Includes bibliographical references and index

Wealth and nations : the origins of international development assistance / Amanda Kay McVety -- The "development' of humanitarian relief : US disaster assistance operations in the Caribbean Basin, 1917-1931 / Julia F. Irwin -- Imperial and transnational developmentalisms : Middle Eastern interplays, 1880s-1960s / Cyrus Schayegh -- Smallpox and the globalization of development / Erez Manela -- New frontiers : World War II technologies and the opening of tropical environments to development / Thomas Robertson -- A currency for Sudan : the Sudanese national economy and postcolonial development / Alden Young -- Development, space, and counterinsurgency in South Vietnam's Bêń Tre province, 1954-1960 / Edward Miller -- Decolonization and the gendered politics of developmental labor in southeastern Africa / Priya Lal -- De-Stalinizing growth : decolonization and the development of development economics in the Soviet Union / Alessandro Iandolo -- Graveyard of development? Afghanistan's Cold War encounters with international development and humanitarianism / Timothy Nunan -- Postwar European development aid : defined by decolonization, the Cold War, and European integration? / Corinna R. Unger -- "Mexico has the theories" : Latin America and the interwar origins of development / Christy Thornton -- Nasser, Hammarskjöld, and Middle East development in different scales of space and time / Nathan J. Citino -- Creating "the NGO International" : the rise of advocacy for alternative development, 1974-1994 / Paul Adler -- Epilogue : Development dreams / Jeremy Adelman

"This anthology offers a cutting-edge perspective on how development has shaped the history of the modern world. Stephen Macekura and Erez Manela have gathered together leading historians to examine development on the international, regional, and national levels as well as local manifestations of development initiatives and transnational organizing on behalf of alternative approaches. Themes include the relationship between empire and development, the role of international institutions, the influence of the Cold War, decolonization and post-colonial development strategies, reform and resistance to development, development and global health, and the ecological effects of development. The Development Century examines how ideas and discourses about development have shaped its practices on the ground; explores the ways in which policymakers and experts attempted to implement development through specific institutions and policies; and analyzes development initiatives and their effect of local environments and people"-- Provided by publisher