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The third edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo looks back at the nearly 48 years of independence, over a century of colonial rule, and even earlier kingdoms and groups that shared the territory. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 800 cross-referenced dictionary entries on civil wars, mutinies, notable people, places, events, and cultural practices. ... Read more

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This work traces the remote origins of Congo's current national predicament and the people's protracted quest for democracy and social justice. The first part of the book provides an account of the political history of modern Congo which sets the context for the second part, an in-depth discussion of the interplay of internal and external forces in Congo and their impact on the politics of democratic transition in the country from 1990 through early 2000s. Arguing that recent popular resistance against political dictatorship in Congo builds on a longstanding tradition, the author offers critical analysis of post-Cold War configuration of pro-democracy forces (or the appearance thereof) inside the country and at the global level, which compelled President Mobutu to inaugurate political reform in April 1990. Against this backdrop, the author assesses the roles played by the Sovereign National Conference (SNC), the transitional institutions established by the SNC, and the Sacred Union of opposition, all of which emerged during the early 1990s in response to the government's decision to lift the ban on partisan political activity.The book concludes with cautious optimism about the prospects for democracy and sustainable economic development in the post-Mobutu Congo and an overview of some of the practical steps that must be taken by the Congolese people and the global community in order to realize these objectives. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Hard work, gentle package
The great photography aside, the book presentation is innovative but very ginger. I'm afraid of cracking the spine on this beautiful work of art every time I want to read it. The whole package is held together with a heavy-duty rubber band (cool concept) and the book itself is just bound pages. It is a keepsake that I will treasure but can't return to too many times for fear of breaking it.
The photography is not VII's best showing. Many of the images are quiet and misreable in tone. The photographers move through brothels and hospitals, measuring the awful toll of the senseless and endless war in the Congo. As far as a full panorama of the conflict goes, this misses the target. Still, if you are a fan of reportage then this book is a must. ... Read more

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (previously Zaire) is at Africa's center, both geographically and economically. The territory that is Congo contains the population and the resources to be one of the continents richest countries. However, its political history has limited the large potential. In 1997, Mobutu Sese Seko, the longtime dictator of Zaire was thrown out of power. His successor Laurent Kabila has changed the name of the country, returned to the pre-Mobutu flag, and generally attempted to erase the thirty years of Mobutu rule. However, his rule has been challenged by ethnic unrest in the east and an offensive by rebels who accuse him of the same faults as his predecessor. The history of Congo/Zaire is at a crossroads. F. Scott Bobb has taken this historic moment as an opportunity to look back at 30 years of Mobutu rule, nearly 40 years of independence, over a century of colonial rule, and even earlier kingdoms and groups that shared the territory. The care and effort which drove the creation of the earlier edition have been maintained in this revision. The "Dictionary" includes a useful introduction by the author, and is followed by a detailed bibliography. The text includes helpful visuals including six tables, several maps and chronologies. Reviews of the "Historical Dictionary of Zaire" by F. Scott Bobb: "...recommended as the only work of its kind in English about Zaire." --CHOICE "As a source of information of the first instance, this dictionary belongs to every public and academic library." --ARBA ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

CONGO CAPITAL IMFOMATION
Would you shoe me a imfomation of congo include inside capital history. I want to use a interigency of this things for report of subject in university.

CONGO CAPITAL IMFOMATION
Would you shoe me a imfomation of congo include inside capital history. I want to use a interigency of this things for report of subject in university. ... Read more

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The United Nations (UN) has been involved for many years in supporting security reforms processes in member states. Th is volume examines the experience of UN integrated missions in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti and Kosovo.

Heiner Hänggi is assistant director and head of research at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and Vincena Scherrer is UN SSR Project Coordinator there.

