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This work explores the utility of Zimbabwe'sGovernment of National Unity (GNU) in dealing withthe unprecedented economic crisis that have hauntedthe country since the turn of the new millennium. Predicated on a comparative analysis of thepolitical and economic situation in the pre-GNUperiod, and the political and economic situation inthe post-GNU period, the work notes that there is apositive correlation between a political democracyand economic liberalization, and success thereof. The work,therefore, concludes that the formation ofthe GNU, that has sought to democratise politicalspace and the market, has helped in arresting theendemic economic crisis that have troubled Zimbabwesince the turn of the new millennium. ... Read more

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This is a comprehensive survey of how government policies have affected agricultural performance in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The government helped smallholders triple their grain sales in the early 1980s, but left the country vulnerable to drought, leading to emergency food aid imports in 1992. The experience of Zimbabwe offers valuable lessons not only for South Africa, but for all countries struggling to find an appropriate role for government in agriculture during the 1990s. ... Read more

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This pioneering study argues that the bitter civil war that thrust Zimbabwe into international headlines from 1966 to 1979 had its roots in the reports issued by the colonial commissions of inquiry into education. As the author explains, these commissions and the reports they issued, which reinforced separate educational systems for African and white students, reached far beyond educational policy in their effects. His work is based on original documents and materials that have not appeared in print before--most of which were only recently declassified by the government of Zimbabwe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe
This is a short primer book for the uninitiated who want to know Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe.It is also a good reference guide with dates, names and places of importance to the student of the Zimbabwean freedom fighter turned president.It does not go into much detail but I think it is a valuable book for anyone interested in studying the subject.It is an easy read and does not assume that you know too much about either the continent of Africa, the country of Zimbabwe or their president of twenty seven years. ... Read more

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In November 1965, Ian Smith's white minority government in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) made a unilateral declaration of independence, breaking with Great Britain. With a European population of a few hundred thousand dominating an African majority of several million, Rhodesia's racial structure echoed the apartheid of neighboring South Africa. Smith's declaration sparked an escalating guerrilla war that claimed thousands of lives.

Across the Atlantic, President Lyndon B. Johnson nervously watched events in Rhodesia, fearing that racial conflict abroad could inflame racial discord at home. Although Washington officially voiced concerns over human rights violations, an attitude of tolerance generally marked U.S. relations with the Rhodesian government: sanctions were imposed but not strictly enforced, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American mercenaries joined white Rhodesia's side in battle with little to fear from U.S. laws. Despite such tacit U.S. support, Smith's regime fell in 1980, and the independent state of Zimbabwe was born.

The first comprehensive account of American involvement in the war against Zimbabwe, this compelling work also explores how our relationship with Rhodesia helped define interracial dynamics in the United States, and vice versa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Received in very good shape and on time.
While the book itself is a sort of twisted history and reverse racism, it was very informative and helpful in my study of Rhodesia. You'll find a lot of good information here if you can forgive the Marxist slant to everything. It is worth reading but not stopping with. There are two sides to this story. This is one of them.

Bullets to Sanctions
The preceding reviews show the depth of the divide between truth and fiction.History and propaganda, right and left without regard in every instance to the lives which have been affected by the actions on both sides.Personally this book is a jewel if for no other reason, than the author makes the reader privy to thoughts, ideals and a perspective which is not fomented in fear, slanted by political ideology or in defense of racial or nationalistic purview.Unfortunately the only acceptable word or view of Mugabe and Zimbabwe seems to be the one which paints a picture of him as an unquestioned despot, driven by a maniacal urge to defy authority, and yet those who unequivocally support this position rarely bother to give so much as a cursory glance at the facts as they pertain to equal rights or equal treatment.There are more than enough right/west slanted books on Africa and Mugabe to fill a thousand libraries yet and still it bothers them to no end when a coherently crafted work such as this dares to challenge their childish world view.Mr. Horne's work is a well-balanced alternative to the mountain of biased writings which are out there.

