• John Reader
  • History
  • 1998-11-05

Africa

A Biography of the Continent

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Penguin UK

ISBN: 0141926937

Category: History

Page: 816

View: 660

Drawing on many years of African experience, John Reader has written a book of startling grandeur and scope that recreates the great panorama of African history, from the primeval cataclysms that formed the continent to the political upheavals facing much of the continent today. Reader tells the extraordinary story of humankind's adaptation to the ferocious obstacles of forest, river and desert, and to the threat of debilitating parasites, bacteria and viruses unmatched elsewhere in the world. He also shows how the world's richest assortment of animals and plants has helped - or hindered - human progress in Africa.
  • John Reader
  • History
  • 1998-11-05

Africa

A Biography of the Continent

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Penguin UK

ISBN: 0140266755

Category: History

Page: 802

View: 6191

Includes bibliographical references and index.
  • John Reader
  • History
  • 1997

Africa

A Biography of the Continent

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Incorporated

ISBN: 9780679409793

Category: History

Page: 801

View: 6154

A panoramic, illustrated history of Africa from the dawn of human history to the end of apartheid charts the rise and fall of its civilizations, its complex history of slavery, its struggle with colonialism, and its great diversity. 30,000 first printing.
  • Martin Meredith
  • History
  • 2011-09-06

The Fate of Africa

A History of the Continent Since Independence

Author: Martin Meredith

Publisher: PublicAffairs

ISBN: 1610391322

Category: History

Page: 816

View: 6453

First published in 2005, The Fate of Africa was hailed by reviewers as "A masterpiece....The nonfiction book of the year" (The New York Post); "a magnificent achievement" (Weekly Standard); "a joy," (Wall Street Journal) and "one of the decade's most important works on Africa" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Now Martin Meredith has revised this classic history to incorporate important recent developments, including the Darfur crisis in Sudan, Robert Mugabe's continued destructive rule in Zimbabwe, controversies over Western aid and exploitation of Africa's resources, the growing importance and influence of China, and the democratic movement roiling the North African countries of Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan.
  • John Iliffe
  • History
  • 1995-08-25

Africans

The History of a Continent

Author: John Iliffe

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9780521484220

Category: History

Page: 323

View: 6271

This history of Africa from the origins of mankind to the South African general election of 1994 refocuses African history on the peopling of an environmentally hostile continent. The social, economic and political institutions of the African continent were designed to ensure survival and maximize numbers, but in the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations these institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. The history of the continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to the earliest human ancestors.
  • Martin Meredith
  • History
  • 2011-08-18

Born in Africa

The Quest for the Origins of Human Life

Author: Martin Meredith

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 0857206672

Category: History

Page: 288

View: 9483

Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind and the dawn of civilisation. Through a century of archaeological investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding of the beginnings of human life, although vital clues still remain hidden. In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about our human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, as well as describing the history of scholarship in this incredibly exciting field. He relates the intense rivalries, personal feuds and fierce controversies that shaped the study and perception of Africa, and recounts the feats of skill and endurance that have illuminated thousands of years of human evolution. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans and firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind, but also of our own species: homo sapiens, the modern human. Scientific study has revealed how early technology, language ability and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa, and scientists have shown how, in an exodus sixty thousand years ago, small groups of Africans left their birthplace to populate the rest of the world. We all have an African legacy, and in this fascinating and informative book Martin Meredith leads us back to the place where we have rediscovered our common human heritage.
  • Martin Meredith
  • History
  • 2014-09-11

Fortunes of Africa

A 5,000 Year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour

Author: Martin Meredith

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 1471135462

Category: History

Page: 768

View: 6621

In this vast and vivid panorama of history, Martin Meredith, bestselling author of The State of Africa, follows the fortunes of Africa over a period of 5,000 years. With compelling narrative, he traces the rise and fall of ancient kingdoms and empires; the spread of Christianity and Islam; the enduring quest for gold and other riches; the exploits of explorers and missionaries; and the impact of European colonisation. He examines, too, the fate of modern African states and concludes with a glimpse into their future. This is history on an epic scale.
  • Richard Dowden
  • History
  • 2008-12-16

