The world faces pervasive poverty and inequality. Hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid have been given or loaned to developing countries though bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, at least, ostensibly, in order to do something about these problems. Has such aid helped? Debates around this question have been ongoing for decades, perhaps intensifying in recent years. This should not be a surprise. It is far from straightforward to even determine how to investigate the question. In the author's review of the literature on aid and development, five recent books stood out as repeatedly discussed and referenced. These are: (1) Thomas Dichter's "Despite Good Intentions: Why Development Assistance to the Third World Has Failed"; (2) William Easterly's "The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and So Little Good"; (3) Dambisa Moyo's "Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa"; (4) Roger Riddell's "Does Foreign Aid Really Work?"; and (5) David Ellerman's "Helping People Help Themselves: From the World Bank to an Alternative Philosophy of Development Assistance." In this article, Klees briefly examines each of these works, trying to provide a sense of each author's argument in his or her own words. The first three books mostly offer neoliberal perspectives, while the last two come from more liberal and progressive perspectives. The author follows this examination with a discussion of their views and concludes with his own views on aid and development, including implications for education. (Contains 23 endnotes.)