THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE DEVELOPING NATIONS

by Paul E. Sigmund ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Reinhold Niebuhr, in his brief foreword to this book, calls it ""an anthology of the political theories and ideologies of the leaders of the emerging nations of the world"". The word ""anthology"" is an apt and illuminating one--the strengths and weaknesses in which all anthologies share will be apparent here. Readers who lack an acquaintance of some breadth with the context of the thinking here quoted from will be likely to be lost or misled. Niebuhr also says that ""Paul Sigmund has performed an invaluable service in providing (it) for the students of current global politics"", and he could not be more right. 26 national leaders are represented here by short excerpts from speeches and writings. They are divided into four main camps (Asia, Islam, Africa, and Latin America), and seem, on first appraisal, even more divided by their messages, and personalities; it is a collection of men ranging from Mao Tse-tung to Gandhi to Nasser to Nkrumah to Castro, and most of them make strange bedfellows, indeed. Yet Dr. Sigmund has picked out their points of common cause with skill and precision. As he tells us in his analytical Introduction, ""What has emerged...is a reasonably coherent set of ideas about society and government which constitutes the ideology of modernizing nationalism. It is in the hope of achieving a better understanding of these ideas that the selections...are presented in this volume.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION