front cover of Allegories Of Underdevelopment
Allegories Of Underdevelopment
Aesthetics and Politics in Modern Brazilian Cinema
Ismail Xavier
University of Minnesota Press, 1997

front cover of Memories Of Underdevelopment
Memories Of Underdevelopment
Chanan, Michael
Rutgers University Press, 1990
Memories of Underdevelopment was the first great international success of Cuban cinema. The film provides a complex portrait of Sergio, a disaffected bourgeois intellectual who remains in Havana after the Revolution, suspended between two worlds. He can no longer accept the values of his family's reactionary past and yet boredom and the conditioning of his early life prevent him from committing himself to the new revolutionary society. Sergio's story is played out in the turbulent period of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 missile crisis, events he can only watch on his television screen or from his apartment balcony.The film, initially banned by the U.S. government as part of its trade quarantine of Cuba, was shown here five years after its original release. But American critics responded enthusiastically to it and the National Society of Film Critics bestowed an award on its director.

This double volume includes the complete continuity script of Memories, as well as the complete novel, Inconsolable Memories, upon which the film is based. An interview with Alea is reproduced here, as well as documentation of the political controversy that surrounded the film in this country. Michael Chanan's introduction places the film in the context of Cuban political and cultural history. The volume also includes a biographical sketch of Alea, a chronology of the Cuban Revolution, reviews, commentary, a filmography, and a bibliography.Michael Chanan lives in England, where he teaches and writes on film. He is the author of The Cuban Image: Cinema and Cultural Politics in Cuba.
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front cover of Political Change and Underdevelopment
Political Change and Underdevelopment
A Critical Introduction to Third World Politics
Vicky Randall and Robin Theobald
Duke University Press, 1998
In this completely revised second edition, Vicky Randall and Robin Theobald review the principal theoretical approaches to the postwar study of Third World politics. Instead of undergoing Western-model modernization as predicted, developing countries have seen the proliferation of one-party states, military coups, communal violence, corruption, and economic dependence. Randall and Theobald survey and analyze the varied theories born of these developments, with examples from such nations as Chile, Indonesia, Pakistan, Syria, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

This second edition has been expanded to include discussions of the international debt crisis, the impact of globalization on the postcolonial world, the rise of newly industrialized countries, and the upsurge in religion-based conflict in the post–Cold War era. Describing the strengths and weaknesses of the existing interpretive approaches to these issues, the authors explore the often difficult relationship between political change and economic development. At the same time they provide a comprehensive view into the turbulent politics of the Third World and suggest how future analysis can build on present approaches to reflect political reality more fully.
An essential text for students of political science and Third World societies, this volume will also interest anyone seeking a clearer understanding of the current issues underlying the politics of these countries.

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front cover of Stunted Lives, Stagnant Economies
Stunted Lives, Stagnant Economies
Poverty, Disease, and Underdevelopment
Stillwaggon, Eileen
Rutgers University Press, 1998
An important study on the impact of poverty on health and the effect of poor health on national economies and human development

This is a fascinating, lively, and well-written book.  The author has a clear message which she states at the beginning, namely, that health is primarily an economic, not a medical problem, and she follows that to the end.Keith Griffin, University of California, Riverside

Houses made of rags and flattened soda cans, filthy water that breeds disease, counterfeit medicines, no access to decent medical care how can children growing up in such an environment become productive workers contributing to a developing economy? 

Stunted Lives, Stagnant Economies describes in vivid detail the living conditions of the poor in developing countries and the diseases and injuries that result from this environment of need.  Most of the diseases that affect the poor cholera, summer diarrhea, tuberculosis, lice, worms, leprosy result from the poverty of their environment.  Poverty also determines the availability and effectiveness of the medical response.  Using Argentina as a case study, Eileen Stillwaggon argues that making good health available to everyone is not a scientific problem but an economic one. 
The debt crisis of the 1980s and the subsequent structural adjustment policies adopted by most developing countries exacerbated the problems faced by the poor. What kind of future can a nation build when the health of the majority of the population its workforceÑis at risk or compromised because social services have been reduced?  Without adequate health care and social services, people cannot live up to their potential, and the spiral of poverty continues.  But there are ways to fight this cycle of poverty. 
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