Honorable Mention for the 2006 Distinguished Book Award, American Sociological Association Winner of the 2005 Barrington Moore Book Award, Comparative Historical Section of the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the 2005 Mirra Komarovsky Award, Eastern Sociological Association Honorable Mention for the 2004 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award, Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association One of Choice's Outstanding ... Read moreAcademic Titles for 2004 "[A]n important contribution to the larger theoretical debate about the role of the state in development and the place of class analysis. A British anthropologist friend remarked after reading it, 'How did he get a job in an American sociology department? Where is the post-modernism? Where are the regressions?' Instead we have a sustained analytical argument presented in writing that is crystal-clear and entirely free of jargon, with historical narrative of 'what was' tautly balanced with counterfactual 'what might have been.' The book assaults idle prejudice on every side of the debate about markets and the role of government. It is long overdue, and deserves to be widely read."
Robert Hunter Wade, European Journal of Sociology "An excellent book on political economy that will interest scholars of economics, political science, and sociology and others concerned with economic development and the state structures that aid or hinder it... Chibber has laid out an analysis of the political economy of development that cannot be ignored, and may offer important lessons for developing nations
and for those who would advise them
in the Middle East, Africa, and South America."
Choice "Vivek Chibber's book is exceptionally clear, fresh, empirically rich, and analytically tight. It clears some conventional cobwebs in thinking about developmental states. It should be read widely."
Ronald J. Herring, Perspectives on Politics "Chibber of course has much to contribute to the state-society debate, Indian historiography, and methodology germane to industrial change. His work provokes many questions and alternative counterfactuals for future research."
Anthony P. D'Costa, Journal of Asian Studies "This book should become a cornerstone in all future efforts to explain divergent paths of development, and it will serve as a model for how to understand state policymaking and implementation in all types of economies."
Richard Lachmann, Social Forces "[A] powerful assault on the intellectual assumptions, arguments and claims on which the prevailing neoliberal consensus in India rests... [I]t will likely force much more serious historical research into the whole issue of the relationship of state and class in this period. [W]e have every reason to be grateful for this path-breaking work."
Achin Vanaik, New Left Review Show Less