Industrialization and population explosion are contributing to an urban revolution in the developing countries of the world. Static social and economic conditions, frozen for hundreds of years, are rapidly being overturned. This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of various national programs and the efforts of international agencies directed toward achieving land reform and adequate housing. This is the first book on the subject. Charles Abrams, drawing heavily on his rich store of intimate practical experience, dramatically describes housing situations in Ghana, Turkey, Pakistan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Japan, Singapore, India, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Jamaica, Ireland, Barbados, and Bolivia. His expert knowledge of the legal and financial aspects of land and housing problems is tempered by common sense observation of technical and social aspects, enriched by imaginative human concern, and made effective by a high degree of political realism. Man's Struggle for Shelter will benefit a wide audience of readers. The urban and regional planner, the housing official, the land economist, and government policy planners, both here and abroad, will find this book extremely important.