Africa

Altered States, Ordinary Miracles

Author: Richard Dowden

Publisher: PublicAffairs

ISBN: 0786741422

Category: History

Page: 256

View: 2563

After a lifetime's close observation of the continent, one of the world's finest Africa correspondents has penned a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa. It takes a guide as observant, experienced, and patient as Richard Dowden to reveal its truths. Dowden combines a novelist's gift for atmosphere with the scholar's grasp of historical change as he spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone; analyzes the impact of oil and the internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan; and examines what has gone so badly wrong in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. Dowden's master work is an attempt to explain why Africa is the way it is, and enables its readers to see and understand this miraculous continent as a place of inspiration and tremendous humanity.
  • Molefi Kete Asante
  • History
  • 2014-10-10

The History of Africa

The Quest for Eternal Harmony

Author: Molefi Kete Asante

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1135013497

Category: History

Page: 418

View: 6975

There is a paradox about Africa: it remains a subject that attracts considerable attention yet rarely is there a full appreciation of its complexity. African historiography has typically consisted of writing Africa for Europe—instead of writing Africa for itself, as itself, from its own perspectives. The History of Africa redresses this by letting the perspectives of Africans themselves take center stage. Authoritative and comprehensive, this book provides a wide-ranging history of Africa from earliest prehistory to the present day—using the cultural, social, political, and economic lenses of Africa as instruments to illuminate the ordinary lives of Africans. The result is a fresh survey that includes a wealth of indigenous ideas, African concepts, and traditional outlooks that have escaped the writing of African history in the West. The new edition includes information on the Arab Spring, the rise of FrancAfrica, the presence of the Chinese in Africa, and the birth of South Sudan. The chapters go up to the present day, addressing US President Barack Obama's policies toward Africa. A new companion website provides students and scholars of Africa with access to a wealth of supporting resources for each chapter, including images, video and audio clips, and links to sites for further research. This straightforward, illustrated, and factual text allows the reader to access the major developments, personalities, and events on the African continent. This groundbreaking survey is an indispensable guide to African history.
  • Alvin M. Josephy
  • History
  • 2016-09-06

Africa: A History

Author: Alvin M. Josephy

Publisher: New Word City

ISBN: 161230978X

Category: History

Page: 665

View: 8934

Most of us still know less about Africa's past and peoples than we do about the continent's wild animals. And what we do know is colored by romance - safaris and treks and camel caravans, Solomon's mine and Tutankhamun's curse, the shores of Tripoli and the snows of Kilimanjaro. Yet the ancestor of all humankind may have lived in Africa. The world's longest-lived, literate civilization was African. Through the ages, great civilizations rose and fell in what was once called "darkest" Africa, leaving behind mysterious fortresses and splendid art. Christianity and Islam battled age-old beliefs - and each other. Traders on camels were followed by explorers in caravels and by a plague of invaders, hungry for ivory and diamonds and the "black gold" of slavery. In just the last half century, independence has swept away the old maps and colonial ways to jar the balance of the world. Here is Africa's story.
  • Ryszard Kapuscinski
  • History
  • 2011-05-25

