J. MILLARD BURR AND ROBERT O. COLLINS, Africa's Thirty Years War: Libya, Chad, and the Sudan 1963–1993 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999). Pp. 317. $65.00 cloth.

Extract

This volume provides a timely, useful contribution to an under-studied region of the world. Substantial work on Libya and Sudan exists, but Chad remains enigmatic. Fortunately, Millard Burr and Robert Collins are well placed to offer an analysis of the three countries and their complex interactions in the post-independence era. Burr worked for years in the Office of the Geographer of the U.S. Department of State, specializing on Libyan–Chadian relations. For his part, Collins is an academic historian who has written studies of the Upper Nile. Given its level of painstaking detail and specificity, Africa's Thirty Years War may not be useful to undergraduates and generalists seeking an initial understanding of the region's history and politics. It is, however, valuable to specialists and experts on the region in search of a useful historical reference, especially on the central role that Chad has played in the region's geo-strategic dynamics.