This book contains a world of useful information, with many tables, on Algeria's economic development, especially since independence. But it is more than a survey. It is a high-powered criticism of governmental policies in the successive regimes of Ben Bella, Boumedienne and Benjedid, particularly severe in its condemnation of Benjedid for abandoning modernization and growth through state industries and turning over the economy to a parasitic "comprador bourgeoisie." Thus, it is a salvo in the current political debate and struggle over how socialist or capitalist Algeria's road should be.
