Book Reviews : Arabs and Berbers: From Tribe to Nation in North Africa. Edited by ERNEST GELLNER and CHARLES MICAUD (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath and Com pany, 1972. Pp. 438. $15.00.)

• Author: John P. Entelis
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297502800115
• Published date: 01 March 1975
• Date: 01 March 1975
• Subject Matter: Articles

201

the

Yenan

ethic

have

produced

a

New

Chinese

Man

and

a

New

Chinese

Woman,

who

have

virtually

eradicated

illness

and

starvation

in

their

land

and

have

secured

for

China

self-respect

and

dignity.

Although

&dquo;almost

pathetically

naive

and

often

dangerously

chauvinistic,&dquo;

China’s

New

Man

and

New

Woman

are

admirable

in

their

fellowship,

kindness,

and

sense

of

self-sacrifice.

Nevertheless,

Salisbury

does

not

think

that

they

could

be

exported,

for

their

spirit

&dquo;must

rise,

as

it

had

in

China,

from

the

roots

of

national

consciousness,

out

of

the

turmoil

and

agony

of

ages.&dquo;

By

and

large,

To

Peking-and

Beyond

makes

very

interesting

reading.

The

author

writes

with

a

lucid

style

and

a

high

degree

of

enthusiasm.

There

is,

how-

ever,

an

inherent

limit

to

the

value

of

books

of

this

nature.

Given

a

short

guided

tour

of

a

huge

country

like

China,

even

journalists

of

Salisbury’s

caliber

cannot

avoid

interpreting

things

at

face

value

and

making

simplistic

generalizations.

Like

many

other

current

eyewitnesses’

accounts,

this

volume

also.

has

the

tendency

to

&dquo;oversell&dquo;

China

and

the

Chinese-probably

a

unique

American

phenomenon

to

swing

from

one

extreme

position

to

another

after

so

many

years

of

hostility

to

the

PRC.

In

order

to

advance

our

understanding

of

China

on

which

to

build

a

solid

Sino-American

friendship,

it

would

be

advisable

that

the

highly

optimistic

reports

should

be

read

along

with

more

restrained

writings

by

such

seasoned

China

watchers

as

Doak

Barnett

and

Stanley

Karnow.

University

of

Virginia

SHAO-CHUAN

LENG

Arabs

and

Berbers:

From

Tribe

to

Nation

in

North

Africa.

Edited

by

ERNEST

GELLNER

and

CHARLES

MICAUD

(Lexington,

Mass.:

D.

C.

Heath

and

Com-

pany,

1972.

Pp.

438.

$15.00.)

This

volume

of

twenty-three

separate

articles

on

Arab-Berber

relations

in

the

Maghrib

is

sponsored

by

and

published

for

the

Center

for

International

Race

Rela-

tions

at

the

University

of

Denver

in

its

Race

and

Nations

Series.

Except

for

five

reprints

of

articles

all

contributions

appear

for

the

first

time.

The

book

is

divided

into

four

parts

(Traditional

Base,

Ethnicity

and

Nation,

Ethnicity

and

Social

Change,

and

the

Coup

of

10

July

1971)

with

contributions

from

a

distinguished

group

of

American,

British,

French,

and

North

African

his-

torians,

anthropologists,

sociologists,

and

political

scientists.

The

wide

range

of

articles

covers

diverse

aspects

of

Berber

social,

cultural,

and

political

life,

especially

as

manifested

in

Morocco

where

the

majority

of

Maghribi

Berbers

reside

and where

they

constitute

a

significant

political

force.

Unfortunately

the

editors,

anthropologist

Ernest

Gellner

of

the

London

School

of

Economics

and

the

late

Professor

Micaud

of

the

Graduate

School

of

International

Studies

at

the

University

of

Denver,

provide

the

reader

with

no

identifiable

organ-

izational

framework

or

generalized

theoretical

construct

by

which

to

comprehend

the

maze

of

data,

factual

information,

societal

processes,

and

historical

events

which

characterize

many

of

these

articles.