Book Reviews

How did Western imperialism shape the developing world? In Imperialism and the Developing World, Atul Kohli tackles this question by analysing British and American influence on Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America from the age of the British East India Company to the most recent United States (US) war in Iraq. He argues that both Britain and the US expanded to enhance their national economic prosperity and shows how Anglo-American expansionism hurt economic development in poor parts of the world. Kohli contends that two forms of empire – formal and informal – have repeatedly undermined the prospects of steady economic progress in the global periphery. As Kohli lays bare, sovereignty is an economic asset; it is a precondition for the emergence of states that can foster prosperous and inclusive industrial societies.