Book excerpt: E. Wayne Nafziger analyzes the economic development of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and East-Central Europe. The book is suitable for those with a background in economics principles. Nafziger explains the reasons for the recent fast growth of India, Poland, Brazil, China, and other Pacific Rim countries, and the slow, yet essential, growth for a turnaround of sub-Saharan Africa. The fifth edition of the text, written by a scholar of developing countries, is replete with real-world examples and up-to-date information. Nafziger discusses poverty, income inequality, hunger, unemployment, the environment and carbon-dioxide emissions, and the widening gap between rich (including middle-income) and poor countries. Other new components include the rise and fall of models based on Russia, Japan, China/Taiwan/Korea, and North America; randomized experiments to assess aid; an exploration of whether information technology and mobile phones can provide poor countries with a shortcut to prosperity; and a discussion of how worldwide financial crises, debt, and trade and capital markets affect developing countries.