Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World
Envisioning Modernity in the Era of Decolonization
Published on 30. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-350-41346-7 (ISBN)
Description
In the wake of colonial and racial exploitation, political leaders, technocrats, activists, and workers across the Third World turned to socialism to offer a new vision of post-colonial development. Against a backdrop of decolonization, white supremacy, and the Cold War, they fostered anti-colonial solidarity and created cooperative frameworks for self-reliance.
In following these actors, the contributions to this volume show that "development" was not merely exported from North to South: people across the Global South collaborated with each other while engaging with a diversity of socialist ideas, from European Fabianism and Marxism to tailored African, Asian, and Latin American models. They led debates on race and inequality from the 1920s and 1930s and spearheaded local, regional, and internationalist efforts to re-envision modernity by the 1950s and 1960s.
By examining the limitations and legacies of socialist development initiatives in and across the Third World, Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World offers new perspectives on the intertwined histories of socialism, development, and international cooperation, with lessons for both past and present.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI and Rice University, USA.
In following these actors, the contributions to this volume show that "development" was not merely exported from North to South: people across the Global South collaborated with each other while engaging with a diversity of socialist ideas, from European Fabianism and Marxism to tailored African, Asian, and Latin American models. They led debates on race and inequality from the 1920s and 1930s and spearheaded local, regional, and internationalist efforts to re-envision modernity by the 1950s and 1960s.
By examining the limitations and legacies of socialist development initiatives in and across the Third World, Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World offers new perspectives on the intertwined histories of socialism, development, and international cooperation, with lessons for both past and present.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI and Rice University, USA.
Reviews / Votes
Lewis and Osei-Opare's new edited volume is a field-changing book that shifts our view of the global history of development. It definitively grounds the history of development in the global south and irreversibly links it to stories of socialism, internationalism and regionalism that will change scholars' and students' understanding of the 20th century. * Alden Young, Associate Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University, USA * Su Lin Lewis and Nana Osei-Opare have brought together a great team of scholars to explore the entanglements of socialism and development in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from the early 1900s to the 1980s. The volume looks at actors from the Third World who constructed and reconstructed socialist conceptions of development autonomously from the socialist world and from leftists in Europe and North America. The book's remarkable geographical and intellectual breadth should be an example for all historians interested in socialism and development. * Alessandro Iandolo, Lecturer in Soviet and Post-Soviet History, UCL, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
480 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-41346-7 (9781350413467)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Su Lin Lewis is Professor in Global and Asian History at University of Bristol, UK. She is the author of Cities in Motion: Urban Life and Cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia 1920-1940 (2016) and co-editor of The Lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism (2022).
Nana Osei-Opare is an Assistant Professor of African & Cold War History at Rice University, USA. He has published articles in several journals and has been an NEH/Ford Foundation fellow at the Schomburg Center and an Andrew Mellon fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, USA.
Nana Osei-Opare is an Assistant Professor of African & Cold War History at Rice University, USA. He has published articles in several journals and has been an NEH/Ford Foundation fellow at the Schomburg Center and an Andrew Mellon fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, USA.
Content
Introduction: Development Dreams from the Socialist South, Su Lin Lewis (Bristol University, UK) and Nana Osei-Opare (Rice University, USA).
1. Development and Difference: Alternative Genealogies of Uneven Development, 1920-1940, Kelvin Ng (Yale University, USA)
2. Debating Race and Revolutionary Socialism from the Latin American South, Jo Crow (University of Bristol, UK)
3. Pan-Africa, African Socialism, and the 'Federal Moment' of Decolonization, Marc Matera (University of California Santa Cruz,, USA)
4. Socialism, Internationalism, and Regime Survival: The Guomindang, China, and Taiwan in the 1940s and 1950s, Tehyun Ma (University of Sheffield, UK)
5. Three Logics of Indian Socialism: Historicizing Development under Capital, Matthew Shutzer (Duke University, USA)
6. Socialism and the Question of Third World Development in the Ideas of the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI), Pradipto Niwandhono (Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia)
7. Cuban Internationalismo, Berthold Unfried and Claudia Martinez (both University of Vienna, Austria)
8. Politics of Development at Afro-Asian Women's Conferences, Su Lin Lewis (University of Bristol, UK) and Wildan Sena Utama (University of Gadjah Madah, Indonesia)
9. Ahmad Ali Kohzad's visit to China 1958: A Critical Reading, William Figueroa (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)
10. Forging the Vanguard of Developmental Socialism: Nationalization, Respectability and Ideological Struggles at Kivukoni College, Tanzania, Eric Burton (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
11. Fish, Discontent, and Socialist Modernities and Dreams in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, Nana Osei-Opare (Rice University, USA)
12, Indians as Experts on Democracy and Development: South-South Cooperation in the Nehru Years, Taylor Sherman (University of New South Wales, Australia)
13. Confronting Capitalism in Twentieth-Century Latin America, Kevin Young (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
Afterword: Rethinking Socialist Developmentalisms in the "Third World", David C. Engerman (Yale University, USA)
Bibliography
Notes
1. Development and Difference: Alternative Genealogies of Uneven Development, 1920-1940, Kelvin Ng (Yale University, USA)
2. Debating Race and Revolutionary Socialism from the Latin American South, Jo Crow (University of Bristol, UK)
3. Pan-Africa, African Socialism, and the 'Federal Moment' of Decolonization, Marc Matera (University of California Santa Cruz,, USA)
4. Socialism, Internationalism, and Regime Survival: The Guomindang, China, and Taiwan in the 1940s and 1950s, Tehyun Ma (University of Sheffield, UK)
5. Three Logics of Indian Socialism: Historicizing Development under Capital, Matthew Shutzer (Duke University, USA)
6. Socialism and the Question of Third World Development in the Ideas of the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI), Pradipto Niwandhono (Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia)
7. Cuban Internationalismo, Berthold Unfried and Claudia Martinez (both University of Vienna, Austria)
8. Politics of Development at Afro-Asian Women's Conferences, Su Lin Lewis (University of Bristol, UK) and Wildan Sena Utama (University of Gadjah Madah, Indonesia)
9. Ahmad Ali Kohzad's visit to China 1958: A Critical Reading, William Figueroa (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)
10. Forging the Vanguard of Developmental Socialism: Nationalization, Respectability and Ideological Struggles at Kivukoni College, Tanzania, Eric Burton (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
11. Fish, Discontent, and Socialist Modernities and Dreams in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, Nana Osei-Opare (Rice University, USA)
12, Indians as Experts on Democracy and Development: South-South Cooperation in the Nehru Years, Taylor Sherman (University of New South Wales, Australia)
13. Confronting Capitalism in Twentieth-Century Latin America, Kevin Young (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
Afterword: Rethinking Socialist Developmentalisms in the "Third World", David C. Engerman (Yale University, USA)
Bibliography
Notes