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An examination of the political and social situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since May 1997 when Laurent Kabila proclaimed himself president of the country. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Canada and the World Backgrounder, published by Taylor Publishing Consultants Ltd. on December 1, 2001. The length of the article is 879 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Democratic Republic of Congo. (Areas of Conflict).(Brief Article)
Publication: Canada and the World Backgrounder (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2001
Publisher: Taylor Publishing Consultants Ltd.
Volume: 67Issue: 3Page: S23(2)

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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For colonial administrators and the Belgian banks, the Belgian Congo was an immensely rich source of raw materials; diamonds, gold, manganese, oils, nuts, tobacco, peanuts, etc.  One of the major forms of exploitation of the Congo was the effort to set up mining companies and to force Africans to work in the mines to extract these resources.  Focusing on the most powerful of these mining companies—the Union Minière du Haut-Katange, John Higginson provides a detailed history of the relationship between the company and the African workers from 1907 through 1951 ... Read more

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As this book shows, the People of the Congo have suffered throughout the past century from a particularly brutal experience of colonial rule, and a series of post-independence political conflicts. But as this insightful political history of the Congolese democratic movement of the 20th century decisively makes clear, its people have not taken these multiple oppressions lying down. Instead, they have struggled both to establish democratic institutions at home and to free themselves from exploitations abroad.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Best one volume history of Congo (RDC) in English
For anyone interested in the history of the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, this is the book to read.The author is a Congolese with solid academic credentials and a passionate concern for the people of Congo.It covers somewhat more than the last century, and the author has been personally involved in the last four decades of Congo's history, bringing penetrating insight and profound knowledge of the inner dynamics of the country's evolution.He has a keen feel for political currents in Kinshasa, even the acerbic humor of "Kinois" society, which for instance called the UDI political party in the 90s the "Union des détourneurs incorrigibles" (Union of incorrigible embezzlers). The Preface has a brief autobiography which positions the author in relation to the government there, one which he confronted boldly.

Nzongola-Ntalaja states that "This book is a study of the democracy movement in Congo, from the standpoint of popular resistance to exploitation and repression, for a better social and political order" (3), and the perspective molds the entire book.This should not be surprising from a person who spent most of his life in exile and in resistance to the powers governing his own nation.He emphasizes those groups and individuals in Congo's history who have resisted the government.This is not an official history!

Along with Democracy, another related theme running through the book is that of the tremendous weight of external influences in Congo's history over the last century.Beginning with King Leopold of the Belgians, through the colonial rulers which followed him, on to the Cold War superpowers, and finally invading neighboring African states like Uganda and Rwanda, Congo's vast riches and strategic location have attracted outsiders.As to Western powers since Congo's independence, they have preferred to support "technocrats" (such as Kengo) rather than leaders with a popular base (like Tshisekedi) who are more likely to listen to the people than the foreigners.He finds Mobutu, Kabila, and Bemba to all be exploiters, using the great wealth of the nation to enrich themselves and their external supporters rather than serving the needs of the people.

Unlike Ndaywel's longer general history in French,1 Nzongola-Ntalaja does not cover the pre-colonial period.After the Introduction, the next section covers the colonial period, beginning with the infamous King Leopold of the Belgians, who began the colony under the ironic name of the Congo Free State, founded officially in 1885.Nzongola-Ntalaja describes in detail the suffering of the Congolese people under the cruelties of the exploitative Leopoldian regime, as they were forced to produce ivory and especially rubber for the burgeoning factories of Europe. Hoschchild's recent book on this topic is known to many readers.2

Nzongola-Ntalaja's evaluation of the Belgian Congo regime which followed in 1908 is only somewhat less negative, with the rubrics being economic exploitation, political repression, and cultural oppression.He characterizes the political situation as one of "despotism and total control"(37).

