Talk:States and Power in Africa

= General comments =

Untitled
Hi. This book summary is a great addition to Wikipedia and a nice complement to the Environmental Determinism page you have been working on. Some suggestions: Chrisblattman (talk) 19:25, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I made some edits for clarity
 * I gather your main time was spent on the Environmental Determinism page, and at present the main thesis and contribution of the book does not really come through. As a supplement to Environmental Determinism it is fine, however.
 * Small points
 * I think even a single line for each of the blank sections would be useful.
 * You could probably link to the Why Nations Fail page

=Ideas for future development= I created this page as part of my work for a political science course in collaboration with the Wiki Education Foundation. I worked primarily on the environmental determinism page and added information relevant to that project here. Here are my ideas for future page development:
 * 1) Expand the synopsis sections.
 * 2) Add 1-2 sentences to the pages that Crcarey mentions above to drive traffic to this page and raise the work's profile online.
 * 3) Add additional criticism from Why Nations Fail.

Points to further explain/revise
 * 1) Be more clear about what a survival mandate is. I believe you are referencing the need of states to fight for their survival, but I am not sure.
 * 2) Next, you say, "Herbst argues that geographic features influenced how precolonial African states conceived of meaningful power.” I am not entirely sure what you mean by this. Geography influenced the type of colonialism and the institutions colonizers implemented. Or are you saying that pre-colonial states established power based on geographic features?
 * --Crcarey (talk) 10:11, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

--Sarah Whittenburg (talk) 20:41, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Saw2188. Peer reviewers: Crcarey.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 14:36, 18 January 2022 (UTC)