What have the social sciences to show for decades of systematic investigation of the problems of economic development? What basic problems have they solved and what remains to be done in the development of viable theoretical approaches to this area of research and policy? In an unusually open discussion, thirty-three experts from the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, geography, sociology, and agriculture here present a stimulating re-examination of their accomplishments and mutual problems, of the progress the disciplines have made, and that which remains.

The...