These volumes have special interest to the student of planned social development and incidental interest to the historian. The first investigates the effectiveness of technical and professional training of Latin Americans as a means of innovating new technology; the second examines economic planning as it relates to massive transport investment. Both have titles which promise more than the contents deliver, and both are studded with the jargon to which social scientists frequently resort for exchanging ideas.

The communications specialists use a quantitative approach for gathering and analyzing data about attitudes, beliefs, expectations, and understanding to explore the relationship between communication and social change in introducing new technology. They interviewed 169 Latin Americans—mainly young professionals and technicians in “middle management” positions—who had been brought to the United States for special training in universities, factories, and offices under AID grants. For comparison, the specialists also interviewed 140 counterparts engaged in similar employment, but without the special training. The standard interview investigated such areas as the respondents’ perception of changes that had occurred in their countries during the past few years; their attitudes toward change; the United States concept of it and their own national concept; the extent to which they received information through newspapers, periodicals, books, television, or shortwave radio; and the nature of the personal contacts they had with foreign countries.

The data gathered from each of these interviews filled eight I.B.M. cards. Final analysis was made with the aid of high speed computers. The type of conclusion reached can be illustrated by a few fragments of quotation lifted, to be sure, out of context but nevertheless representative. The investigation found that the respondents “tended to perceive major changes occurring in their countries—changes in industry, public administration, agriculture, education, transportation, communication, public health, and nutrition, in about that order. . .. They expressed attitudes generally favorable to technical change. . .. Most of the participants reported they had made substantial use of things they had learned in this country. In short, the evidence indicated that U.S. training was a significant influence in the direction of involvement in change” (pp. 103-105).

The author of the volume on transportation, Charles J. Stokes, is a distinguished economist who has devoted much of the past quarter-century to examination of Latin American development. He presents case studies of three major transport projects: the Tijerias-Valencia autopista in Venezuela, the freight transport system of Colombia, and the proposed Carretera Marginal de la Selva. He suggests principles of transport investment applicable to other developing areas and attempts to identify problems of evaluation, all within a broad framework of relationship to key infrastructure investment.

The Tijerias-Valencia autopista study questions the frequently encountered criticism of Venezuelan public works as being more expensive and impressive than practical. It analyzes the decision to build the autopista, searching for criteria of need and their manner of application, then considers alternatives. The author examines the impact of the highway regionally, within the Aragua Valley, and nationally, to see what changes take place which can be traced to it. The cost of construction and maintenance are compared to user or shipper benefits and development benefits. The conclusion reached is that “a massive highway investment was necessary and . . . that as a consequence . . . the social cost of transportation in Venezuela is not only much lower than in most underdeveloped nations but also lower than in many advanced nations” (p. 12).

The Carretera Marginal de la Selva is a dramatic proposal to build an international road along the eastern side of the Andes through the wild sabanas, jungles, and foothills of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, opening up vast areas of the Amazon-Orinoeo plains. Stokes’ chapter on it is an unpretentious summary of research to determine its feasibility. His conclusions are tentative because of inadequate data, but he is able to outline the essential justification for the highway, which he believes “is an investment . . . that will yield substantial benefits in excess of its costs” (p. 113).

A concluding essay underlines the need for national planners to work out a priority index which makes it possible to compare all their possible projects. This applies particularly to transport investments, which typically are large and have special potential for serious mistakes which absorb funds that could be used in better ways. National planning, representing the political purposes of the electorate or of the government, should provide the setting for the selection of transport investment strategies. Even where there is no planning, “it may be well to proceed as if a plan did exist, spelling out what might have been the elements of such a plan. Then some concept of the range of alternative projects becomes possible.... At the very least, transport planners, because they possess certain advantages over planners in other sectors of the economy, must not overplay these advantages to the possible detriment of the national economy. Surely it is never enough to embark on a transport project because ‘we know how to build it’” (pp. 174-175).