All the Difference is the story of one man's work in the vast international effort since World War II to raise standards of living in less developed countries; an effort in which all member countries of the United Nations have to some extent been involved. In the opening chapter Benjamin Higgins recounts how, almost by accident, he became a "development economist" at the age of thirty-nine, and indicates how inadequate the training and experience of the first generation of development economists were for this role.