With an astonishing unity of inspiration that serves as a counterbalance to the richness and variety of his themes and positions, Albert O. Hirschman, great political economist of our time, introduces us to the study of Western Europe, the United States and Latin America. From his own memories of the fascist period retold on the occasion of his honorary degree to two previously unpublished writings on the origins of European integration, from a group of illuminating essays on the contemporary economic and political realities of developed Western countries to a selection of texts on South America containing the provisional balance sheet of long experience, this is an intellectual lesson in the truest sense. Through his original way of penetrating the realities of our time, the author unveils a series of concrete issues and new and unlikely ways forward, constructing a tenacious and possibilist scientific pathway aimed at the unstinting encouragement of mutual understanding, economic and civic growth, and the democratic development of three continents.

Luca Meldolesi: Foreword - Luca Meldolesi: Introduction: "A Passion for the Possible" - Franco Ferraresi and Albert O. Hirschman: "Laura Honoris Causa in Political Science", Turin, Nov. 12th, 1987 - Disinflation, Discrimination, and the Dollar Shortage - Proposal for a European Monetary Authority - Approaches to Multilateralism and European Integration - Effects of Industrialization on the Markets of Industrial Countries - Invitation to Theorizing about the Dollar Glut - Exit and Voice in American Ideology and Practice - The Welfare State in Trouble: Systemic Crisis or Growing Pains? - Three Uses of Political Economy in Analyzing European Integration - [The Universal Suffrage] - The Turn to Authoritarianism in Latin America and the Search for Its Economic Determinants - What Does It All Add up to? - On Democracy in Latin America - The Political Economy of Latin American Development: Seven Exercises in Retrospection - Index of Names - Index of Subjects.