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Morocco from Empire to Independence is part of a series of "short histories" published by Oneworld. Like the others in the series, this book is written by a respected scholar who specializes in the country and region--in this case, C. R. Pennell of the University of Melbourne. Pennell has published widely on Moroccan history in the modern period, including a recent 442-page volume on Morocco since 1830. In this book he condenses that period into a mere 74 pages and spends the remaining 114 pages of text covering the time from Morocco's first suspected inhabitants (the "pebble people" between 125,000 and 75,000 B.C. ) to the early 19th century. The volume concludes with an excellent 15-page section of recommended further reading. For students and the educated general reader, this is the most valuable part of the book.
As one might suspect from the foregoing, this is not a scholarly work per se. It is a work intended for a general audience but solidly rooted in scholarship--both the author's and the scholarship of others. As George Joffé of the Royal Institute of International Affairs notes in an endorsement on the back cover, this book "has the great advantage of being accessible to the non-specialist reader." That is its...