The core of this work, with more than 300 entries covering a wide variety of topics, is comprehensive and well written. Most academic and larger public libraries will want to acquire this compact overview of one of the least-studied countries in Africa. --ARBA

Mauritania is bordered by Senegal in the south, Mali in the east, Algeria in the far northeast, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the north. Comprised mostly of vast stretches of desert, this young country has escaped the ravages of the violent interstate and civil conflicts that have so bedeviled Africa. Mauritanian society possesses ancient antecedents and a universal religious faith that has been practiced over several centuries. These characteristics have given the country a sometimes fragile but relatively resilient sense of national identity, which has survived into the 21st century in the face of powerful political, regional, ethnic/racial, and tribal rivalries since its independence in 1960. An economy largely centered on the export of raw materials, a weak agricultural sector, and a harsh climate in most areas further add to the challenges confronting all Mauritanians. The third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Mauritania_through its chronology, introductory essay, maps, bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, institutions, and significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects_provides an important reference on Mauritania.

OSerious students of the Western Sahara issue will appreciate PazzanitaOs successful efforts to update and make more readable the impressive and original research by Hodges.O Middle East Studies Association Bulletin

After the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East and the new geopolitical landscape in this region, it is essential for the modern reader to understand the history that has allowed for and influenced these types of Islamic groups to form. Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism acts as a didactic resource that explains, from the Islamic perspective, the historical importance of the Islamic fundamentalist world. This dictionary provides a comprehensive and thorough analysis of various groups, events, movements, key figures, and dogmas that have influenced contemporary Islamic fundamentalism. A chronology spanning 600 years, graphs of complex Islamic group associations and alliances, and an Arabic-to-English glossary have all been included to facilitate a complete understanding of the nuances and generalities that have shaped this movement. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism also contains an introduction, appendixes, an extensive bibliography, and more than 700 cross-referenced entries on ideologies, people, events, and movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.

A comprehensive history of Western Sahara--an arid land bordering Morocco in the north, Algeria in the northeast, Mauritania in the east and the south, and the Atlantic coastline in the west--bitterly contested since 1975 by Morocco and the guerrillas of the Polisario Front. This edition of the Dictionary updates and supplements the first edition of 1982. Some 700 alphabetical entries range from major personalities, political movements, wars, and treaties to places, ethnic groups, and economic resources, with extensive entries on the OAU and the UN. Includes an introduction, map, detailed chronology, chart of tribal and ethnic groups, and heavily augmented bibliography. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

With nuclear stalemate holding the superpowers in check during the Cold War, violence proliferated in the Third World. Sometimes this took the form of colonial liberation wars as the old European empires disintegrated after the Second World War (Algeria 1954-1962 or Kenya 1952-1959); sometimes the violence was between Third World countries such as the Iran-Iraq War, and sometimes it involved the major powers directly: the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Certain regions – Central America, Southern Africa, the Horn of Africa or the Middle East – have been in more or less perpetual turmoil for thirty years and more. But whatever form the violence has taken –protracted guerrilla activity against the central government or short, sharp border war – the big powers have always been involved. They have provided arms to one or both sides, they have supported their ideological protégés and, more generally, have manipulated such wars to their own advantage. This book examines five broad categories of war: colonial liberation wars, big power intervention wars, wars between Third World countries, the special area of Israel and its neighbours, and civil wars.