International Development: A Postwar History

Over the last two decades, the history of international development has become a major topic of interest among international and global historians. These scholars have written extensively on the Cold War era, when the superpowers heartily embraced international development and foreign aid as important foreign policy tools to use in the hopes of winning hearts and minds and bolstering strategic ties to the so-called developing countries or Third World. Corinna Unger has contributed greatly to this wave of scholarship. She published a series of influential articles and manuscripts in English and German and edited and co-edited multiple volumes and journal special issues on topics such as the history of U.S. philanthropy overseas, rural development (with a focus on South Asia), European development aid, and Cold War development politics. To this long list she now adds another impressive feat: an excellent single-volume synthetic history of international development. Her book nicely encapsulates...