching places (I have seen the TV show Third Rock from the Sun in rural India). How do cultures influence the rapid changes? Are some cultures better than others? The book devotes a lot of attention to industrialized Asia like Japan and the Asian dragons which is important because their rapid progress from the third world to industrialized countries. It also deals with culture in Africa, which is important to take into consideration.
Rating:
Summary: Of variable quality
Review: To start out: if you find the idea that cultures may have positive or negative effects on prosperity and stability so offensive that you don't want to read about it, of course you won't like this book. That should be obvious, but in the critical reaction, some people seem to have forgotten it. As a purely intellectual undertaking, this collection is a bit of a muddle. The essays have been edited with a very light touch, to put it gently, and there is a great deal of redundancy and contradiction among the authors. You might be better off with a longer book with a unified viewpoint, but for an overview of a debate that will probably only sharpen in the years to come, this is a good place to start. However, feel free to skim the weaker essays.
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