From the 1950s to the 1970s, a new movement emerged across much of the postcolonial world, driven by the ideals of economic independence and a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth. And it worked. Incomes rose, living standards improved, and the gap between rich and poor countries began to narrow for the first time since 1492. It was nothing short of a development miracle. But not everyone was pleased with this turn of fate. Indeed, those whose rhetoric most celebrated international development as an abstract idea turned out to be its most violent enemies in practice.
