The Ethiopians: A History

The Peoples of Africa

by Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst

The book opens with a review of Ethiopian prehistory, showing how the Ethiopian section of the African Rift Valley has come to be seen as the "cradle of humanity".

Genres: History, Ethiopia, Africa, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 1998

About the author

Richard Keir Pethick Pankhurst OBE (3 December 1927 – 16 February 2017) was a British-Ethiopian scholar, founding member of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, and former professor at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. His books have been reviewed in scholarly journals, with Edward Ullendorff calling his The Ethiopians as another testimony to his "remarkable diligence and industry in the service of Ethiopian studies". He is known for his research on economic history and socio-cultural studies on Ethiopia.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Axumite Tegaru · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introductory book to a very general history of Ethiopia. However, there are a lot of frequent grammar mistakes that take away from the book. Furthermore, some figures receive much more attention and make up much more of the book compared to equally or arguably more important figures. For example, Yohannes IV and Ras Alula aren't spoken about in nearly the same detail that Menelik the second and Haileselassie are despite the fact that these two Tigrayan figures held the bulk of the work needed to protect Abysinnia during and before the scramble for Africa. This book should be a starting book to research Ethiopian or Tigrayan history from which you can get other books to focus on and learn about different figures, time periods, or topics. I made a list on Reddit of books and resources about specific time periods, figures, and topics: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tigray/comme...

[Jonathan Morrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, I found a decent one-volume history of Ethiopia! I'm still puzzled by how difficult a task that was, because Ethiopia has one of the richest, most interesting histories of any country in the world. Anyway, this isn't a great book by any means, but it gives a reasonably complete and comprehensible history of the region within a manageable 300 pages. As is typical of such historical works, much of the color has been drained out of the stories, but at least some of the drama was left in so you can get a sense of the kinds of struggles and triumphs that have taken place in that land. If you're so inspired you could look for other sources to fill in some of the more interesting details. At least this is a place to start, though.

[Ratratrat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo raccomando a tutti, coloro che vogliono farsi un'idea della storia dell'Etiopia che non sia solo le solite recriminazioni sul colonialismo italiano

[Andy Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a few of these books now, these moderately sized (~300 pages) histories of individual countries. I enjoyed reading this one, but it deserved its lowly 2 star rating. For one, the book doesn't seem to have been proofread. There are numerous grammar and spelling mistakes, and the syntax is unpolished and awkward. Beyond that, the author frequently jumps around chronologically, describing a period of history only to later return to an earlier time. Finally, it seems the author greatly overestimates the reader's familiarity with Ethiopian geography. There are only a few, sparsely detailed maps provided with the book. Yet the author frequently references cities, regions, and other places which would not be recognized by the average Western reader.

To his credit, Pankhurst has thoroughly done his research and does write in such a way as to interest the reader and invite him to continue. While I would read more by this author, I would hope any future books would be a bit more polished.

[C. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the history of this country, though I can easily envisage a very ambitious author writing a more poignant general history of Ethiopia.

I read this primarily for the ancient and medieval history. Very useful bibliography for further reading.