Their Future

A History of Ahistoricism in International Development

By: Michael Gubser

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Hardcover | 26 August 2025 | Edition Number 1

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Hardcover
408 Pages

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24.5 x 16.5 x 3.0

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A compelling examination of how economic development projects ignore local history, and the effects of this shortsightedness

Foreign aid planners rarely consider the history of the societies in which they work, an oversight noted in the development literature but rarely examined. Aid programs costing billions of dollars operate largely in a historical vacuum, divorced from the knowledge of what succeeded or failed in the past. Michael Gubser chronicles the varieties of ahistoricism in international development theory and practice since 1945.

He traces the history of development ideas, analyzing key theoretical and policy statements to highlight the marginalization of history in favor of technical solutions to economic and social problems; and he examines aid programs in several developing countries to show how Western models of social and economic development have been applied and misapplied.

About the Author

Michael Gubser is professor of history at James Madison University. He has published three books on European intellectual history and international development.

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