Despite global economic growth, an estimated one billion people live on less than $1 a day, but, encouragingly, as exemplified by the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, poverty reduction has risen to near the top of the world's agenda.

Scholarly treatment of global poverty is typically rooted in disciplines like development economics, political science, and sociology. After cursory attention to historical factors, studies quickly become problem-focused and present-oriented. The literature lacks a broad historical perspective on the emergence of poverty as a global concern.

Victory Deferred: The War on Global Poverty (1945-2003) is designed to fill that gap. The book synthesizes the more specialized literature into a coherent narrative covering the past half-century. It highlights the interplay among the themes of poverty, development, growth, and globalization. Although it taps into other disciplines, the book is mainly an administrative history, with emphasis on the antipoverty roles of bilateral, multilateral, and global organizations.