The Shadow of the Sun

Author: Ryszard Kapuscinski

Publisher: Vintage Canada

ISBN: 0307367096

Category: History

Page: 352

View: 3790

A moving portrait of Africa from Poland's most celebrated foreign correspondent - a masterpiece from a modern master. Famous for being in the wrong places at just the right times, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa in 1957, at the beginning of the end of colonial rule - the "sometimes dramatic and painful, sometimes enjoyable and jubilant" rebirth of a continent. The Shadow of the Sun sums up the author's experiences ("the record of a 40-year marriage") in this place that became the central obsession of his remarkable career. From the hopeful years of independence through the bloody disintegration of places like Nigeria, Rwanda and Angola, Kapuscinski recounts great social and political changes through the prism of the ordinary African. He examines the rough-and-ready physical world and identifies the true geography of Africa: a little-understood spiritual universe, an African way of being. He looks also at Africa in the wake of two epoch-making changes: the arrival of AIDS and the definitive departure of the white man. Kapuscinski's rare humanity invests his subjects with a grandeur and a dignity unmatched by any other writer on the Third World, and his unique ability to discern the universal in the particular has never been more powerfully displayed than in this work. From the Trade Paperback edition.
  • Kevin Shillington
  • History
  • 2012-05-14

History of Africa

Author: Kevin Shillington

Publisher: Macmillan International Higher Education

ISBN: 1137003332

Category: History

Page: 528

View: 9455

In a single volume, History of Africa offers readers a richly illustrated narrative introduction to the history of the entire continent, from earliest times through to the present day. Building on the book's established reputation and success, this third edition has been revised and updated throughout in the light of new research and recent events. A companion website now also supports the text. Kevin Shillington traces the history of the continent through the ancient world to medieval, modern and contemporary Africa. He explores the early emergence of farming; the kingdoms of Ancient Egypt, Aksum and Meroe; medieval empires; the spread and impact of Islam; the role of trade and religion; and the development of Africa's wide range of pastoral, agricultural and hunting societies. History of Africa, third edition: • contains nearly 100 specially-drawn maps and almost 200 illustrations, a number of which are new for this edition • takes a deliberately African viewpoint of the European involvement in Africa • provides a carefully constructed examination of the colonial period and the problems of post-colonial Africa • presents expanded coverage of modern Africa with more on issues such as economic concerns, globalization, international organisations, climate change, HIV/AIDS, and the role of China • opens with a new Introduction which includes a helpful historiographical overview • features a companion website offering additional historical debate and critical discussion to complement specific parts of the text; key points to remember for each chapter; a variety of essay questions and exercises; and other resources to enhance the learning experience. Eminently clear and approachable, History of Africa remains the essential text for anyone with an interest in this remarkable continent and its fascinating past.
  • Thomas Pakenham
  • Africa
  • 1997

The Scramble for Africa, 1876-1912

Author: Thomas Pakenham

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

ISBN: 9780297819943

Category: Africa

Page: 738

View: 3299

  • Patrick Manning
  • History
  • 2010-03-05

The African Diaspora

A History Through Culture

Author: Patrick Manning

Publisher: Columbia University Press

ISBN: 0231144717

Category: History

Page: 424

View: 5580

Patrick Manning follows the multiple routes that brought Africans and people of African descent into contact with one another and with Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In joining these stories, he shows how the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean fueled dynamic interactions among black communities and cultures and how these patterns resembled those of a number of connected diasporas concurrently taking shaping across the globe. Manning begins in 1400 and traces the connections that enabled Africans to mutually identify and hold together as a global community. He tracks discourses on race, changes in economic circumstance, the evolving character of family life, and the growth of popular culture. He underscores the profound influence that the African diaspora had on world history and demonstrates the inextricable link between black migration and the rise of modernity. Inclusive and far-reaching, The African Diaspora proves that the advent of modernity cannot be fully understood without taking the African peoples and the African continent into account.
  • Blaine Harden
  • Africa
  • 1990

Africa

Dispatches from a Fragile Continent

Author: Blaine Harden

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 9780006378563

Category: Africa

Page: 333

View: 5075

The powerful and the powerless are here in dramatic narratives that explain a land swept up in change, lurching between an unworkable Western present and a collapsing African past. By focusing on individuals, Blaine Harden uncovers an Africa that endures behond the sum of its statistics.
  • Robert Guest
  • History
  • 2013-03-28

