A critical history of modernization theory in American foreign policy.

Michael E. Latham is Professor of History at Fordham University and Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. He is the author of Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and "Nation Building" in the Kennedy Era and coeditor of Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War and Knowledge and Postmodernism in Historical Perspective.

Since the end of the Cold War there has been an enormous increase in scholarship by historians of U.S. foreign relations on American efforts to 'modernize' or develop the poorest areas of the world after World War II. Michael E. Latham has been at the forefront of this research.... This is an exceptionally well-written synthesis that will become a staple in college and graduate classrooms for years to come.... Latham has provided an excellent book on an important topic.

Nils Gilman:

Michael Latham's The Right Kind of Revolution will for the foreseeable future be the textbook synthesis on the impact of ideas of modernization on American foreign affairs during the twentieth century.... It toggles artfully between discussions of U.S. foreign policy in the Global South, how ideas of modernization were used both to understand and to guide those policies, and how these policies and ideas were received by political elites in target countries.

Michele Alacevich:

Michael E. Latham has provided a very interesting and useful synthesis of the rise and decline (and eventual reappearance) of modernization theory in the United States, exploring both its intellectual roots and its deep connections to the country's foreign policy.

David Ekbladh:

The Right Kind of Revolution opens a window on the variety of new scholarship on the issue in this excellent primer on the place of modernization in U.S. foreign relations. Writing with clarity and verve, Latham makes complicated topics accessible and diverse situations comparable. His précis of the origins of modernization theory and its rapid spread across the American social sciences is fluent and does much to explicate why the concepted seemed like an attractive solution to so many problems for policymakers and scholars alike. He makes clear that modernization was not just an activity conducted by the American state. It had considerable support from a collection of nongovernmental advocates that included universities, foundations, and missionary groups. Latham also gives room to the governments and leaders of those countries the United States sought to modernize, reminding readers of their agency. Latham has captured and synthesized the fresh and exciting scholarship on this rich issue while adding to it in a manner accessible to students and stimulating for scholars.

David Engerman, Brandeis University, author of Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America's Soviet Experts:

Well-written, broad-gauged, and just plain smart, The Right Kind of Revolution ably synthesizes, indeed moves beyond, the scholarship on American efforts to 'improve' the Third World. The new standard work on American modernization and development policies, it is has much to teach scholars and graduate students while still being suitable for use in undergraduate courses.

Emily S. Rosenberg, University of CaliforniaIrvine, author of Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion 1890–1945:

Michael E. Latham's readable and insightful book casts recent nation-building undertakings within a century-long history of the faiths—and delusions—of America's recurrent efforts to 'modernize' others. The broad scope of this book recommends it to scholars, policymakers, and citizens alike.

Nathan J. Citino, Colorado State University, author of From Arab Nationalism to OPEC: Eisenhower, King Sa'ud, and the Making of U.S.-Saudi Relations:

Combining theory, diplomacy, domestic politics, and development, the concept of 'modernization' is a powerful tool for critically analyzing America's past and present encounters with the world. The Right Kind of Revolution is the best illustration yet of how 'modernization' can serve as a synthetic theme useful in studying America's encounter with developing societies during and after the Cold War. Topics such as land reform, agricultural technology, and development consortiums appear in this book within a single frame. The disastrous results of modernization in some countries offer a powerful indictment of an authoritarian orientation completely at odds with Americans' stated ideals.