Historical Dictionary of Liberia

By (author) Elwood D. Dunn, Amos J. Beyan, Carl Patrick Burrowes

Hardback - £119.00

Publication date:

20 December 2000

Length of book:

480 pages

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

ISBN-13: 9780810838765

Originally formed to harbor freed slaves and Americans returning to Africa, Liberia once was a land of hope. That was shattered by a long Civil War that shook its very foundation. Today's Liberia is glimpsed in this second edition.

Building on the first edition, this updated volume focuses on the personalities, from the founders of Liberia, to the soldiers who are responsible simultaneously for destruction and the hope of stability. Along with these people, various social and ethnic groups, political parties and labor movements, economic entities and natural resources are profiled in this updated work.

A new chronology of Liberia is included, and a selected bibliography suggests further readings for the scholar.
A rich and colorful mosaic of Liberia's past…those seeking to understand Liberia's "present predicaments" (its civil war and warlordism, elections without democracy, and "privatization" of the state so that it no longer serves its people), and who are looking for "lessons" from its past that might be usefully applied to solving some of its current problems, will find that Dunn and his colleagues have produced a very good resource…highly recommend for readers looking for a single source of background information on Liberia.