Public Assistance and Promotion of Local Rail Projects.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, and again in the middle of the twentieth century, federal, state, and local governments were involved in large-scale subsidizing and promoting of railroad infrastructure for economic development purposes. In the 1800s, public financial involvement centered on the expansion of railroads to develop the West. In the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, public financial assistance focused on preserving rail freight services, and on restructuring the then oversized national rail network. In the 1990s and beyond, rail improvements and the need for public assistance are likely to be more incremental, with mostly local projects. Case study research was conducted on six local freight rail service projects, all of which had public sector investment. Five attributes were identified whose presence was associated with project success, or conversely, whose absence may have reduced the likelihood for project success. These success attributes should be used as an adjunct to sound economic analysis, and incorporated within future policies governing selection of local rail projects to receive public assistance.     

Reviews

Freezing Assets: The USA and the Most Effective Economic Sanction , Mahvash Alerassool, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993, xii + 238 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Islamic Economic Systems , Farhad Nomani and Ali Rahnema, London: Zed Books, 1994, 222 pp., $25.00 paperback.

Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith , Norman R. C. Cohn, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1993, x + 271 pp.

Indian Merchants and the Eurasian Trade ,1600–1750, Stephen Frederic Dale, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 162 pp.

Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Art and History Trust Collection , Abolala Soudavar, with a contribution by Milo Cleveland Beach, New York: Rizzoli, 1992, 423 pp. and 474 color illustrations, $85.

Sakhtarha‐ye ejtema'i‐ye ‘ashayer‐e Būyir‐Ahmad, 1300–1364 , H. Ghaffari, Tehran: Ney, 1368 Sh./1989, 287 pp., map, diagrams, illustrations.

In the Eye of the Storm: Women In Post‐Revolutionary Iran , Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl, eds., Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994, 227 pp., $17.95 paperback.

Continuity and Change in Medieval Persia: Aspects of Administrative ,Economic and Social History, 11th‐14th Century, Ann K. S. Lambton, Bibliotheca Persica, Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies, no. 2, Albany: SUNY Press, 1988, 351 pp., tables, maps, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Tribal Rugs: Nomadic and Village Weavings from the Near East and Central Asia , James Opie, Portland, Ore.: The Tolstoy Press, 1992, 328 pp., 356 illustrations, 291 in color and 12 maps, $ 75.00.

The Kitáb‐i‐Aqdas: The Most Holy Book , Baha’ Allah, Haifa: Baha'i World Center, 1992, pp. viii + 296.

Planning and Power in Iran: Ebtehaj and Economic Development under the Shah , Frances Bostock and Geoffrey Jones, London: Frank Cass and Co., 1989, 238 pp.

Autocracy, Modernization, and Revolution in Russia and Iran , Tim McDaniel, Princeton University Press, 1991, 239 pp.

Iran und die Reformbewegung im Osmanischen Reich: Persische Staatsmänner ,Reisende und Oppositionelle unter dent Einfluβ der Tanzimat, Anja Pistor‐Hatam, Berlin: Kl. Schwarz, 1992, 260 pp., Bibliography, Index.

Die revolutiondre Bewegung in Iran ,1905–1911: Sozialdemok‐ratie und russischer Einfluβ, Sabine Roschke‐Bugzel, Europäische Hoch‐schulschriften 3, Frankfurt, Bern, New York, Paris: Lang Verlag, 1991, x + 341 pp., Bibliography.

After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy , K. L. Afrasiabi, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford: Westview Press, 1994, xii + 244 pp.

Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rūmi , Amin Ba‐nani, Richard Hovannisian, and Georges Sabagh, eds., Giorgio Levi Delia Vida Conference Proceedings 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, ix + 204 pp., Index.

Islam, Iran, and World Stability , Hamid Zanganeh, ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, xii + 243 pp., Bibliography, Index, $49.95.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews in This Article: The Desert Bible. By Morris S. Seale. The Sense of Unity: The Sufi Tradition in Persian Architecture. By Nader Ardalan and Laleh Bakhtiar. Sayyid Ahmad. A Study of the Religious Reform Movement of Sayyid Ahmad of Rē Bareli. By Muhammad Hedayetullah. The Khilafat Movement in India, 1919-1924. By A. C. Niemeijer. History of Medieval Deccan (1295-1724), Vol. I (Mainly Political and Military Aspects). Edited by H. K. Sherwani and P. M. Joshi. New French Imperialism, 1880-1910: The Third Republic and Colonial Expansion. By James J. Cooke. The U.S.S.R. and the Middle East. Edited by Michael Confino and Shimon Shamir. Survival or Hegemony? The Foundations of Israeli Foreign Policy. By Samuel J. Roberts. Truman, The Jewish Vote and the Creation of. Israel. By John Snetsinger.