Historical Dictionary of Guinea: (Historical Dictionaries of Africa)

Thoroughly updated and extensively revised, this 4th edition provides a very solid and substantial guide to a better understanding of this richly endowed but poorly understood nation. Students and others seeking information about the country will find an introductory narrative accounting of Guinea's political and economic history, a chronology that spans the earliest known history of the area to the present day Republic of Guinea, 400 dictionary entries covering the personalities and events that made contemporary Guinea, and an extensive bibliography of current publications.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Dedication Part 2 Editor's Foreword Part 3 Acknowledgments Part 4 Reader's Note Part 5 Acronyms and Abbreviations Part 6 Maps Part 7 Tables Part 8 Chronology Part 9 Introduction Part 10 THE DICTIONARY Part 11 Bibliography Part 12 About the Authors

About the Author :
Thomas E. O'Toole is Professor of Anthropology and a member of the African Studies faculty at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. A Fulbright scholar to Guinea in 2002, he maintains an active interest in African affairs. He is the author of the first three editions of this dictionary and The Central African Republic: The Continent's Hidden Heart (1986) as well as a number of texts and trade books for undergraduates and schools. Janice E. Baker recently retired from a career in public service. She worked for several federal and state agencies, including the Congressional Research Service in the Library of Congress, President Carter's Commission on World Hunger, the New Mexico Legislature, the New Mexico Supreme Court, Peace Corps Headquarters, and the National Science Foundation. In 1978 she returned to Francophone West Africa as a resource person on a Fulbright Group Travel Abroad faculty development seminar led by Dr. O'Toole. She has coauthored three books in the Enchantment of Africa series for young people: Upper Volta (1974), Niger (1976), and Central African Republic (1979).

Review :
The well-written dictionary entries cover the major personalities, events, terms, and geographical features of Guinea from the great medieval empires to the French colonial period and the period since independence. The entries also succinctly present larger topics such as health, education, foreign relations, and economics. Recommended. The volume for Guinea is particularly hospitable to entries for individual plants, crops, and diseases....Overall, the potential strength of volumes in this series, that they provide fairly regularly revised coverage for many countries where up-to-date reference material in English is lacking or out-of-date, needs to be recognised. ...there really are very few reference books on this poor West African country. This item is necessary for all African collections, and suitable for all other academic and large public library reference collections... O'Toole (anthropology and African studies, St. Cloud State U.) and Baker (a former US government worker with the Congressional Research Service and other entities) present a cross-referenced dictionary containing some 400 entries providing information on important people, places, organizations, concepts, events related to the history of the African nation of Guinea. The entries and the introductory essay largely deal with the history of the 20th century, but the chronology spans from pre-historic times onward. Also included is a bibliography of current publications.