Description
Book SynopsisLooking back to the evolution of foreign aid during the Cold War, David C. Engerman invites us to recognize the strategic thinking at the heart of development assistance—along with the political costs. India’s history provides an instructive model, as China spends freely in Africa and the political stakes of foreign aid start to rise again.
Trade ReviewThe Price of Aid is a detailed and convincing historical study of the playing-out of the ideological and institutional politics of development aid… [It] makes a major contribution towards a necessary discussion of the politics of aid. -- Priyamvada Gopal * Times Higher Education *
A must read… Sheds significant light on the economic dimension of the Cold War… There is little doubt that this book will be essential reading for scholars of the Cold War, Indian history, and economic history. -- Tanvi Madan * H-Diplo *
Engerman shows the unintended effects of foreign aid by explaining how it weakened Indian political institutions and diminished the country’s exercise of sovereignty. -- R. M. Ramazani * Choice *
This is a superb, field-changing book. Based on a dazzling array of archives spanning continents, David Engerman has written a groundbreaking study of how the ‘economic Cold War’ shaped India—and how India shaped the Cold War. Global in scope but rooted in local detail,
The Price of Aid is essential reading: a true classic of international history. -- Sunil Amrith, author of
Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of MigrantsThe Price of Aid is an outstanding history of India during the Cold War and the political economy of foreign aid. Drawing on an unprecedented array of official and private archives in India, Russia, the United States, and Britain, Engerman offers a superb account—one that integrates the ideologies and policies of the superpowers with a sharp analysis of the push-and-pull of policymaking in India. This is a landmark study of independent India as well as the Cold War. -- Srinath Raghavan, author of
India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South AsiaA magnificent book. Anyone who seeks to understand contemporary India and its development struggles will have to start here. Engerman’s work is not only enlightening, it turns much of what we thought we knew about India, foreign aid, and the Cold War in South Asia upside down. -- O. A. Westad, author of
The Cold War: A World History