The complexity of the politics following independence in 1960 are deftly analyzed, with an emphasis on the machinations of Western powers, a "multilateral conspiracy of imperialists led by the United States"(116), leading among other consequences to the murder of Lumumba, who "died for attempting to uphold the constitutional order, national unity and territorial integrity" (116).Those who might consider this too harsh an assessment would be counseled to look into the recent book by De Witte, which Nzongola-Ntalaja cites3 and the recent apologies of the Belgian parliament (the American government has unfortunately not yet had the courage to follow suit).But the author does not hold back from criticizing the other leaders of independence in Congo "for being more concerned with enjoying the material benefits that colonialism and the colour bar had denied them than with a radical transformation of the inherited system."(88).And he gives considerable insight into such internal dynamics as the Lulua-Luba conflict in the Kasai near independence time.

Nzongola-Ntalaja gives a positive assessment of the rebels of the mid-60s, whose aim he states to be "freedom from foreign control and expanded democratic and economic rights"(120).This is perhaps a bit overly generous to the philosophies of Olenga, Soumialot and Gbenye, although the author does detail some of the shortcomings of these leaders in later pages.

Beginning with the coup by Mobutu in 1965, the pace of the book picks up, as the author is more knowledgeable about events because he was a participant as well as an academic observer.It should come as no surprise that he is justly highly critical of the Mobutu's rule, but with objectivity he plots the trajectory of the regime, which in its earlier stages was less repressive, and more successful in economic development and the rendering of state services, than in later stages.There is a fine analysis of the multitude of organizations involved in repressing popular discontent, including an army of general-entrepreneurs and poorly trained, ill-paid, and extorting soldiers.

The 1990s portion of this book is the finest.There is the deserved rich detail on the important Sovereign National Conference (CNS in French) at which he was a delegate, a conference which has received entirely too little attention.He is harshly critical of Bishop Monsengwo, who led the conference, and even of the Sacred Union leaders, with their "contempt for democratic procedures" (196), but he does point out the main problem, Mobutu, who went about vigorously sabotaging the conference.For those of us who were living in Kinshasa during those exciting and turbulent days, Nzongola-Ntalaja has captured the importance of this crucial turning point in Congolese political history, and deftly analyzed the positive elements of the conference, as well as the cause for its ultimate failure, a failure which, in the light of what followed, can be seen as nothing less than an immense tragedy. The political mayhem of the post-SNC period is detailed, and Nzongola-Ntalaja himself became deputy president of the National Commission on Elections, which however was sabotaged by opposing political players, including Mobutu.

Laurent Kabila came to power in 1997.The author explains this process, and castigates the regime he installed as "lacking in vision, competence and concern with the plight of the Congolese people" (246).This section could have been more detailed, describing the ways in which Kabila repressed the very non-violent political culture, most notably Tshisekedi, as he installed his autocratic regime.

Nzongola-Ntalaja forcefully refutes the idea that the second rebellion, that of 1998, was a "civil war".He sees it entirely as a foreign invasion by Rwanda and Uganda, bent on enriching themselves.But he also accuses the supporters of the Congo government, Angola and Zimbabwe, of financing their war from Congo's riches.The rebel groups are called "puppets", and Nzongola-Ntalaja givespersonal experiences, even transcripts of telephone conversations, to prove it.He details the disgusting dealings with "rogue" companies to exploit the areas conquered by the invading Rwandan and Ugandan armies, and wonders why Western powers made such a big fuss about the invasion of Kuwait and none about this invasion.In contrast, he cites the Mai-Mai as the only exception to the somber picture, seen as resistance fighters for democracy. Perhaps at the time of his writing this was more true than now, for the viciousness and ethnic motivations of what various Mai-Mai factions are doing today also seems somber.

But this is a minor criticism of a book which is overall accurate, passionate, and well written.One is hard put to find errors in the book, whether the author's or the printer's. There is a map, plus chapter endnotes, chronology, bibliography, and index.Professor Nzongola-Ntalaja is very candid in presenting his own quite valid perspectives.In view of his position in Congolese society, and his own life of academic achievement and personal political struggle, it is a perspective which must be given great weight.Those who know him personally can attest to his genuine concern for democracy and for the welfare of the people of Congo.This is a book which should be read by all those interested in understanding Congo, that huge country in the center of Africa whose history has had repercussions not only on its neighbors, but on the rest of the world.

