Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 THE FIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH—A SUMMARY
- 3 THE PRECONDITIONS FOR TAKE-OFF
- 4 THE TAKE-OFF
- 5 THE DRIVE TO MATURITY
- 6 THE AGE OF HIGH MASS-CONSUMPTION
- 7 RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN GROWTH
- 8 RELATIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH AND AGGRESSION
- 9 THE RELATIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH AND THE PROBLEM OF PEACE
- 10 MARXISM, COMMUNISM, AND THE STAGES-OF-GROWTH
- Appendix A THE DIFFUSION OF THE PRIVATE AUTOMOBILE
- Appendix B THE CRITICS AND THE EVIDENCE
- Coda: REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBATE AS OF 1990
- Acknowledgments
- Index
Preface to the Third Edition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- 1 INTRODUCTION
- 2 THE FIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH—A SUMMARY
- 3 THE PRECONDITIONS FOR TAKE-OFF
- 4 THE TAKE-OFF
- 5 THE DRIVE TO MATURITY
- 6 THE AGE OF HIGH MASS-CONSUMPTION
- 7 RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN GROWTH
- 8 RELATIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH AND AGGRESSION
- 9 THE RELATIVE STAGES-OF-GROWTH AND THE PROBLEM OF PEACE
- 10 MARXISM, COMMUNISM, AND THE STAGES-OF-GROWTH
- Appendix A THE DIFFUSION OF THE PRIVATE AUTOMOBILE
- Appendix B THE CRITICS AND THE EVIDENCE
- Coda: REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBATE AS OF 1990
- Acknowledgments
- Index
Summary
When first published in 1960 this book stirred up a considerable controversy, which continued over the subsequent decade. During most of that time I was a public servant and not in a position to respond to the views of others. Therefore, the preface of the second edition (1971) and its Appendix B deal with the debate unleashed by the The Stages of Economic Growth. The debate has died down, but two related intellectual issues have by no means been resolved: What kind of a growth theory do we need? How does the reality of large innovations, with irreversible positive and negative structural consequences, affect the answer to that question? Appendix B, therefore, has been extended in this edition to reflect the debate from this larger perspective, including the insights provided by the emergence of non-linear dynamics and efforts over the past decade to apply its methods to economic phenomena.
The preface to the first edition is also included in this volume. It briefly evokes the lectures to Cambridge undergraduates in 1958 that were the origin of the text and records certain abiding debts to colleagues. The text remains as originally published in 1960, although the accompanying chart (p. xviii) has been up-dated and slightly modified.
The principal rationale for this third edition lies in the possibility that The Stages might provide some useful insight into problems of the present and the future, as well as the past.
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- The Stages of Economic GrowthA Non-Communist Manifesto, pp. ix - xxxviiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991