Uganda: Economics Dictionary Hits Market

[Jonny]

Uganda: Economics Dictionary Hits Market
New Vision (Kampala)
BOOK REVIEW
29 July 2007
Posted to the web 30 July 2007
Kampala

AS a dictionary, this book is raggedly basic, but its observations on the local scene achieve, at their best, a sharp insight. That insight comes from drawing illustrations from within when explaining concepts.

That it could also pass well as a dictionary of graphs gives an economist or student a deeper understanding of the issues.

And for beginners, the perspective on the history of phenomena like Malthus' theories on population is welcome. Its simplicity gives it a narrower scope than it deserves as the first such documentation on the principles of economics and commerce in the region.

It is best used in the teaching and learning for an economist. With the added appendix, complete with many formulae, useful tables, graphs and more than 100 illustrations, brief historical data, it meshes into a mini encyclopedia.

Although some of these may be too heavy for a non-economist, there are also the very light definitions that are suitable to anyone.

But these definitions are rather too simple and that makes it only as a reference book and not an authority. That the author does not find a summed-up definition on his subject renders it an "effortless book".

He uses Lionel Robbin's 1932 definition of "economics". It is a vast and brilliant dissection of this human subject that is lived out everyday, yet Mutamba has made it less complex.

For teachers and students of economics and commerce, the book will hardly rest on the shelf.

Book: Dictionary of Economics and Commerce

Author: Asiimwe Herbert Mutamba

Publisher: MK Publishers Ltd

Year of publication: 2006

Available at Aristoc Booklex, Newstyles Bookshop and Mukono Bookshop

Cover price: sh18,200

Reviewed by Emmanuel Ssejjengo

 

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