Hartmut Elsenhans. Development and Underdevelopment: The History,Economics and Politics of North-South Relations. New Delhi: SagePublications, 1991. 176 pp.Price: Rs 160.00

This is an English translation by Madhulika Reddy of theoriginal Gennan book fIrst published by Verlag W. Kohlhammer in 1984,under the title: Nord-SUd Beziehungen: Geschichte-Politik-Wirtschaft. Itdeals with the complex economic relationship between the highlydeveloped industrial countries of the North and the underdevelopedcountries of the South in the perspective of history, sociology, andpolitical economy. The nature, scope, and range of many diffIcultproblems of North-South relations, in their historical context and intheir socio-economic and political contents, give this book an aura ofurgency and immediacy. These issues directly impinge not only on thelives of millions of human beings living in the developing countries ofAsia, Africa, and Latin America who have been making strenuous effortsto solve the chronic problems of poverty, unemployment,underdevelopment, illiteracy, disease, and general social stagnation,but also affect the affluent people of the North who face the insidiousthreats of creeping recession, recurring unemployment, and fallingproductivity in their economies for lack of effective demand for theirmanufactures of high technology on the part of the disadvantageddeveloping countries.