For over a century Ethiopia and the United States have been engaged in meandering diplomatic relations influenced by major official actors, domestic politics, and world conditions. Based on archival and declassified government documents, interviews, and translations of works in Amharic, Professor Getachew Metaferia has provided a balanced, detailed analysis of the diplomatic history of Ethiopia, Africa's longest-enduring independent nation, and its frequent benefactor from the New World.

Getachew traces the ties between Imperial, socialist and republican Ethiopian governments and the United States from the Gilded age through the present. His research on events from the time of the carter administration onward is especially cogent, and his review of the Ethiopian diaspora and its impact on intergovernmental relations is enlightening. Getachew's work is highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the roles, both beneficial and otherwise, played by the United States in creating contemporary Ethiopia with all its problems and possibilities.

_ Theodore M. Vestal, Ph. D., Professor of Political Science, Oklahoma State University, former Associate director of the Peace Corps in Ethiopia.