Bankers with a mission : the presidents of the World Bank, 1946-91

All the Bank's presidents have been U.S. citizens. According to an unwritten convention, it is the prerogative of the United States to nominate the president.

The book describes who those presidents were, how they came to the Bank, and what experiences they brought with them.

The essays also analyse the problems these men encountered during their tenure and how they dealt with them, discuss the impact each president had on the evolution of the bank- on its policies and operations and on its organizational character-and, finally, describe the legacies of those presidents.

To the extent that a history of the Bank's presidents can provide a window on the evolution of the insitution, this book also provides a brief overview of the history of this important international institution.