Reference request: Development economics
Development economics has a distinct flavor among subfields in Economics, in that it usually opts for a more socio-economic, geopolitical and historical approach rather than mathematical modelling.
But they do use rigorous quantitative methods as regards empirical studies.

Anyway a book that can certainly show you how this subfield thinks is E. Wayne Nafziger's "Economic Development" (850 pages long - in hardcover, the book weighs 1.5 Kgr!)

See also the scientific journal "Journal of Development Economics"