History written by a Congolese
This book is great because it offers the best information you can find on the internal resistance against colonial rule, on the mobutu dictatorship and on the Conférence Nationale Souveraine (beginning of the 90s). The very extensive descriptions of the changing classes in the Congolese society are somewhat boring. And the book poorly describes what happens after 97.
Ntalaja's english is easy reading for non-native speakers like myself ;-) ... Read more

Product Description
The Congo is rich in minerals and agricultural potential. What keeps it from emerging as a viable, even prosperous, state?


During four centuries of the slave trade, the Portuguese alone claimed over 13.25 million lives. Then, King Leopold II of Belgium took the Congo as his own fiefdom in 1876, and the exploitation of the populace was even more horrendous. The Belgian Congo was ruled by the Church and the State in cooperation with private companies. Education peaked at the secondary level, to deter the Congolese from aspiring to leadership roles. In many cases, children were taken at an early age and impressed into King Leopold s army, the Force Publique.

Independence in 1960 did not end the conflict with Belgium, but it did bring a new chaos as the local population struggled to run their fledgling country. When the stakes are so high, division and conflict are easily provoked.

Under the influence of ambitious leaders and outside interests, the problems escalated. Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister (and suspected of communist leanings), was assassinated. After five years of turmoil, Colonel Mobutu rose to power with help from the US.

Mobutu ruled the country (then calledZaire ) through a one-party state that co-opted the people with fanciful slogans and empty promises. It was also a police state whose reach extended into every school and every village. Atrocities were committed to strike fear into the people; furthermore, Mobutu s response to the genocide in Rwanda was to allow the Hutu genocidaires to take up residence in Zaire. This led to clashes with the Zairian Tutsis and with Rwanda and Burundi.

Interference by outside powers who covet Congo s resources only exacerbates regional rivalries. Today, every intervention in the name ofassistanceseems to raise new questions about motives and allegiances, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people continue to be at risk.

The Tragic State of the Congo: From De-Colonization to Dictatorship traces the Congo s recent history, from Mobutu to Kabila, with details of the 1999 Lusaka Cease-fire Agreement and the inadequacy of the resources provided to secure it; discusses relations with the global powers and with neighbors like Rwanda, Uganda and Angola, the Clean Diamond Trade Act of 2003, and the 2005 draft Constitution; and explores the goals of the current transitional government and the hopes invested in it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Useful and Well-Researched
This well-researched and heavily-footnoted history of the Congo provides the reader a solid understanding of the many forces at work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Of particular note are the discussions of establishment of a more-or-less modern constitutional government and the various threats to it today.The author also clearly lays out who did what to whom in the aftermath of Mobutu's fall, valuable information to have when trying to understand what's happening in the DRC today.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

best text on Congo - both compact and comprehensive
The author lucidly creates both an historical timeline and a conceptual web of Congolese history. The long series of simple, declarative sentences both recapitulates a half-century of serious scholarship, with nearly a footnote per sentence, and offers new insights into the current crisis, as local and "international" forces and factions regroup after Mobutu. An invaluable Epilogue integrates the latest U.N. and U.S. actions and prospects, plus an Appendix of author's interesting correspondence with "locals," give some sense of "what is to be done" to avoid the old "internationalist" cycle: the cheapest possible extraction of minerals, with least possible regard for the locals - who may someday both own and control their own destiny. ... Read more

