'If you want to understand the ideological forces that have shaped North-South relations for half a century, you need this remarkable book.' - Susan George

'At a time when globalization and humanitarian interventions are taking over from development, this book should help us understand why development has led so many well-intentioned people astray?. It presents complex debates with great clarity, provides an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the literature and should prove essential reading for students and others interested, or involved, in development.' - Marie-Dominique Perrot, IUED

'There is no comparable book available in English.' - Professor Martin O'Connor, economist

'Compelling and exciting reading?. Rist's book, written with deliciously mild irony, is an account of the most crucial moments in which the rites of a belief embraced by millions were elaborated and canonized.' - Olga Nieuwenhuys, European Journal of Development Research

'A much needed corrective to the work of the cheerleaders of the newly globalized order?. This book does an outstanding job.' - Jan Knippers Black, Journal of Developing Areas

'An excellent and challenging book?. It should be required reading for all interested in development, and particularly the economists among them.' - Peter de Valk, International Journal of African Historical Studies

'This book is one of the most astute of its genre available today?. [It] is exact in its scholarship and profound in its clear account of the philosophies and consequences of the Western example.' - Rapport