HAILE SELASSIE: A LIFE from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History






Published in 2021 by Hourly History.

Haile Selassie is one of those men that shows up here and there in a detailed histories of the twentieth century, but I didn't know much about him beyond his determined stand against colonialism before and after World War II.

This small e-book filled in a lot of blanks for me. The Hourly History series consists of biographies and histories that take about an hour to read and, to be honest, this book filled in a lot of those gaps for me - enough that I probably won't look into Haile Selassie any further.

The biography tells the story of Selassie's privileged, very connected upbringing in a monarchial Ethiopia. Selassie used those connections to push his way to the top, but also to tried to modernize his country in order to protect it from European colonization. Imperial Japan did something similar 50 years earlier (not a connection made in the book - just an observation from a history teacher that took a couple of Japanese history classes in college.)

Selassie's life was interesting and often quite tragic. He often was a symbol more than he was substance. He inspired the Jamaican Rastafarian movement, even though he ad nothing to do with it. His pleas to the League of Nations about Italian aggression proved it to be a great idea but an empty promise in the time of actual need. His attempts to modernize Ethiopia made people question the need to have an outmoded style of government led by a man who who wasn't willing to adept to modern times.

I rate this short biography 4 stars our of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Haile Selassie: A Life from Beginning to End by Hourly History.

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