Table of Contents

Introduction - modernization theory and American modernism; Contests - the European past and the American present; The Harvard Department of Social Relations; SSRC's Committee on Comparative Politics; The MIT Center for International Studies; The collapse of modernization theory; The postmodern turn and the aftermath of modernization theory.

About the Author

Nils Gilman, an independent scholar, lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

The detailed analysis and broad-ranging explorations in Mandarins of the Future will interest scholars and graduate students in a variety of areas.
—Johanna Bockman, Journal of Cold War Studies

Intellectual fashions come and go, and this well-researched book artfully analyzes the rise and fall of one of the more powerful paradigms in post–World War II American political science—so-called modernization theory.
—William B. Quandt, Ethics and International Affairs

Mandarins of the Future both helps us understand a past paradigm in its historical context and offers insights for those seeking to comprehend the social world of today.
—Daniel Geary, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

Gilman's analysis is original, well-researched, probing, and provocative.
—Walter Hixson, American Historical Review

The author carefully surveys and explains modernization theory and how it shaped the U.S. post–WWII foreign policy to contain Communism during the Cold War.
—Choice

Development specialists and scholars of the academy . . . will welcome Gilman's attention to the nuances of academic debate.
—Deborah Kisatsky, Journal of Interdisciplinary History