Choice Review

An unnecessary book. Sometimes it seems that whenever three or more academicians get together to chat, someone concludes that the discussion needs to appear between hardcovers. Too often, the results resemble this book. Habitat, Health, and Development is the transcript of a 1983 conference to explore the relationship among the three variables in Third World cities. Internationally recognized experts were invited. Significant topics were discussed: preventive planning, health care, and education; economic and political restraints, and opportunities in national settlement patterns. The intention in publishing this collection is commendable; the product is not. The papers are all pedestrian, generally lacking any specificity, or when there are references to specific cases, they are too sketchy to be of much use. The discussions are worse: unfocused, unpolished, probably verbatim. The volume is, to be sure, readable. References are thorough and accurate. The subject is extremely important, but simply not adequately addressed here. The reader is better referred to earlier, seminal work by Torge E. Hardoy and David Satterthwaite, Shelter, Need and Response (1981). Libraries compelled to purchase everything related to development will, of course, purchase this. Those who must pick and choose should look elsewhere.-S.M. Soiffer, University of Rochester