With vision, hard-nosed judgment, and biting humor, Julius Nyerere confronted the challenges of nation building in modern Africa. Constructing Tanzania out of a controversial Cold War union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, Nyerere emerged as one of independent Africa’s most influential leaders.
Paul Bjerk is an associate professor of African history at Texas Tech University, and was recently a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Iringa in Tanzania. He is the author of Building a Peaceful Nation: Julius Nyerere and the Establishment of Sovereignty in Tanzania, 1960–1964.
"Bjerk succeeds in debating the legacy of Nyerere through six short chapters. The book recognises the highs and lows of Nyerere's illustrious political careers and balances this in a manner befitting a great African statesman … This book offers that opportunity to understand Tanzania's political culture and history through the life and times of Mwalimu Nyerere." (Africa at LSE) "A highly welcome and urgently needed addition to the historical literature on African politicians.…Due to its readability, brevity, and appealing portrayal of the complexities of politicking, the book is well suited for classroom use, but it is also of interest to those already familiar with Tanzanian history.…The book can be wholeheartedly recommended to students of political biographies, postcolonial politics, decolonization, and African contemporary history, and anybody interested in socialist thought and experiments across the globe." (H-Net) "Bjerk's embrace of contradiction and complexity allows him to address [an] amorphous question of legacy, and he draws deeply on the full range of existing scholarship about Tanzania." (Global Africana Review)
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