Product Description
This book examines a decade-long period of instability, violence and state decay in Central Africa from 1996, when the war started, to 2006, when elections formally ended the political transition in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A unique combination of circumstances explain the unravelling of the conflicts: the collapsed Zairian/Congolese state; the continuation of the Rwandan civil war across borders; the shifting alliances in the region; the politics of identity in Rwanda, Burundi and eastern DRC; the ineptitude of the international community; and the emergence of privatized and criminalized public spaces and economies, linked to the global economy, but largely disconnected from the state - on whose territory the "entrepreneurs of insecurity" function. As a complement to the existing literature, this book seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of concurrent developments in Zaire/DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda in African and international contexts. By adopting a non-chronological approach, it attempts to show the dynamics of the inter-relationships between these realms and offers a toolkit for understanding the past and future of Central Africa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent primer
I managed to find a copy of this elsewhere, and haven't read it as of yet, but I'd hate for a one-star review about a bookseller, as opposed to the book itself, to dissuade others with an interest in African affairs from giving due consideration to this text. ... Read more

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This study analyzes the efforts of the Methodist missionaries to establish a mission among the Atetela ethnic group in Central Zaire from the visit of Walter Lambuth and John Gilbert to Wembo-Nyama in 1912 to the decline and fall of the Central Zaire Episcopal Area during 1996. The primary goal of the Methodist missionaries was the establishment of a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating Church. To reach this goal the missionaries created schools to train Atetela personnel and hospitals and dispensaries for medical care. These institutions were successful in training Atetela teachers and nurses, who later held leadership positions in the Church and public institutions during the post-independence era, and in bringing many Atetela under Christian influence. However, success in education and medicine failed to make the Methodist Church in Central Zaire an African institution. ... Read more

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Scherrer examines the ethnicized conflicts, periodic war, and genocide in Rwanda and Burundi. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda may have resulted in the murder of a million Tutsi and moderate Hutu, while the mass killings in Burundi, especially in 1993 when some 200,000 Hutu and Tutsi were killed, and the current ongoing war in the Congo appear to have the potential to escalate into another round of genocide in the region. Scherrer explores the background to the conflicts as well as what the international community might do to break this tragic cycle of violence and despair. ... Read more

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Introduction by Ambassador Monteagle Stearns. Taken hostage by Congolese rebels at the U.S. Consulate he headed in Stanleyville, Michael Hoyt provides the first inside account of the 1964 seizure of the American consulate staff and their one hundred and eleven days of captivity. Their survival and eventual rescue offer a gripping story of courage and frustration, survival and sadness of lives lost. The first time that American diplomats have been held hostage since the Barbary pirate days of the 1800s, these events, as described by the author, present valuable lessons both for the future conduct of hostages and the policies to deal with their taking.

The book chronicles their day-by-day ordeal as communist-backed rebels held them in confinement at the central prison in Stanleyville and elsewhere, including even the women's toilet at the airport terminal. Throughout the period they lived in terror, several times being led to what they believed was their execution and somehow surviving a final desperate attempt by the rebels to gun them down when Belgian paratroopers, flown in by American C-130s, arrived to rescue them. While helping readers appreciate the intensity of the drama as it unfolded, Hoyt is remarkably objective in his account. His description of the final moments of sheer terror before they were saved is unforgettable. Presented in cooperation with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A consul is held captive by the Simbas.
Actually this is the second book I read about this incident.The first one-111 Days in Stanleyville-was authored by the Vice Consul of the American station.That was written way back in 1965.However this current book has the advantage of being written after much reflection by the American Consl Hoyt.Even at this stage, not much has changed in the Congo.There are still rebellions, Westerners are still being held hostage, and the human suffering continues.

Hoyt shows that cool collective actions on the part of his staff resulted in minimal deaths during this crisis.Even with that, the Belgian and American governments had to send an armed force to free their citizens and consuls.It shows how the native population also suffered during this crisis.Far more of the natives died than Westerners.

This is an interesting story of a Cold War crisis.It is interesting in that nobody remembers it at this time, although the situation still has not changed.History will probably repeat itself in this part of the world.

