by Tsegaye TegenuISBN: 10: 1-59907-020-0 | 13: 978-1-59907-020-9Book Format: perfect bound; 6"x9"; 290pp
About the Book:
Since
the early 1970s, the Ethiopian society witnessed swift, incredibly
dramatic and profound changes in Ethiopia, the country to which the
Bible’s description of heaven was said to refer. It had turned into a
nightmare in a span of two decades. The myth of Ethiopia as the
breadbasket of the Horn of Africa was shattered by hunger and
starvation taking its toll of millions of lives. The “Sun King”, Haile
Selassie I, was dethroned by a middle-class revolution and labelled as
the “prominent reactionary”. A country whose culture was said to be
based on the philosophy of human love and dignity turned into a place
of terror, torture and horrifying scenes of dead corps on the streets.
The tradition of appreciating the merits of bravery and kindness was
replaced by judging people on their ethnic affiliation, a changed
criterion used to redefine the collective identity and the
reorganization of state and society. The Evolution of Ethiopian
Absolutism is conceived out of professional curiosity and desire to
understand and to set these changes in their broader historical context.
This
book synthesis the development of the Ethiopian state and society at a
particular historical stage: the appearance of a new type of power
centralization synchronized with Ethiopia’s integration into an
international state system and capitalist world economy. Adopting a
system approach and analysis as a method of cognition, this book
reviews major interpretation of the historical process and presents an
alternative understanding as well as explanation of the period. It
identifies the distinct fiscal systems of the state, reveals the
secrets of the Ethiopian independence and presents a fresh view on the
structural problems of economic development. The work is based on a
wide range of primary source materials and most essential literature.
The empirical data are analysed within an elaborated hypothesis and
theoretical framework to attain reliable information.
.... What people are saying about this book ...
“Tsegaye
Tegenu’s book is a work of painstaking research which deserves the
attention of all those engaged in the study of the economic basis of
the Ethiopian state. The author sets out to identify and explain the
resource base of the Ethiopian state during its process of organizing
into a centralised power in the period 1696 to 1913, and he succeeds
considerably in this respect by marshalling a vast array of Ethiopian
and foreign sources. …The subject dealt within the book is vast in
scope and intractable in nature. The author is to be commended for
addressing the issues with remarkable conscientiousness and a
reasonable degree of competence, Moreover, the work is underpinned by a
wide reading on the theory and historiography of the subject…”. --Professor Bahru Zewde, Addis Ababa University
“Tsegaye
Tegenu’s The Evolution of Ethiopian Absolutism is a carefully argued
account of the origins of the modern Ethiopian state. It stresses that
the foundations of the modern Ethiopian state rested on an increased
military capacity, rather than on reforms which might promote economic
development.” --Professor Donald Crummey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“This
book makes an important contribution to an understanding of the
development of Ethiopian statehood in the two centuries preceding the
rise of Haile Selassie. As the subtitle indicates…, the author is
concerned with the means by which Ethiopian rulers extracted from the
economy the resources required to maintain a substantial military
apparatus. …The book does clearly convey the existence of a
systematised process of revenue collection that dispels any impression
that the Ethiopian state merely depended on the extraction of resources
from looting peripheral territories…The author has achieved a vastly
more impressive level of original research (which can develop) into a
path-breaking reappraisal of the fiscal bases of the Ethiopian state….”
--Professor Christopher Clapham, Lancaster University
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