Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Developing Nations. Edited by Debra A. Miller. Greenhaven Press Thomson Gale, 2007. 1 vol. 195 p. $36.20. ISBN 10: 0-7377-3713-1; 13: 978-0-7377-3713-4.

This introduction describes the challenges facing the world's developing nations including global warming, water pollution, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, disease, bad health and under–funded public health systems, environmental pollution, and lack of fossil fuels except those causing greenhouse gases. Chapter I describes the problems facing developing nations. Chapter II debates both sides of "Will Globalization Help Developing Nations?" while chapter III debates "Can Democracy Succeed in Developing Nations?" George Bush's address to the U.N., "Democracy is the Path to a Safer and Better World" is countered by two, first, a columnist in Kenya in his article, "Democratic Policies Are Contributing to Political and Economic Instability in Many Developing Countries." The second, An American syndicated columnist poses "The Prospects for Democracy in Iraq Are Dim." The answers to the question "How Should Industrialized Nations Aid the Developing World?" in the last chapter will guide students to think of other solutions when "Developed Nations Must Increase Foreign Aid to Help End World Poverty" is posed and countered with "Foreign Aid Alone Will Not Help Developing Countries Eliminate Poverty." Students in high school today will need to find solutions to the problems here because those of us in previous generations do not seem to be doing a very good job of solving them.