“This is a very worthwhile book … it brings together a new and very coherent argument around development. The sheer scale of Olivier de Sardan’s ground-level immersion in the issues over five decades lends the book an incomparable rigor and depth.” • David Lewis, London School of Economics“This is a valuable book by a leading anthropologist of development, statecraft, and bureaucracy in West Africa. It is clearly something of a culmination of a distinguished career, filled with insights gleaned from decades of work.” • Kevin Donovan, The University of Edinburgh