Book Reviews : CITIES AND SUBURBS: URBAN LIFE IN WEST AFRICA, by Margaret Peil. New York, Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1981. 322 pp. $35.00 (cloth)

comments by Lampard, Piccinato, Tilly and Bass Wamer. It is difficult to extract much from this, the comments being responses to the general tenor of the conference, though it seems clear that a tension existed between those who wanted to describe (mainly the Americans, it seems) and those who wished to explain. As noted at the outset this is an intriguing volume but it is also very frustrating. Despite claims to the contrary, the papers go in many directions and with the commentaries included, one is left with considerable confusion about who was talking about what. The editor has tried and failed to integrate and explain the contents and in my view this is a volume which would have been better not published, particularly since three of the six papers have already been published elsewhere. As a book it adds nothing to debate about the links between policy and academic research and one is left in confusion as to claims that urban history might be a policy science. All in all, while some of the papers are worth reading, it is not worth buying this book. Research School of Social Sciences Australian National University PETER WILLIAMS