The Historical Dictionary of Bangladesh spans the country’s periods under various regimes, its incorporation into India and Pakistan, and then from 1971 its independence and identity as a state in its own right. Thus, there are obvious challenges in writing a historical dictionary of Bangladesh, this handy reference volume has achieved precisely that. The book focusses especially on the modern state of Bangladesh which explored most intensively. The book contains hundreds of entries in an easy-to-refer A-to-Z format, spanning Bangladesh’s history, politics, economy, society, its religious traditions, culture and the country’s important people in a succinct and balanced manner.

The rich mine of information is placed in context by an over-arching introduction and a detailed chronology. An extensive bibliography offers further guidance for those seeking to study different aspects of Bangladesh in greater detail.

Craig Baxter (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is professor of politics and history emeritus at Juniata College. He was an officer in the Foreign Service of the United States, 1956-1980, with several posts in South Asia, including Dhaka. He was a visiting faculty member at the United States Military Academy, 1971-1974. He is the author of several books on South Asia including Bangladesh: A New Nation in an Old Setting (1984) and Bangladesh: From a Nation to a State (1997), and is the co-author of Government and Politics in South Asia (Fifth edition, 2002). He has also published a number of articles and chapters in edited works. He was president of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, 1989-1998 and he was named Distinguished Asianist by the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Association for Asian Studies in 2002.