Original, stimulating, and quite helpful in enlarging our understanding of a recent period of international history. The essays make clear beyond a doubt that during the Cold War era, modernization was an important element of American foreign relations and international history that scholars no longer can afford to ignore. - Frank Ninkovich, St. John's University; ""Often in an essay collection the parts fall to hang together. But in this case, they collectively support an overall point; the way modernization theory worked so well in the abstract and so miserably in practice. Part I describes the intellectual satisfactions and appeal of the theory. Part II describes how effortleslly modernization was popularized. The final section shows how these loose conceptions worked in specific circumstances."" - Nick Cullather, Indiana University

Original, stimulating, and quite helpful in enlarging our understanding of a recent period of international history. The essays make clear beyond a doubt that during the Cold War era, modernization was an important element of American foreign relations and international history that scholars no longer can afford to ignore. - Frank Ninkovich, St. John's University; ""Often in an essay collection the parts fall to hang together. But in this case, they collectively support an overall point; the way modernization theory worked so well in the abstract and so miserably in practice. Part I describes the intellectual satisfactions and appeal of the theory. Part II describes how effortleslly modernization was popularized. The final section shows how these loose conceptions worked in specific circumstances."" - Nick Cullather, Indiana University

Original, stimulating, and quite helpful in enlarging our understanding of a recent period of international history. The essays make clear beyond a doubt that during the Cold War era, modernization was an important element of American foreign relations and international history that scholars no longer can afford to ignore. - Frank Ninkovich, St. John's University; ""Often in an essay collection the parts fall to hang together. But in this case, they collectively support an overall point; the way modernization theory worked so well in the abstract and so miserably in practice. Part I describes the intellectual satisfactions and appeal of the theory. Part II describes how effortleslly modernization was popularized. The final section shows how these loose conceptions worked in specific circumstances."" - Nick Cullather, Indiana University