In his groundbreaking study, "Art, Politics and Development, "Philipp Lepenies contributes to the ongoing controversy about why the track record of development aid is so dismal. He asserts that development aid policies are grounded in a specific way of literally looking at the world. This worldview is the result of a mental conditioning that began with the invention of linear perspective in Renaissance art. It not only triggered the emergence of modern science and brought forth our Western notion of progress, but ultimately, development as well. "Art, Politics, and Development" examines this...

Widely used since the mid-twentieth century, GDP (gross domestic product) has become the world's most powerful statistical indicator of national development and progress. Practically all governments adhere to the idea that GDP growth is a primary economic target, and while criticism of this measure has grown, neither its champions nor its detractors deny its central importance in our political culture.

In The Power of a Single Number, Philipp Lepenies recounts the lively history of GDP's political acceptance--and eventual dominance. Locating the origins of GDP measurements in...