Drawing on archival sources as well as her extensive fieldwork in Tanzania, Dorothy L. Hodgson explores the ways identity, development, and gender have interacted to shape the Maasai into who and what they are today. By situating the Maasai in the political, economic, and social context of Tanzania and of world events, Hodgson shows how outside forces, and views of development in particular, have influenced Maasai lifeways, especially gender relations.

These original essays exemplify how the transnational history of the United States is being written today. The authors offer fresh work that focuses on the circuits of border-crossing activity that Americans have inhabited, while still taking the nation-state seriously.