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In this study the author offers a new way of looking at development and underdevelopment, one that explains why some countries and some ethnic groups do better than others. After 20 years of working on Latin America's development problems, the author is convinced that it is the way Latin Americans see the world that principally explains why Latin America is underdeveloped and unstable, with its wealth and land so inequitably distributed. The book challenges a conventional wisdom, subscribed to around the world, that blames the rich countries for the poverty of the poor countries.

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CHOICE Review

Harrison spent 20 years (1962-82) administering US foreign aid programs, including directing AID programs in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and Nicaragua. The volume is a distillation of his conclusions. Harrison's basic message is that ``human development is frustrated in most Hispanic-American countries-and most Third World countries-by a way of seeing the world that impedes the achievement of political pluralism, social equity, and dynamic economic progress.'' He develops this thesis principally through a series of contrasting cases: Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Haiti, Barbados and Haiti, and Argentina and Australia. He also compares the evolution of Spain and Spanish America, and contrasts Spanish America and the US. This is undoubtedly a controversial volume. Harrison takes issue both with racist interpretations and with those of the so-called ``dependency'' theorists. Although no one will agree with all of Harrison's conclusions, he provides an intelligent reader with much material for contemplation, both in his explanation for the failure of some countries to develop while others do, and in his prescriptions for what might be done to change the situation. Appropriate for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.-R.J. Alexander, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Campus