James A. Casada

F. O. SHYLLON. Black Slaves in Britain. Pp. xi, 252. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.

the central elite. Furthermore, Suleiman is more aware of recent developments and studies. The two works do more than fill the large gap in our knowledge; they define the specific aspects of change and continuity in the Gaullist era in terms of political power and decision-making in the higher civil service. Suleiman’s major conclusions need to be considered by all serious students. They include the fact that the administrative corps is not representative of society yet can be responsive to it; that conflict between politicians and civil servants continues but is diminished substantially by new role perceptions which bring political chiefs closer to their workers; that cooperation between ministers and bureaucrats in public service often results in conflict between different departments and their respective civil servants no matter what type of regime or the degree of ministerial stability or instability; and that transformation in the Fifth Republic with its majority party, greater coherence and continuity in governmental policies and the increased collaboration among ministers have all had a perceptible impact on bureaucracy. The central question is therefore whether such

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a new ideology, and the implications of General Amin’s 1971 military coup for Uganda’s future. The result is an interesting and instructive work which makes an important contribution to our understanding of the political process in modern Uganda and, in a wider context, the general role of ideology in the third world. However, the study is not without its limitations. The period covered is 1962 to 1974, but most of the book focuses on the years between Obote’s move to the Left (1969) and Amin’s coup. More material on the Amin regime and its reaction to the ideological processes set in motion by Obote would have been welcome, although admittedly the author’s central purpose is to determine why ideology failed. A more serious potential shortcoming, and one that is likely to stimulate considerable debate, is the author’s premise &dquo;that values play an important role in social change.&dquo; This reviewer basically agrees, but it is nonetheless true that Mittelman’s methodology is overconditioned by this consideration. Hard line ideologists will thus be able to confront him with some of the same charges that are frequently leveled at their works. On a markedly different level, it should be noted that the author’s prose is turgid at points and his chapters do not mesh well. Still, this is a stimulating study, and it clearly demonstrates that Ugandawhatever the nature of her politicsfaces continuing problems in such areas as ethnic strife, class differences, and relations with the outside world. Mittel-

JAMES H. MITTELMAN. Ideology and Politics in Uganda: From Obote to Amin. Pp. 302. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1975.

Professor Ozment of Yale University has written a most extraordinary work of scholarship. His monograph is rich in scholarship and critical detail, and yet it is a work of great value for the nonspecialist. It is a work filled with astute assessments of trends in the historical research on the Protestant Reformation, and yet it is a book which focuses on fundamental issues in a manner intelligible to the general reader. Based on assiduous research in both Catholic and Protestant popular religious literature of the period-catechisms, dramas, tracts, and confessional manuals-Ozment’s work presents a very favorable overview of the Reformation’s role in modern history. To Ozment the fundamental role of the Reformation in European history was one of liberation and freedom, liberation from the traditional religious superstition and tyranny and an evangelical freedom which contributed much to the development of a rational and moral approach to religion. Ozment’s monograph is a synthesis of two major methodologies in Reformation studies. The one is the historiographical tradition which analyzes the ideas of the Reformation in terms of late medieval philosophy, theology, and religious dissent. The other-far more recentseeks to place the Reformation in a contemporary urban perspective. The one has, microcosmically in most cases, labored over the intellectual origins and religious antecedents of the Reformation in the late medieval period, while the other often just as narrowly focuses on the social history of cities and regions during the Reformation. Ozment very masterfully combines the history of ideas and social history in a work of exacting scholarship and persuasive argumentation. It will no doubt become a seminal work in its field. JOHN S. WOZNIAK Fredonia New York

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A narrow oligarchy of planters kepi total political control of the colony-less than 1 percent of the population could vote in 1850-and they poured nearly 2C percent of the public revenue into paying for this immigration, thus taxing the Creole peasants to subsidize the sugar plantations. Furthermore, the colony government did its best to prevent the development of a viable peasant economy independent of sugar; it blocked Creole land purchases, broke up village communes, levied crushing taxes and offered no schools, hospitals, transportation or other public services in return. The laissez faire Liberals who staffed the Colonial Office protested these tactics, but always surrendered to the sugar lobby. Adamson is a sober scholar with an axe