This book challenges the binary distinction of developed and underdeveloped in the categorization of any country while proposing to erase this binary with a yardstick of parity.

Through a sample comparative historical study focusing on the question of the emergence of the large-scale steel industry (1880-1914) of four chosen countries, two considered "developed" (Imperial UK and Post-colonial Imperial USA) and two considered "underdeveloped" (Imperial Russia and Colonial India), it is shown how this yardstick of parity can be applied without the categorization of societies as either developed or underdeveloped.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Bhutan)