| | This collection of essays is an important addition to recent studies on environmental crises. As Douglas Johnson writes in the preface, the book has been produced at an opportune moment when "in the crises atmosphere generated over northeast Africa during the catastrophic droughts and famines of 1984-86 a sense of extreme urgency now pervades much writing on Africa's environmental crisis." The authors' emphasis on the 'historical analysis of the processes of adaptation' departs from the 'pioneering' work of the 1970s which concentrated on chronological stress. In his contribution, Richard Waller writes, convincingly, that 'disasters are always of importance to historians. They expose, at a particular point in time, the inner workings of a society and illuminate the basic values and assumptions which inform its actions and govern its relations with outsiders.' The authors' attempts to situate environmental crises in historical perspectives is most welcome. It is too well known that 'crises' tend to be treated as if they were instantaneous developments; and all too often to neglect historical perspectives leads policy makers into blind alleys with solutions quickly patched up, leaving the root causes undealt with. |
