Phillips, who has served as professor of botany and of agriculture and as forester, conservationist, agriculturist, and ecologist, makes two outstanding contributions in this book. One is a world-wide comparative study emphasizing the underdeveloped economies in the tropics and hotter subtropics, in which the technical material and charts are invaluable.
The other is his insistence on awareness not only of economic and technical challenges, but also “those springing from the background and way of life of the local peoples.” He stresses the persistence of culture and the importance of proper motivation in introducing new ways where change appears justified.
Phillips, whose main area of work and study is Africa, knows personally only three Latin American countries, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Peru. An index check reveals that Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Mexico appear only in some comparative charts.
The preface to the second edition indicates that it has not been substantially revised. Many of the tables have not been updated; a new bibliography has been added to rather than incorporated with the old one. A recent trip to the United States put the author in touch with current thought concerning education, extension, and development in the tropics, but he found no reason to modify any of the points made in the first edition (1961).
