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RR 2014/039 Historical Dictionary of the Sudan (4th edition) Robert S. Kramer, Richard A. Lobban and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban Scarecrow Press Lanham, MD and Plymouth 2013 Ixxiii 4- 546 pp. ISBN 978 0 8108 6180 0 (print); ISBN 978 0 8108 7940 9 (e-book) £90 $145 (print); £85 $139.99 (e-book) Historical Dictionaries of Africa
Keywords Dictionaries, History, Sudan
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-07-2013-0174
This is Scarecrow Press' fourth historical dictionary covering the huge stretch of land between Egypt and Ethiopia. The first was edited by John Voll, and the second two by Richard and Carolyn Lobban. Robert Kramer has now taken over as lead editor, with a largely new or rewritten content. Since those early editions, the sensible decision has been made to separate the fascinating older history of the region into a Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia (Lobban, 2004). This volume therefore only covers the history of the area since the Islamic conquest, the late nineteenth century British conquest, and in particular, occurrences since independence in 1956 up to around 2012. The editors have, of course, been overtaken by events. The previous edition of 2002 discussed one country; in 2011 an overwhelming majority in the South voted for independence in the aftermath of a long and bitter civil war so this edition has to cover two separate countries. Both are very fragile politically, and neither represents anything like a unified...