Literacy Campaigns: Past, Present, and Future. Review of Robert F. Arnove and Harvey J. Graff (Eds.), National Literacy Campaigns: Historical and Comparative Aspects; Paulo Freire and Donaldo Macedo, Literacy: Reading the Word and the World; Ali Hamadache and Daniel Martin, Theory and Practice of Literacy Work: Policies, Strategies and Examples

The topic of literacy seems to be returning to the top of the development agenda. Since the 1960s, with UNESCO's Experimental World Literacy Programme (EWLP), there has been a drift away from large-scale literacy programs for development, if not in the minds of Third World educators, then at least in the minds of development planners in major policy-making centers such as the World Bank, UN agencies, and bilateral funding agencies. Perhaps this was due to the problems of EWLP (described in A. Gillette's chapter in Arnove & Graff) or simply to economists' reactions to literacy as a "basic human right," which may have struck policymakers as not sufficiently linked to development outcomes such as economic growth, improved agricultural practices, and so forth. At least part of the resurgence of interest in literacy stems from the realization that illiteracy is not just a Third World problem; attention to and research on illiteracy in North American and Europe have been growing rapidly over the past several years (see L. Limage's chapter in Arnove & Graff).1 The present volumes are primarily focused on the "campaign" and mass education dimensions of literacy. Each volume addresses national and international efforts to achieve greater literacy among adult populations, principally in Third World countries.