The Shackled Continent

Africa's Past, Present and Future

Author: Robert Guest

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

ISBN: 033054182X

Category: History

Page: 288

View: 6965

Africa is the only continent to have grown poorer over the past three decades. Why? Robert Guest's fascinating book seeks to diagnose the sickness that continues to hobble Africa's development. Using reportage, first-hand experience and economic insight, Robert Guest takes us to the roots of the problems. Two fifths of African nations are at war, AIDS has lowered life expectancy to as young as forty and investment is almost impossible as houses that could be used as collateral do not formally belong to their owners. Most shocking of all is the evidence that the billions of dollars of aid, given to Africa has had little perceptible effect on the poor. The Shackled Continent offers insightful, and occassionally controversial, explanations for this state of affairs. In this magnificent and engaging book, Robert Guest provides an invigorating history and an inspired commentary on the enigma of modern Africa and this paperback edition includes a new chapter. 'I doubt whether there is a better brief introduction to the travails of modern Africa and their causes' Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph 'He is a lively and observant reporter who can describe, in a breezy no-nonsense style, the horrors and miseries of Africans in the interior. . .The reader can learn much from this lively and outspoken book' Anthony Sampson, Guardian
  • Dr. David Livingstone
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • 2002-05-28

The Life and African Exploration of David Livingstone

Author: Dr. David Livingstone

Publisher: Cooper Square Press

ISBN: 1461661129

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 656

View: 6176

During his travels as a missionary, David Livingstone beheld many previously unknown wonders of the African interior. He put Victoria Falls and Lake Ngami on the map, and was the first white man to cross the African continent. Diaries, reports and letters are combined to create a wonderful narration of Livingstone's travels in a widely unknown continent. Included in this harrowing tale is Livingstone's narrow escape from a lion's wrath, his negotiations with an African chief, and his account of the Portuguese slave traders brutally punishing slaves after their attempt to escape. The Life and African Explorations of Livingstone also reveals Livingstone's deeply-rooted Christian beliefs and the strength he took from them, strength that allowed him to live and thrive amid the hardships of equatorial Africa.
  • F. Steady
  • Social Science
  • 2005-12-09

Women and Collective Action in Africa

Development, Democratization, and Empowerment, with Special Focus on Sierra Leone

Author: F. Steady

Publisher: Springer

ISBN: 1403979499

Category: Social Science

Page: 208

View: 3547

This book examines women's movements and women's collective action in Africa. Steady begins her examination in pre-colonial times, moving through the colonial period to the present. She looks at the various arenas which collective action has and can influence, comparing the impact on economic growth, education, democratizations, family formation, and women's rights. Steady uses Sierra Leone as the focus of her inquiry, in order for a detailed story to illustrate larger themes, but in every area makes comparisons to different parts of Africa; the case study here guides a larger inquiry. Written as a text, the book carefully explains the theoretical ideas (e.g., all key terms are defined, and then there is a discussion of how they relate to African issues specifically) and the historical knowledge (e.g., all historical events are described, there is no assumption of knowledge of African history) necessary to understand the meaning of current women's groups. What results is a clear and comprehensive treatment of an issue which is increasingly central to understanding changes taking place on the African continent today.
  • Hosea Jaffe
  • History
  • 2017-02-15

A History of Africa

Author: Hosea Jaffe

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

ISBN: 1783609850

Category: History

Page: 184

View: 4878

Spanning more than two thousand years of African history, from the African Iron Age to the collapse of colonialism and the beginnings of independence, Hosea Jaffe's magisterial work remains one of the few to do full justice to the continent's complex and diverse past. The great strength of Jaffe's work lies in its unique theoretical perspective, which stresses the distinctive character of Africa's social structures and historical development. Crucially, Jaffe rejects all efforts to impose Eurocentric models of history onto Africa, whether it be liberal notions of 'progress' or Marxist theories of class struggle, arguing instead that the key dynamics underpinning African history are unique to the continent itself, and rooted in conflicts between different modes of production. The work also includes a foreword by the distinguished economist and political theorist Samir Amin, in which he outlines the contribution of Jaffe’s work to our understanding of African history and its ongoing post-colonial struggles.