This volume is a review of community development as a significant part of the modernization process. After the optimism of the late 1950's, much of the community development process has not met the expectations of its supporters, due to a complex of factors including the physical environment, societal reactions to innovation, the way in which power is nationally organized, lack of reasonably efficient national bureaucratic structures, the proportion of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture, and the heavy dependence on qualified and highly motivated officials. Morover, there is no general theory of modernization; and foreign technical assistance, although conducted on a large scale, has been uneven in quality and effectiveness. Community development must encourage economic development but it also has to promote social development, or self confidence, of local people to justify its existence. A bibliography of items on community development is included. (DM)