Prof. Prasannan Parthasarathi of Boston College, a 1979 graduate of McLean High School, has won the 2012 Best Book Award from the World History Association for his book "Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not—Global Economic Divergence, 1600 to 1850." After McLean High School, Parthasarathi obtained a BA degree in political economy from Williams College, an MA degree in development studies from Boston University and a PhD in economics from Harvard University. Based on more than six years of research and three years in the writing, the book, published by the Cambridge University Press, has been described as a magnum opus by Patrick O'Brien, professor of Global Economic History at the London School of Economics. The book is being translated into Italian, Turkish and Chinese. The first printing has been sold out and it has gone into a second printing.