The book "The Life and Times of Menelik II" is superbly written. It gives an overall highly discriptive view of Abyssinian history during the last generations of Ethiopia's empirial dynasty. It is probably the best book that exists about Ethiopia's struggles against European colonialism, specifically the Battle of Adwa. Read this book to discover why Ethiopia was the only country in the early 20th century not yet subjected to European occupation.

For those with a historical interest in the nations of Africa will find this book entertaining and easy to read. Well researched, informative, and detailed account of the life of King Menelik II of Ethiopia. Menelik was the king responsible for unifying the various tribes within the nation and generally created the border that exists today (or, at least, when Eritrea was still part of Ethiopia). Menelik is also famous for his military genius which helped defeat the Italian army in 1896 at the Battle of Adwa, thus preventing Ethiopia from being colonized by a European nation. Prof. Harold Marcus also goes into great detail on Ethiopia's dealings with the European nations and its neighboring countries during the rule of King Menelik II, but his narrative style makes this book very easy to read. I recommend this book to anyone from high school and up.

I personally appreciate all writers' accounts about the African history, especially those about the older civilizations like that of Abyssinia, Aoudal (Adal), Ifat (Yifat), Banadir, Oroma etc. Most of the histories from this region are either written by early travelers, who were apparently subject to their respective contact's account(s). Likewise some writers are subject to either personal inclination to one group or influenced by local authorities to make their fictitious political claims printed in the history in order to subdue others. We therefore should be very careful about the writer's tone vis-à-vis historical realities and events. The author falls to the second category trap (personal or Authority influence). For instance, he gives more credit to Amhara actions while undermining all other nationals in Ethiopia. He even reached a stage where he distorted the really of geographical history maps. Look the maps at the end of book. It is typical dreams of all Abyssinian emperors' ambitions. History is history no body can rewrite but can be corrected when grave distortions like those presented in this book are circulated. The writer is a good writer in literature wise but his story is biased!

I found this book to be helpful as a general resource of information about Ethiopia's history. However, the reading often becomes confusing, most likely because of the lack of a "big picture" view. The text centers too much on individual events, especially in the first half. Also, I often became unclear of who the author was speaking of when he mentioned "the emperor" or "the king". This feeling was probably caused by the overly rapid introduction of new people.

This was the first History book I have read for leisure and I was supprised at how interested I was. A very well written and researched work. The only complaint I have is that the vocabulary was to much for me in places. Im used to looking things up in the dictionary, but not this much. Overall a very good read, will leave you wanting more.