SEMINAL WORK WITHIN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS - THE ROSTOVIAN TAKE-OFF MODEL

ROSTOW, W. W.

The Stages of Economic Growth.

Utrecht, Economic History Society, 1959. Royal8vo. Bound with all the original wrappers in full red cloth with gilt lettering to spine. In "The Economic History Review, Second Series, Vol. XII, No. 1, August 1959" (the entire Second Series, Vol. XII, No. 1-3, August 1959 - April 1960" present). Library label pasted on to pasted down front free end-paper. Library stamp, a small marginal repair, and some pencil-annotations to first front-wrapper. Internally fine and clean. [Rostow:] Pp. 1-16. [Entire issue: VIII, 552, (4) pp.], .

First edition of probably the most important and influential work ever to be published within development economics. The work had profound influence not only on contemporary economics and politics but also on economic history where it marked an entirely new period of historiography and theories within economic history. His theory became one of the important concepts in the theory of modernization in the social evolutionism.

"Rostow's analysis of economic growth was based on the developmental stages through which each country goes. Rostow saw each country evolving through five stages of economic growth. These are the traditional society, the preconditions for take-off, the take-off [The take-off is really an industrial revolution that arrives when the old barriers and resistances to steady growth are finally overcome], the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass consumption." (Oser, The Evolution of Economic Thought, P. 368).

"Rostow's exposition has received very wide attention and approval, perhaps for several reasons. First, it is evolutionary; second, it is grounded in historical studies; third, it seems to show a predestined affluence for all; finally, it presents a case for an inner logic and drive from one stage to the next that requires no conscious decision-making or deliberate efforts to promote growth; it is analytic without being programmatic." (Ibid.).

Walt Whitman Rostow (1916-2003) had a prominent role in the shaping of US foreign policy in Southeast Asia during the 1960s, he was a staunch anti-communist, and was noted for a belief in the efficacy of capitalism and free enterprise. Rostow served as a major adviser on national security affairs under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations..

In 1960 Rostow published the book "The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto", in which he elaborated the ideas presented in the present paper.

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