Decidedly leftist drivel
I bought this book, hoping to gain further insight to the war in Rhodesia.
Instead, what I got was leftist drivel that reads more like a harangue than a well thought out argument.
It's very poorly researched, and I can state that because I personally know some of the people that Gerald Horne is writing about.
I'm really surprised that Mr. Horne hasn't been sued by some of the people he so casually libels.

biased and inconcise
I bought the book because I wanted to know more about the implications and decisions made in the USA that would influence that 'other war against communism in the 1970s', in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe . I was very dissaponted by the book, since it so utterly racist (towards the whites in Rhodesia) that I cannot take anything for granted that is written down.

Mr Home should try to write history as a historian, namely with prejudice and retrospection. If he wants to write with retrospect, I suggest he introduces a chapter about Zimbabwe after the war, in which he should talk about the tyranny and cruelty of Mugabe and his cronies. Seen in that light, Rhodesia wasn't so bad.

Pablum
Poorly researched, opinionated drivel that is liberally spiced with half-truths and falsehoods.The book is a disappointment to anyone having real knowledge of the subject matter. ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines the dialectics of political liberalisation in Zimbabwe, over time, from the settler period to the late nineties. The study takes in theoretical parameters for political and economic concepts and assumptions; and provides a historical overview of settler rule, civil society reactions, and political developments 1945-1979. The author reveals stark historical continuities during this period. He argues that the post-independence state has sought, like its settler predecessor, to impose its hegemonic position by limiting the level of political space in which civil society could operate; and that corporatist structures and policies have militated against the establishment of a fully-fledged democratic society. The final chapter, which analyses structural adjustment, liberalisation, and the legacy of settler rule offers an assessment of the prospects of a lasting democratic process in Zimbabwe, and likely obstacles. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

How liberal guilt leads to more innocent bloodshed!
Prime Minister Ian Smith lays out in detail how the Western powers, motivated by an urge to atone for a leftist-inspired guilt complex over the past, have only caused more innocent blood to gush in a land far from them.That, along with South African Prime John Vorster's foolish attempt to appease African Marxist leaders and use Rhodesia as a foil to distract world attention away from his Apartheid regime, has only served to install a brutal thug whose regime has one of the worst human rights records.If Western liberals want a REAL reason to feel guilty, they need only look to Zimbabwe and read Ian Smith's book.

A wake up call.
This account of the deliberate destruction of Rhodesia by foreign powers helbent on disastrous political agendas which are also an existential threat to their own states and economies in 2009, is a wake-up-call for people with an interest in such matters. The bulk of Ian Smith's ire is directed towards Great Britain and its determined drive to placate the OAU and maintain the Commonwealth via the policy of No Independence Before African Majority Rule (NIBMAR) irrespective of the reality on the ground that Black-Africans desired any such a thing, or had the slightest ability to administrate it beyond a cadre of Marxiist-Lennist gangsters intent upon looting Rhodesia's capital core, for their own purposes.

As per Henry Kissinger's pragmatic advice and South Africa'sdisastrous détente policy, as aggressively advocated by John Vorster, Ian Smith accepted the inevitable. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. And Robert Mugabe in consort with Zanu-PF, rapidly instigated their intended programme to reduce a successful and thriving African state into the catastrophe it now is, whilst pocketing the loot and remaining in power without any possibility of being challenged. Which is the point of Communism, as Ian Smith was reliably informed by a Black-African university graduate when asked why he was an advocate of Communism.

