Capsule Reviews

In this political history of Africa since the 1950s, Young reviews the political science literature on such important issues as the legacy of colonialism, the reasons why African states turned autocratic soon after independence, and the best ways to assess their performance since then. Unlike similar books, Young’s considers the areas north and south of the Sahara, focusing on the political and diplomatic links between the two, as well as their common history.

If anyone needs a reminder of the inscrutability and mercilessness of the Stalin and Mao regimes, these books can help. Hu Feng was a distinguished Marxist literary critic whom Mao made a prime target of a major campaign to intimidate independent thinkers in the early years of the Chinese communist regime. Hu spent 24 years in various forms of imprisonment. For much of the time, he was accompanied by his wife, Mei Zhi—an unusual privilege probably attributable to Hu’s age and fragile health. In her memoir, she recounts their experiences.

Here, for the first time, is the full story of Washington’s official relationship with Tibet, from the first encounter between a U.S. diplomat and the then Dalai Lama in 1908 to the recent pattern of congressional and White House pressure on Beijing to engage in dialogue with the Tibetan leadership in exile. Throughout this century of contact, the Americans assured the Tibetans of their friendship and support but never abandoned the position that Tibet is part of China.

Faced with the end of the Cold War and the intensification of globalization, the Vietnamese leadership began to rethink their country’s foreign policy in the 1990s. Elliott’s interviews and his close reading of texts show that the country’s revolutionary true believers went through a contentious process to justify a more pragmatic approach. They ultimately came to terms with Vietnam’s need, as a small country, to cooperate with its neighbors, and so Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The leaders decided that U.S.