The originality of this study of rural transformation stems from the way in which Professor Kimambo has used the oral tradition to reveal the history of the impact of the world economy in northeastern Tanzania. First under the pressures of commodity trade, and later under German and British imperialism, the peasant producers of this region were forced into participation in capitalist production. These partial changes destroyed the Pare's balanced subsistence structure. But throughout the colonial period they were frustrated in their efforts to transform themselves fully into...