Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Kruijer (emeritus, University of Amsterdam) has written a book committed to the interests of the poor versus the rich, and those of the Third World versus the ``first.'' He unequivocally advocates a socialist rather than a capitalist solution to problems of development. Eschewing value-free social science analysis as hypocritical, Kruijer attributes the problems of the poor and Third World peoples to their powerless position in a poverty-and-wealth system. This system operates at the local, regional, national, and international levels to exploit them through unequal exchange, i.e., exchange that benefits the well-to-do and the core nations while oppressing the poor and the peripheral nations. Kruijer's work cites literature from Third World scholars as often, if not more often, than from Western scholars, drawing radical conclusions from their case studies in Latin America, Africa, and, to a lesser extent, Asia. Unlike conventional books that focus primarily on measuring inequality and diagnosing its causes, at least half of this work is devoted to evaluating and recommending mechanisms the poor can use for their liberation. Recommended for academic libraries as an exemplar of alternative scholarship.-J. Abu-Lughod, New School for Social Research