In this analytically rich volume... Pool identifies the salient issues responsible for development of particular features of EPLF and its ability to remain immune from external pressures and internal sectarian, tribal, or ethnic divisions ... Highly recommended for scholars and students of African development, revolution and Third World politics. -- M. Dorraj * CHOICE *
... appears at precisely the moment when the cohesion maintained during years of liberation war has crumbled in the aftermath of military defeat in the war against Ethiopia, and the suppression of an emergent opposition from within the movement by its leader (and now Eritrea's president) Issayas Afeworki. This makes it a particularly apposite moment to consider, not only the history of the Front itself, but the broader relationship between nationalist insurgent warfare and democratization...This extremely welcome study...provides invaluable information on the organization of insurgent warfare, and moves the analysis of Eritrea's liberation struggle onto a new plane. -- Christopher Clapham * DEMOCRATIZATION *
...Pool's intimacy with his subject emerges not as a liability here but as a key that helps unlock the more guarded histories of nationalist movements and narratives. At the same time, he conducts his analysis with a dispassionate respect that evidences both his years of familiarity with Eritrea and the maturity of his knowledge. Pool's volume is a timely contribution to understanding the intricacies of nationalist production and mobilization that continue to shape the Eritrean nation-state...The strengths of this book are multiple. Pool offers one of the finest analyses of Eritrean prenationalist relations and postcolonial politics available. He deftly deconstructs the complexities of lowland communities in particular, and illustrates the shifting tensions between ehthnolinguistic, religions, kinship, and regional identities in an illuminating and engaging manner. Rather than treating nationalism as a decisive break with these patterns, he examines the enduring relationships between them. His suggestion that ELF and EPLF effectively produced different kinds of nationalism is extremely useful, and his approach to independent Eritrea is refreshingly nuanced, realistic, and open-ended. -- Tricia Redeker Hepner * AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW *
...a must for every scholar of the Horn of Africa... - -- Vladimir Shubin in H-NET Reviews
