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Bereket Habte Selassie. 2014. Emperor Haile Selassie. Athens: Ohio University Press. 147 pp.
Modern Ethiopian history as well as Ethiopian historiography have over the last decades become increasingly polemic, and at times tiring. Central to the discussions is the nature of the Ethiopian state, underpinned by a pseudo-religious narrative, and the dimension of narrow political control by a particular ethno-cultural elite vs. the aspirations and rights of Ethiopia's broad range of ethnic and religious groups. Emperor Haile Selassie, arguably the most important Ethiopian of the 20th century, epitomizes is in many ways this ongoing discourse-by the ways he represented the continuation of ancient Ethiopia and by the wayS he laid the foundations for forces that increasingly challenged the dominating historical legacy.
Bereket Habte Selassie's book on the life and rule of Haile Selassie is part...