Choice Review
At first glance this compendium seems to pull together information on obscure places and persons. However, the essential quality of a reference work is accuracy, and too many entries cast doubts on Stewart's scholarship, as does his statement in the preface that the most valuable sources of facts were his own notes, whose origin he often neglected to record. The bibliography lists a creditable group of basic sources, but a reader might want to learn, for instance, how Stewart could give such exact dates in the 15th century for the kings of Daniski in Nigeria, or how he established the order of the Sultans of Gobir from c.1100 to 1742. He mentions oral tradition, but fails to clarify whether he transcribed this himself (from whom?) or found the information in a written source. The work is further flawed by an uneven and sometimes flippant prose style. Reference to the "Dark Continent" in the preface may be tongue in cheek, but is nevertheless offensive. To say that after Chaka broke away from the Mtetwa Empire the "country changed its boundaries with the speed of the zulu impis {{warriors}}" is condescending as well as uninformative. The description of Mogadishu in the 15th century as "that most excruciatingly boring of historial subjects--an East African sultantate" is as inexcusable as it is gratuitous. The bad bits may be flukes, but in the absence of references and footnotes to verify any of the entries, one's reaction is distrust of the whole. Regretfully, not recommended for any library. -G. Walsh, Boston University
Library Journal Review
Two works one might expect to have already covered the contents of Stewart's book, Bertold Spuler's Rulers and Governments of the World (LJ 10/15/77) and Peter Truhart's Regents of Nations (K.G. Saur, 1984, 1987), both fall short. Spuler's book lists only a fraction of those found in Stewart's. And whereas Truhart's book is fairly comprehensive, its broad arrangement and almost total lack of an index make it difficult to use. Stewart's organization and his index, which purports to list over 10,500 names, make his work an indispensable addition to collections for specialists and generalists either for biography or the chronology of various African political entities.-- Paul H. Thomas, Hoover Inst. Lib., Stanford, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