At the heart of this book is the observation that, when those who do not have to suffer the consequences of their actions persist in ignoring principles and sacrifice integrity for political expediency and personal gain, the state cannot survive. ... Read more

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This 20-page report highlights the transitional government's lack of progress in rights reforms in the six months since it was created. The former ruling party, Zimbabwe Africa National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), has demonstrated a lack of political will to effect change and wields more power than the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition party and now a partner in government. Police, state prosecutors, and court officials aligned to ZANU-PF conduct politically motivated prosecutions of MDC legislators and activists, and fail to ensure justice for victims of abuses or to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account. ... Read more

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This study combines in one volume the history of Zimbabwe from the advent of British settlers in 1890 to 2000, including women's rights and human rights in Zimbabwe. It is a political, social and economic history. The Postscript examines the major developments in Zimbabwe from 2001 to 2008. The two previous major studies on the history of Zimbabwe, 'The Past Is Another Country' by Martin Meredith (London, Andre Deutsch, 1979) and 'The Road to Zimbabwe, 1890-1980' by Anthony Verrier (London, Jonathan Cape, 1986) are now out of date. This volume brings the historical study of Zimbabwe almost up to the present day. ... Read more

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The Urban Roots of Democracy and Political Violence in Zimbabwe details a democratic tradition developed in the 1940s and 1950s, and a movement that would fall victim to an increasingly elitist and divisive political culture by the 1960s. Providing biographical sketches of key personalities within the genealogy of nationalist politics, Timothy Scarnecchia weaves an intricate narrative that traces the trajectories of earlier democratic traditions in Zimbabwe, including women's political movements, township organizations, and trade unions. This work suggests that intense rivalries for control of the nationalist leadership after 1960, the "sell-out" politics of that period, and Cold War funding for rival groups contributed to a unique political impasse, ultimately resulting in the largely autocratic and violent political state today. The author further proposes that this recourse to political violence, "top-down" nationalism, and the abandonment of urban democratic traditions are all hallmarks of a particular type of nationalism equally unsustainable in Zimbabwe then as it is now. ... Read more

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This is a detailed analysis of Zimbabwe's struggle to become a viable independent state, with a focus on the tumultuous events under President Robert Mugabe.



Written by an internationally-trained African economic analyst, A Crisis of Governance is a detailed study of Zimbabwean socio-economic history and development since the nation achieved independence from Great Britain in April 1980, with a focus on recent events under President Robert Mugabe and the ZANU (Patriotic Front).



Problems range from the need for constitutional reform to political patronage and a de facto one-party democracy and the need for transparency in land reform, privatization, and economic liberalization.



It is one thing to break free of colonial tutelage; it is quite another to recover from the legacy of colonialism and implement the macroeconomic changes that would lay the basis for a self-sustaining economy. The crisis of governance in Zimbabwe (formerly known as Rhodesia) began with the occupation of Mashonaland by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) in 1890. Self-rule and the subsequent British-sponsored constitutions did not much improve the situation, and the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence only aggravated it.



Jacob Chikuhwa provides many specific examples of the steps forward and the steps back, documented by personal interviews, news sources and others,



Bibliography, Index, Footnotes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Zimbabwe's Crisis In Its Full Context
Even with intense interest and focus on Zimbabwe, few analyses have been able to penetrate to the heart of the matter, moving us beyond the strident rhetoric of all the parties concerned. This detailed examination transcends the restricted view of the crisis in Zimbabwe through the lens of land dispute, to a broader perspective of an even more fundamental failure in governance. The author argues that the crisis in Zimbabwe is not as much a function of a heated confrontation over land, as it is a deeper issue of failed constitutional reform since the country's independence in 1980. The crisis has ensued precisely because the government has failed to move Zimbabwe beyond the negotiated Lancaster House Constitution of 1980, to a document that truly reflects the aspirations of the majority of Zimbabweans.

Expansive, thorough and compellingly argued, this is a 'must read' for all who appreciate the complexities of politics in post-colonial Africa. ... Read more

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This book is based on the case of civil service reforms that were formally adopted in Zimbabwe in 1991 and were implemented in several phases. The book investigates the implementation of these reforms and their influence by two sets of factors that are in competition with one another. T ... Read more

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Cloth Edition. This collective biography of a father and his two sons illuminates much of the history of both elite and mass politics in colonial Zimbabwe. ... Read more