Memoirs from new head of the American Consulate in the Congo in Volatile 1964
The then new head of the American Consulate in the Congo writes his well- documented and dignified personal recollection of consulate staff being imprisoned, beaten, threatened by cannibals, hopping to escape the knives being hurled at their feet and sentanced to death almost weekly in the uprisings of 1964. One day they would be locked in a filthy, tiny womens bathroom, crowded, trying to sleep upright to the sound of shooting outside. One day they were dignitaries transported to a luxury hotel, then the next day they were hostages sleeping on boards in prison. All depended on relations and sympathies of whoever held the moment's power. Chaos reigns. Diplomatic rights and privilege only work occasionally and the captured are dependant upon whatever help comes from personnel at other consulates, people in various factions they worked with before capture, missionaries, and the saner elements of warring factions. With limited and sporatic communication they have no idea if their superiors are aware of the seriousness of the situation. Their own relentless efforts at negotiation have limited effect.

The first third of this harrowing tale is almost unreadable with military memos, uncertainty about what the political situation was and indecision or technical inability to respond. Hoyt attempts to stay clear headed and analytical amidst every source he talks to relaying often contradictory or seemingly absurd information. When orders were sent for civilians to evacuate many never received the orders and others refused to leave, not realizing how volatile and life-threatening Stanleyville would quickly become.

Interspersed are surreal war images such as a naked, young, dark girl lying on an officer's white sheets or captives being ordered to eat an American flag but not being able to chew it.

Once memos can't be quoted the events become much more readable and engrossing. Footnotes are fascinating with references such as Eartha Kitt calling the rescue of the hostages another example of whites killing blacks.

Aware and unaware of what is transpiring outside the prison/consulate/hotel walls, written from daily notes kept during the revolt. Hoyt documents his account, with reflection and trying to stay scrupulous about differences of opinion or memory.

From a consulate's viewpoint, the book is a careful documentation of political revolt.


... Read more

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John Yoder chronicles the history of the Kanyok, a people from the southern savanna of Zaire, from before 1500 until their incorporation into the Congo Free State in the 1890s.By analyzing their oral traditions, myths, and legends, the author describes the political and cultural development of a people who, before 1891, had no written records, and whose history has previously been confined to the stale recitation of wars and succession struggles that characterize many existing books on pre-colonial Africa.Yoder sets his work firmly within the larger context of the southern savanna by extending his investigations to the traditions of neighboring peoples, in particular to the Luba and Lunda, whose empires once dominated the region.In this way, he demonstrates how the same stories and ideas circulated over a vast area but were continually adapted to local circumstances. ... Read more

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As the uncertain peace following the end of the Cold War dawns upon the world, the role of the United Nations in becoming a major factor in solving conflict and bringing stability is moving to the forefront of world attention. This book, in great detail, describes the intervention of the United Nations in the Congo (now Zaire). At the time, this intervention was the largest in the history of the United Nations. As the threats to international peace seem to mushroom, this superb book details the players, the actions, the emotions and the accomplishments of this crucially significant historical achievement. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

An alternative title: Belgium V USA for dominance in the Congo
David Gibbs argues US intervention in the Congo was done at the behest of certain US multinational Business interests. The USSR did effect tactical maneuvering, but of no primary significance regarding motives for intervention. On the surface the war appears to be Colonialists VS Anti-Colonialists or "Containing Communism" ..Gibbs peers beyond the rhetoric and exposes entirely different motives...

Basically a feud developed between Belgium business and US multinationals partly spearheaded by Maurice Tempelsman.Tempelsman owned/owns? a private multinational business which delt heavily in Commodites e.g., diamonds and copper. Strangely, it seems more than a few US/UN connected politicians/bureacrats wind up on Templeton's payroll. For example, theCIA's Africa Division Chief,Lawrence Devlin became a full time employee for Templeton. Several agents via legal firms also connect the dots to Tempelton... On the Belgium side a mining company has its own tactical maneuvering for propping up corrupt politicians and using mercenaries/belgian military etc. A proxy/propaganda war develops between US multinationals and Belgium multinationals. A brief period of cooperation ensues when rebels threatened western domination. After the rebels were supressed the feud reimurged. In the end US multinationals Trump Belgian interests to become the primary economic and political force in the Congo region. Europeans viewed this as US encroachment on the African continent which was regarded as a European sphere of influence after WWII.

