Löwy's book is the first attempt to analyse, in a systematic way, how the theories of uneven and combined development, and of the permanent revolution — inseparably linked — emerged in the writings of thinkers such as Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky. Such radical reflections permit us to understand modern economic development across continents as a process of ferocious change, in which "advanced" and "backward" elements fuse, come into tension, and collide — and how the resulting ruptures make it possible for the oppressed and exploited to change the world.