Featuring a variety of historical and political overviews by an American legal advisor with access to the Emperor of Ethiopia for over 40 years, John H. Spencer’s book gives unparalleled information regarding the challenges of Haile Sellassie during his reign. External forces and crises, and no allies in sight, were causes of Haile Sellassie’s defeat and exile in 1936, and ultimately his downfall and death in 1974. Ethiopia at Bay truly gives a personal account of Haile Selassie’s years. 

“A marvelous recounting of Ethiopian and world history during those years. Mandatory reading for anyone interested in Third World relations and certainly for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary Ethiopian or Horn of Africa affairs.”

—Foreign Service Journal

“A significant primary source in its first hand account by a meticulously observant insider.”

—Foreign Affairs

“Commands attention and respect. John Spencer’s personal, candid, and basically reliable record will have an honored place in the contemporary annals of that tortured country.”—Times Literary Supplement

“Spencer is one of the very few living people in a position to describe Ethiopia’s efforts to survive during those years.”

—Library Journal

“Spencer was privy to many important decisions. Of particular interest is his account of Haile Sellassie’s disenchantment with the U.S.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

“After the hard fate which befell the Emperor and his notables, Spencer is maybe the only one of the old regime’s key persons still alive. There is hardly a single page one would want to miss.”

—Sture Linner in Svenska Dagbladet

“I found Ethiopia at Bay intensely interesting, sad and even tragic in the Greek mode. What a series of missed opportunities, anachronistic colonial arrogances, and western shortsightedness! The book would be enormously instructive to students of international relations generally.”

—Lincoln Gordon, former President, Johns Hopkins University

“Valuable indeed, especially significant is Spencer’s cogent analysis of the Emperor himself. Recommended for college, university, and larger public libraries.”

—Choice

John Hathaway Spencer became an adviser to the Ethiopian government in 1936, when it was under attack by Mussolini’s forces. He was himself present at the fall of Addis Ababa. Later he served Haile Sellassie’s government as Principal Adviser to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1943 and 1974. His years of close involvement with Ethiopia have placed him in a unique position to interpret the significance of past and present developments in that ancient and fascinating country.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, he took a State Doctorate in Law in Paris. He served with the Department of State, and was Professor of International Law and Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Dr. Spencer died on August 25, 2005 in New York State.