Prologue : the past in the present -- Setting and approach. Interpreting the region ; The shadows of antiquity -- Violence and imperialism : the 'long' nineteenth century. States of violence, to c. 1870 ; Borderlands, militarism, and the making of empire -- Colonialisms, old and new. Demarcating identity : the European colonial experience, c. 1890-c. 1950 ; The empire of Haile Selassie, c. 1900-74 -- Revolutions, liberations, and the ghosts of the mesafint. Revolution, 'liberation', and militant identity, 1974-91 ; New states, old wars : violence, frontier, and destiny in the modern era -- Epilogue : armed frontiers and militarized margins.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-304) and index.

Relates violent conflict through the 19th and 20th centuries in the region of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the Sudanese and Somali frontiers to ethnic, political, and religious conflict and the violent state- and empire-building processes which have defined the region.