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Mongolia: Politics, Economics and Society
179 pages, Hardcover
First published February 26, 1987
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December 17, 2017
outdated picture, largely statistical
I used to read Alan Sanders' reports from Mongolia in the old Far Eastern Economic Review for many years and I always found them very informative. That's why I bought MONGOLIA:.... in Melbourne back in 1988. If you are interested in a picture of Mongolia up to 1986 or so, a picture garnished with a huge number of statistics, gleaned from the Mongolian People's Republic official publications or from Soviet sources, then this could be the book you are looking for. You will learn about milk prices in 1982, the number of animals in the national herd in different years, wages and pensions, and the amount of Mongolian exports to Britain. You get blow by blow development of economic and social changes. It is nearly impossible to read straight though you can find a large number of interesting nuggets if you persevere. It would be better as a reference work. The author includes some basic Mongolian history, but you can find more extensive and better written accounts elsewhere. Sanders obviously liked Mongolia and did not want to offend people, nor get on the `bad side' of officials and be banned from returning. I think he could have been more questioning, as statistics often reflect what governments want to show---of course not only in countries whose governments we don't like. The book was part of a series on socialist/communist countries in the world. Given that most of those countries have long-since discarded the system, it is inevitable that this book be quite out of date. While respecting the work that Sanders must have done to get this volume together, I would have to wonder who exactly would like to read it today.
I used to read Alan Sanders' reports from Mongolia in the old Far Eastern Economic Review for many years and I always found them very informative. That's why I bought MONGOLIA:.... in Melbourne back in 1988. If you are interested in a picture of Mongolia up to 1986 or so, a picture garnished with a huge number of statistics, gleaned from the Mongolian People's Republic official publications or from Soviet sources, then this could be the book you are looking for. You will learn about milk prices in 1982, the number of animals in the national herd in different years, wages and pensions, and the amount of Mongolian exports to Britain. You get blow by blow development of economic and social changes. It is nearly impossible to read straight though you can find a large number of interesting nuggets if you persevere. It would be better as a reference work. The author includes some basic Mongolian history, but you can find more extensive and better written accounts elsewhere. Sanders obviously liked Mongolia and did not want to offend people, nor get on the `bad side' of officials and be banned from returning. I think he could have been more questioning, as statistics often reflect what governments want to show---of course not only in countries whose governments we don't like. The book was part of a series on socialist/communist countries in the world. Given that most of those countries have long-since discarded the system, it is inevitable that this book be quite out of date. While respecting the work that Sanders must have done to get this volume together, I would have to wonder who exactly would like to read it today.
Displaying 1 of 1 review