Gilbert Rist is professor emeritus at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He previously taught in Tunisia, and spent several years as director of the Centre Europe-Tiers Monde. His other publications include The Delusions of Economics (Zed 2011). The History of Development was his first book to be translated into English, and has also been published in Spanish and Italian.

Written by one of the leaders of postdevelopment theory

Preface to the Fourth Edition
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 a 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
Index