Revolutionary Ethiopia: From Empire To People's Republic
Reviewed by Jennifer Seymour Whitaker
This masterly history deals with the Emperor and the Dergue each on their own terms. The author depicts Haile Selassie's quest for modernization as a peculiar conjuncture of capitalism and feudalism, and the revolutionary state as an only partially availing attempt to replace the imperial myth with a new socialist ethos. At each stage he buttresses his analysis with careful and useful detail that should ensure his study a long shelf life.
