Foreign Debt and Underdevelopment

This book is a study of the historical antecedents of Latin America's foreign debt, with a focus on Peru from 1930 to 1970. Written from the dependency theory perspective, the book attributes underdevelopment to chronic debt crises. It emphasizes the multilateral lending agencies' role in shaping Latin America's contemporary political economy, in cooperation with the U.S. government and multinational corporations and Latin America's local elites. This book presents a chapter in Peru's contemporary history targeted for students and scholars of Latin American studies, U.S. diplomatic history, international political economy, political science, and sociology of development. Contents: Preface; Introduction; Hemispheric Economic Integration and U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Good Neighbor Policy to the Alliance for Progress; Peru and Hemispheric Integration: From the Good Neighbor Policy to the Cold War; U.S.-Peru Financial Relations during the Odria Regime; Bankruptcy of Reformism: U.S.-Peru Financial Relations from Prado's Election to the Coup d'Etat of 1968; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Jon V. Kofas is Honors Director and Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University in Kokomo, Indiana. He is also the author of The Struggle for Legitimacy (Arizona State University Press, 1992) and Dependence & Underdevelopment in Colombia (Arizona State University Press, 1986).