An interesting addendum to Gibbs work... Maurice Tempelsman spearheaded efforts to certify the Prohibition of "conflict diamonds" i.e. to prevent the sale of diamonds to finance terrorism, drug laundering etc..I have a very cynical view of this.

The depth of Gibb's research is excellent. The index is very user friendly. So much information packed into 211 pgs. Very good use/organization of footnotes,bibliography and primary sources. I am looking forward to his upcoming book on Yugoslavia.

Not very helpful
Dated and not very helpful for a current evaluation of foreign involvement in africa and the third world.Useful, though, as a historical resource for a snapshot of left wing cold war scholarship during the Reagan era.

For a more current take on this same subject, check out titles by William Easterly and David Weil.

Examines Power Brokers in U.S. Congo Policy
Too much of U.S. scholarship avoids any mention of business interests, despite the fact that business organizations outspend labor unions and other interest factions by an overwhelming margin, whether in U.S. domestic politics or foreign policy.David Gibbs provides pathbreaking archival evidence of business divisions that influenced the shift in U.S. policy toward the Congo from the Eisenhower to the Kennedy Administrations. Gibbs persuasively argues that most accounts of U.S. policy toward the Congo fail to explain the extent to which both Eisenhower and Kennedy sought to appease U.S. business interests with a particular stake in the Congo's war for independence against colonial Belgium. The book is well-researched and lucid in its arguments, carefully examining both theories of U.S. foreign policy and their application to the Congo crisis.Very useful for anyone that wants to go beyond official explanations for U.S. foreign policy behavior in Africa and elsewhere.

MD reader lacks background knowledge
If the maryland reader were more eruidite, he might find that Dr. Gibbs isn't the only intellectual who asserts that CIA-orchestrated coups in Guatemala were influenced by ties with banana corporations. In fact, it's practically common knowledge that the CIA was acting in the interest of united fruit co. when it implemented "Operation PBSUCCESS," for the LEGALLY AND DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Guatemalan president at the time, Jacobo Arbenz, was implementing a land reform program that threatened US companies like United Fruit by enabling members of the guatemalan communist party to farm land that United fruit owned.

There are a few Books and television documentaries that argue (quite convincingly) the claim that the coup in Guatemala was motivated by an american interest in preserving a "friendship" with united fruit company.One book, "Banana Wars" written by anthropologists Dr. Mark Moberg and Dr. Steve Striffler. There was also a segment in a history channel documentary on this , as well (Though, unfortunately) I forgot the title. Another great book on the matter is: "Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala" by: by Stephen C. Schlesinger, Stephen Kinzer, John H. Coatsworth, John H. Coatsworth.

At some point, people who find allegations that corporate interests manipulate US foreign policy absurd will have to face the fact that the american government would rather put profits and above people.

Fears of Rockville, MD reader are true
I am currently a student at the University of Arizona in Dr. Gibbs' Individuals and Societies 103 class (entitled "What is Politics?), and can say that Dr. Gibbs applies his bias in most everything he teaches.While I have not read his Ph.D. dissertation, I can analyze what he does in classes and apply them to the likelihood of the quality of this work.

About 50% of the real-life examples used in class are regarding the recent war in Iraq.About 75% of his example are either logical arguments by liberals or fallacious arguments by conservatives (usually by technical fallacy or by an example's failure to include obvious evidence).He clearly engages in selectively choosing which examples to use in order to push his agenda.I fear my views may be punished, though I am currently unable to tell because our first test is this Friday.

As long as Dr. Gibbs continues to teach our class in this fashion, think about what kind of chicanery he could spin on foreign policy. ... Read more