Page, professor of history at East Tennessee State University, has edited a work that deals with "modern" colonialism, from about 1400 C.E. to the present. Its intended audience is high-school students, undergraduates, and the general public. There are more than 600 entries varying in length from half a page to four and a half pages. Entries cover geographical concepts and entities
(Angola, Johannesburg, Spanish empire, U.S. empire); ideas
(Absolutism, Pacifism); events
(Boxer Rebellion, Crimean War, Lewis and Clark expedition); peoples
(Incas, Kurds, Puritans); and individuals (Dean Acheson, Christopher Columbus, Rudyard Kipling, V. S. Naipaul), among a slew of other topics. The documents section that comprises volume 3 includes material like the Monroe Doctrine, Ho Chi Minh's Independence Speech, and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Page is no stranger to the subject of colonialism, having also written
Africa and the First World War (St. Martin's, 1987) and
The Chiwaya War: Malawians and the First World War (Westview, 2000).
The first two volumes of the set contain the alphabetical entries as well as a section of empires' chronologies, which helps put the entries into context. Each entry includes a list of further readings, but there is no general bibliography. Entries are signed by their authors, and they include cross-references to other pertinent entries. The work also includes photographs and maps.
Balanced and wide ranging, this encyclopedia is a very helpful tool for those interested in or doing basic research on modern colonialism. Primary documents can be difficult to find, so their inclusion in volume 3 will be especially useful for the novice researcher. One minor flaw is the exclusion of a holistic bibliography. The set is recommended for public, high-school, and undergraduate libraries. RBB
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