Book excerpt: R. Paul Shaw has travelled widely in the Arab world, obtaining data and gathering impressions first-hand from national and local planners. In this book, he identifies population and manpower problems that are likely to become more serious and more difficult to solve if they are neglected at this early stage of Arab development. He focuses on five broad areas which are directly or indirectly related to mobilizing human resources, and his book will be of special interest to all those who are concerned with such issues as population, migration, employment, inequality, the emancipation of women, construction and agriculture. Dr Shaw proposes policy directives which are sensitive to the problems as they are seen by the Arab governments themselves, and sets out practical guidelines which can be used by Arab planners and policy-makers. An important feature of the book with respect to current literature on Arab development is that it moves away from a preoccupation with growth-related investments to a concentration on development-related population, manpower and employment issues. By bringing together such comprehensive empirical and bibliographic information, it will also be invaluable as a reference source for some twenty Arab countries. First published in 1983.