Development, Nations, and "The Signs of the Times": The Historical Context of Populorum Progressio

Abstract

The goal of this essay is to fill in some of the gaps by looking at the historical context of Populorum Progressio, especially the work of its principal author the French economist Louis-Joseph Lebret. To do this, I first look at some of the secular historical context of the 1960s which gave rise to the idea of the encyclical, and then move to a brief examination of the work of Louis-Joseph Lebret. As Lebret’s work is married to the more philosophical work of Jacques Maritain in the encyclical, a short review of Maritain’s work follows. The essay concludes with some suggestions for future investigations.