The economic problems of the developing nations have been, on the other hand, very few works which concentrated on the study of societies in the process of development and the political factors which can help or hinder the process of total human development within those societies. This present work, then, fills an obvious and long-felt need. With an encyclopedia knowledge of his subject, Jean-Yves Calvez, formerly of the famed Jesuit Center, Action Populaire of Paris, brings out the rich diversity which marks the developing countries a diversity which we in the West all too frequently overlook.