The History of Development, now in its fourth edition, is a classic development text, which has both defined and changed its field. Gilbert Rist provides a complete and powerful overview of what the idea of development has meant throughout history.

Table of Contents

• About the Author
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Introduction
• 1 Definitions of Development
• 2 Metamorphoses of a Western Myth
• 3 The Making of a World System
• 4 The Invention of Development
• 5 The International Doctrine and Institutions Take Root
• 6 Modernization Poised between History and Prophecy
• 7 The Periphery and the Understanding of History
• 8 Self-reliance: The Communal Past as a Model for the Future
• 9 The Triumph of Third-Worldism
• 10 The Environment, or the New Nature of ‘Development’
• 11 A Mixture of Realism and Fine Sentiments
• 12 Globalization as Simulacrum of ‘Development’
• 13 From the Struggle against Poverty to the Millennium Development Goals
• 14 The Great Turnaround?
• 15 Beyond ‘Development’: From Downscaling to a Change in the Economic Paradigm
• Conclusion
• Bibliography