Part I. Prologue : The scope and concerns of the study -- The idea of development -- Part II. The 'positivists' : The crystallization of the positivist orthodoxy, 1943-55 -- The positivist high tide: 'modernization theory' -- Part III. The 'radicals' : The contribution of the 'neo-institutionalists' -- Disciplinary independence and theoretical progressivity -- Part IV. The 'marxists' : Elements of the renewal of interest in marxian scholarship: the treatments of the Third World -- Part V. Concluding remarks : Social theorizing and the matter of the Third World