About the author -- Preface to the third edition -- Preface to the second edition -- Introduction -- 1. Definitions of development -- 2. Metamorphoses of a Western myth -- 3. The making of a world system -- 4. The invention of development -- 5. The international doctrine and institutions take root -- 6. Modernization poised between history and prophecy -- 7. The periphery and the understanding of history -- 8. Self-reliance: the communal past as a model for the future -- 9. The triumph of third-worldism -- 10. The environment, or the new nature of "development" -- 11. A Mixture of realism and fine sentiments -- 12. Globalization as simulacrum of "development" -- 13. From the struggle against poverty to the Millennium Development Goals -- 14. The great turnaround? -- 15. Beyond "Development": from downscaling to a change in the economic paradigm -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.