The demographic revolution in modern Egypt /

While the dramatic transition in Egypt from high to low mortality is well known, Robinson (emer., Pennsylvania State Univ.) and El-Zanaty (Univ. of Cairo) document the important, equally sharp decline in fertility. The average number of children borne by a woman over a lifetime has declined from 7.1 in 1960 to 3.5 in 2000. The authors' main focus is on the role Egyptian government family-planning policy played in this decline. While they show that factors such as delayed marriage and privately supplied contraceptives played a role, they conclude that government-provided contraceptives significantly contributed to the fertility drop. They recount in detail varying initiatives by the Egyptian government and donors, principally the US; some bogged down while others, e.g., a high-profile media blitz, were unexpectedly successful. The closing chapter is a model of a succinct, articulate formulation of policy lessons that can be drawn from scholarly analysis. The book is marred by occasional sloppiness, such as a table in which the components vastly exceed the listed totals in each column, and a long quotation given twice but with slightly different wording--raising the question of the accuracy of either version. A useful addition to collections on Egypt and the Middle East. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. P. Clawson Washington Institute for Near East Policy