EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.

By Robert O.Collins '54 and Robert L. Tignor. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. 180pp. $4.95. Paperback $1.95.

This is a good book but far from an exhaustive study of the subject. Its shortcomings cannot entirely be blamed on the authors, both of whom are among the recognized authorities on the Sudan and Egypt. Rather, its limitations are inherent in the nature and design of the series, "The Modern Nations in Historical Perspective," of which this book is a part. Aimed at an American public increasingly exposed by the mass media to regions of the -world euphemistically known as "Expectant Nations," the series attempts to supply some of the historical background for present-day events. The orientation of the series, therefore, is toward the more recent aspects and developments in the history of these areas, and only secondary consideration is given to earlier occurrences and conditions which do not obviously relate to the present. In Egypt andthe Sudan, for example, only one chapter (29 out of 164 pages) is devoted to the history of these regions to the end of the eighteenth century. The remainder of the book deals with the period from 1789 when the French invaded Egypt to the mid-1960's, the decade after Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal. And, even within this context, a disproportionate emphasis is given to post-1952 events in Egypt and to post-independence struggles in the Sudan.

Aside from this bias of emphasis and selection, however, the book is interpretive and generally well written. The chapter entitled "The Beginnings of Modernization" includes a food, condensed discussion of Muhammad Ali's aims and accomplishments in Egypt, and of the Turkiya period in the Sudan. The authors here draw a number of interesting comparisons between modernizing efforts in these areas during the nineteenth century and those made by other economically backward nations in more recent times. Finally, the short bibliographical essay at the end of the book, in which Collins and Tignor suggest and evaluate additional readings about Egypt and the Sudan, is an extremely valuable guide for persons wishing to proceed to a more detailed historical study of these two North-East African nations.

A Dartmouth instructor, Mr. Spitzer teachestwo courses in African history from theseventh century to 1880 and from 1880 tothe emergence of independent states.