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588 THE HISTORYTEACHER

The second essay, 'The Quest for Knowledge,"tells us in fascinating detail much
about the conditions of intellectual life in the Renaissance, especially what, why, and
how people learned. The third essay, "The Quest for Beauty," primarily concerns itself
with the differencesbetween the art of the North and that of Italy. "The Quest for God"
gives us an intimate look at the religious life of the period. The final essay, 'The
Renaissance Merchant,"although overworking the idea of a rising middle class, like the
others does a good deal to remind us how many things were different in the sixteenth
century and to explain why.
Originally published in the 1920's, the essays for the most part are timeless and
thanks to Marion Rothstein'ssuperb rendering are as fresh now in English as they were
then in French. She has succeeded in the difficulttask of capturing a great and unique
historical style and presenting it to a new and different audience. Febvre's words live
well in English and are a pleasure to savor again for those who have also read the
French.
Life in Renaissance France will not only appeal to those who already love history,
but, equally crucial, it will be enjoyed by those who are beginning to develop their
appreciation of Clio's discipline. Chauvinistically, I have read few sociologists or psy-
chologists who have captured life as well. I believe it can be read by even beginning
students in college surveys as well as upper-division courses on Renaissance-Early
Modern France. Instructorsof undergraduate and graduate courses on historiography
will delight in having such an affordable and readable sample of Annales writing
available to them. Even those who cannot use it as a requiredtext will findit pleasurable
backgroundreading. Doubtlessly,many history lectures will be spiced up nicely by some
generous quotations from Febvre in Rothstein. Merci beaucoup.

Carthage College JONATHAN W. ZOPHY

Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, by Peter F.


Sugar.VolumeV of A Historyof East CentralEurope,editedby Peter
F. Sugarand DonaldW.Treadgold.Seattle:Universityof Washington
Press, 1977. 365 pages. $16.95, cloth.
Like the other volumes in the series A History of East Central Europe, Peter
Sugar's Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804 is intended mainly for
the beginning graduate student. Its two terminal dates refer to the initial establishment
of the Ottoman Turks on European territory and to the outbreak of the Serbian war
of independence. It is dividedinto five parts: Ottomanpolitical and social structures;the
rural and urban political economies of the "core"provinces, lying mainly south of the
Danube and Sava rivers, during the period of territorialand economicexpansion ending
in the second half of the sixteenth century; the relations between the Ottoman Empire
and its European tributaries (Moldavia, Wallachia,Transylvania, and Ragusa); politi-
cal, demographic, and economic change since the second half of the sixteenth century;
and the Greek, Slavic, and Jewish cultures. The book further contains a valuable
bibliographic essay, lists of Ottoman rulers and grand vezirs (ministers) and of other
Southeastern European princes and governors, a list of Ottoman military campaigns,
peace treaties, and territorial gains and losses, a glossary of geographicnames, another
of foreign terms, five maps, and a subject index.
Peter Sugar's study does not replace Leften S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453
(New York, 1958), which is still the best one-volumehistory of the Ottoman and post-
Ottoman Balkans. However, it is not an ordinary textbook. While designed especially
for introductory graduate courses on Southeastern Europe, the Balkans (not an exact
equivalent of the term "core"provinces, which includes in addition some of the territo-
ries of historic Hungary),and East Central Europe,several of the chapters may be used
comparatively, in conjunctionwith other readings, in graduate courses on "early mod-
ern" Europe that are attentive to such subjects as peasants and land tenure, cities, fiscal

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TEXTBOOKREVIEWS 589
policies, and regional cultures. The book also has the rare merit of devoting equal
attention to the "core"provinces and to the tributary states. Moreover, many of the
author's interpretations are based on valuable new scholarship, appropriately cited in
a few key footnotes and in the bibliographic essay.
The generally informative and balanced (althoughoccasionallyconfusing)interpre-
tations may compensate in part for the awkward syntax of several passages. Readers
should note, however, that Professor Sugar errs in describing the entire period 1574-
1804 as one of populationdecline in the "core"provinces.While demographicstagnation
-perhaps decline-may have been general during the Ottoman seventeenth century,
demographic revival probably characterized at least half of the eighteenth century
(notably 1740-1790). Sugar similarly subscribes to the view of "the gradual disappear-
ance of suburbs."Some suburbs,indeed, may have been absorbedby cities. In general,
however, the Ottoman era was one of growth both in the number and in the size of
suburbs. These criticisms notwithstanding, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule
is both a learned study and a pedagogically useful textbook. Specialists and graduate
students alike should find it instructive and suggestive.

Rutgers University TRAIAN STOIANOVICH

History of West Africa since 1800, by Elizabeth Isichei. New York:


Africana Publishing Company, 1977. 380 pages. $21.00, cloth; $10.00,
paper.
The issue of independencedominates the written history of West Africa since 1800,
and the theme of how it was lost and regained dominates Elizabeth Isichei's survey. She
emphasizes internal social and economic developments as the backgroundfor political
change. And she deserves credit for keeping her focus on Africansas prime movers. But
hers is hardly a new perspective.Indeed, the approach,events, and themes Isichei treats
are standard in at least a dozen other textbooks now in print. She acknowledges in her
preface that "Thisis essentially a conventional history."If any quality distinguishes her
work, it is her clearly expressed feeling for human interest that makes her narrative
easy to read.
She begins by noting that mighty change was afoot in West Africa in 1800. The
peoples of the forest and the sudan were becoming more involved in a wider world as
their lines of external trade grew and as Islam and Christianity spread among them.
New societies developed and new states emerged, and Isichei looks within both to
examine their lines of cohesion and their direction for change.
What she reveals is generally the force of religion or social justice or social reform.
She uses three models for her analysis, and she gives a chapterto each. First comes what
she calls her Islamic model formed of jihadist states such as Gobir, Massina, and the
Bambara kingdoms and, also, of some states such as Borno,not established by holy war.
Second, she takes up her innovation and reform model shown in the states of Guinea
among the Asante, Fante, Yoruba, Fon, and Igbo. Her third set includes the creoles of
Sierra Leone and Liberia, which she calls western models. Her point is that West
Africans were arranging themselves to deal with each other in new ways because of
internal pressures.
They had to deal also, of course, with new external pressures,for as slaving declined
and other forms of trade grew, the European presence spread. Missionaries increased.
So did explorers. Under the Union Jack and tricolor came more soldiers. But the
Europeans had no ready plan for empire, says Isichei. Colonizationjust happened. It
resulted, she claims, from competition for national prestige, individual initiative, and
economic gain. Add a sense of cultural superiority. Then insert technology in the form
of the firearms revolution that produced the rapid-firingmachine gun which, Isichei
says, made European conquest possible.
Significant as the external pressures were, however, they were not sufficient alone

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