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CHOICE Review

First issued in Spanish (1979) and Portuguese (1980); an English version has been produced since 1984. Much of the statistical and factual information contained here can be found in other sources, many cited by the authors of this compilation. G. Kurian's Encyclopedia of the Third World (3rd ed., 1987; 1st ed., CH, Jun'79) covers slightly fewer places, but it offers more comprehensive information. This work differs from others principally in its biases: antitransnational, anticolonial, and anticapitalist. Articles are unsigned and contain no citations. The selected bibliography features works of the Latin American Marxist underdevelopment and dependency school. The book has four major parts. "What Is the Third World?" reflects the usual difficulties in assigning geographical space to that concept, but it generally holds together. Part 2, "Issues and Perspectives," is repetitive and frequently lacks focus. Part 3, which purports to be a chronology of major events in 1988/1989, actually covers May 1987 to May 1988. This section includes biographies of Third World leaders of the century. Oddly enough Martin Luther King appears, but Fidel Castro does not. In the fourth section, "Countries of the World," the authors have added colonies, dependencies, and selected non-Third World countries, chiefly in the role of colonialist. Entries consist of a brief narrative of recent history, a table of socioeconomic indicators, a geographical and political profile, a copy of the official seal, and a simple line drawing map. Although the approach offers a useful corrective to traditional American views of the Third World, the book is weakened by the inclusion of outrageous assertions. The most egregious gives serious consideration to a hypothesis that AIDS was invented by the US as a form of biological warfare and that inmates in American prisons were deliberately infected to create a test group. Despite its polemical tone, it would be worthwhile for libraries adding materials on the Third World.