Hunger and famine, disease, unemployment, environmental degradation--all these accompany appalling poverty in the so-called 'Third World'. Before possibilities for improving the situation in the 1990s can be assessed, an analysis of how this 'Third World' came to exist is necessary, as is an appreciation of the range of political, technical and cultural factors relating to development.

This book is an introduction to some of the major issues and ways of understanding involved in analysing poverty and development in the 1990s. It will help readers to discern over-simplified solutions and to begin to find their way into what is perhaps the world's most complex and pressing problem area.

The book is arranged in three parts. The first presents 'a world of problems', relating different aspects of poverty to a discussion of what is meant by 'development' in the context of global capitalism and a world of nation states.

The second part analyses the historical context which made the 'Third World' what it is: pre-capitalist diversity, European colonialism, the development of capitalism as a world system, and post-war, post-colonial trends including the influence of socialist models of development.

The third part explains further some current issues and concepts useful for understanding development in the 1990s, and the final chapter returns to the question of future options for development, querying whether large-scale industrialization must, or can, continue to be the basis of any major improvement in living standards.

Written by specialist authors using key questions, diagrams, tables, photographs, and summaries to illustrate and clarify the text, the book will be invaluable to undergraduate and sixth form students of development studies, geography, history, economics, anthropology, and international politics. It will also be of interest to development practitioners.