“Based on a deep reading of the statements and actions of key players and ordinary Guineans, A Socialist Peace? reveals important micro-level insight into the macro-level problem of explaining how and why conflict doesn’t break out in an African state. McGovern provides a provocative and entirely convincing argument about the dynamics of state building and conflict in an authoritarian state over the past fifty years. Tapping a wealth of ethnographic material and close readings of primary sources, this theoretically elegant book deserves comparison to classic works on conflict and state formation in other parts of the world. It will immediately gain recognition as a major work and is sure to change the way that people think about postcolonial legacies in Africa and their influences on contemporary politics.”

William Reno, Northwestern University

“A formidable read in its own right, A Socialist Peace? is also a wonderful follow-up to McGovern’s previous book on Guinea. Based on an incredible amount of field research in the depths of the biggest rain forest in West Africa, it is bound to become a must read in the anthropology of the state and in the comparative study of postsocialist contexts and legacies.”

Ramon Sarró, University of Oxford