• 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: 8567

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
  • Cooking
  • 2009

Potato

A History of the Propitious Esculent

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Yale University Press

ISBN: 0300153996

Category: Cooking

Page: 315

View: 5213

The potato--humble, lumpy, bland, familiar--is a decidedly unglamorous staple of the dinner table. Or is it? John Reader's narrative on the role of the potato in world history suggests we may be underestimating this remarkable tuber. From domestication in Peru 8,000 years ago to its status today as the world's fourth largest food crop, the potato has played a starring--or at least supporting--role in many chapters of human history. In this witty and engaging book, Reader opens our eyes to the power of the potato. Whether embraced as the solution to hunger or wielded as a weapon of exploitation, blamed for famine and death or recognized for spurring progress, the potato has often changed the course of human events. Reader focuses on sixteenth-century South America, where the indigenous potato enabled Spanish conquerors to feed thousands of conscripted native people; eighteenth-century Europe, where the nutrition-packed potato brought about a population explosion; and today's global world, where the potato is an essential food source but also the world's most chemically-dependent crop. Where potatoes have been adopted as a staple food, social change has always followed. It may be "just" a humble vegetable, John Reader shows, yet the history of the potato has been anything but dull.
  • 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: 9181

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: 3544

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.
  • David Van Reybrouck
  • History
  • 2012-04-16

Kongo

Eine Geschichte

Author: David Van Reybrouck

Publisher: Suhrkamp Verlag

ISBN: 3518778005

Category: History

Page: 783

View: 4460

Fesselnd und atemberaubend erzählt David van Reybrouck die Geschichte Kongos, wie wir sie noch nie gelesen haben. Der Autor, der den Bogen von der kolonialen Gewaltherrschaft unter Leopold II. über die 32jährige Mobutu-Diktatur bis hinein in die Gegenwart spannt, berichtet aus der eindrücklichen Perspektive derjenigen, die in ihrem Land leiden, kämpfen, leben – im Mittelpunkt stehen die Träume, Hoffnungen und Schicksale der sogenannten einfachen Bevölkerung. Für sein mehrfach preisgekröntes Buch hat der Autor zahlreiche Reisen in das zentralafrikanische Land unternommen, in dem er einzigartige Interviews führen konnte. Der Älteste, mit dem er sprach, wurde 1882 geboren. Seine Stimme und die vieler hundert anderer, Kindersoldaten und Rebellenführer, Politiker und Missionare, machen dieses Buch zu einer Sensation. Mit zahlreichen Augenzeugenberichten, bisher unbekannten Dokumenten aus Archiven und Van Reybroucks fundierter Kenntnis der Forschung stellt es einen Meilenstein auf dem Gebiet der Sachbuchliteratur dar.
  • 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: 6632

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.
  • John Reader
  • Social Science
  • 2007-12-01

Cities

Author: John Reader

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

ISBN: 0802195733

Category: Social Science

Page: 384

View: 9877

In Cities, the acclaimed historian John Reader takes us on a journey of the city—from its earliest example in the Ancient Near East to today’s teeming centers of compressed existence, such as Mumbai and Tokyo. Cities are home to half the planet’s population and consume nearly three-quarters of its natural resources. For Reader, they are our most natural artifacts, the civic spirit of our collective ingenuity. He gives us the ecological and functional context of how cities evolved throughout human history—the connection between pottery making and childbirth in ancient Anatolia, plumbing and politics in ancient Rome, and revolution and street planning in nineteenth-century Paris. This illuminating study helps us to understand how urban centers thrive, decline, and rise again—and prepares us for the role cities will play in the future.
  • 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: 2026

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.
  • Jerry Spinelli,Andreas Steinhöfel
  • 2006

Asche fällt wie Schnee

Author: Jerry Spinelli,Andreas Steinhöfel

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 9783791519647

Category:

Page: 235

View: 5741

Aus der Sicht des 8-jährigen Strassenkindes Misha wird erschütternd über die Vernichtung polnischer Juden im Warschauer Getto erzählt. Ab 13.
  • Tania Blixen
  • Fiction
  • 2016-05-31

Jenseits von Afrika

Author: Tania Blixen

Publisher: Manesse Verlag

ISBN: 364120271X

Category: Fiction

Page: 688

View: 7708

«Eines der schönsten Bücher unseres Jahrhunderts.» (Truman Capote) Kaum ein Klassiker des 20. Jahrhunderts strahlt eine ähnliche Faszination aus wie Jenseits von Afrika. Mit ihrer melancholischen Liebeserklärung an Natur und Ureinwohner Kenias schuf Tania Blixen ein bewegendes Stück Weltliteratur. Die Eingeborenen Ostafrikas, majestätische Berge und unendliche Savannen zogen Tania Blixen augenblicklich in ihren Bann, als sie 1914 nach Nairobi reiste, um dort eine Kaffeeplantage zu betreiben. In farbigen Bildern beschreibt sie die märchenhaft-mystische Atmosphäre der Natur, erzählt von der Jagd, den Bräuchen der Einheimischen und von so mancher bewegenden Begegnung: mit Kamante, einem kranken Kikuyujungen, den sie zum Koch ausbildet, mit Häuptling Kinanjui, mit Berkeley Cole, der ihr Freund, und Denys Finch Hatton, der ihr Geliebter wird. 1937 erschienen, fanden Blixens berührende Erinnerungen weltweit Millionen begeisterte Leserinnen und Leser. Auch die preisgekrönte Hollywood-Verfilmung durch Sidney Pollack – mit Meryl Streep und Robert Redford in den Hauptrollen – beförderte dieses Buch in den Rang der unvergesslichen Klassiker.
  • Amy McKenna Senior Editor, Geography and History
  • Juvenile Nonfiction
  • 2011-01-15

The History of Southern Africa

Author: Amy McKenna Senior Editor, Geography and History

Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

ISBN: 161530312X

Category: Juvenile Nonfiction

Page: 240

View: 7684

This book examines the history of southern Africa, including an overview of each of the countries that comprise that area of the continent.
  • Martin Meredith
  • Elephants
  • 2001

Africa's Elephant

A Biography

Author: Martin Meredith

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 9780340770818

Category: Elephants

Page: 244

View: 1703

"Yet elephant history has been dominated by periods of brutality and persecution. African elephants were used in ancient times to fight in wars. The Romans threw them into gladiatorial games. But, above all, it was the demand for their ivory, prized for centuries as a badge of wealth and status and used in modern times to manufacture piano keys and billiard balls, that has made Africa's elephants one of the most vulnerable animals on earth. In the late twentieth century, the onslaught was so severe that the African elephant was placed on the list of endangered species."--BOOK JACKET.
  • Bill Freund
  • History
  • 2007

The African City

A History

Author: Bill Freund

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9780521527927

Category: History

Page: 214

View: 7846

This book gives a comprehensive picture of cities in Africa from early origins to the present. It views towns and cities as an inherent part of developing Africa and emphasizes the extent to which the future of African society and African culture will likely be played out mostly in cities.
  • Alexandra Fuller
  • Fiction
  • 2003-03-27

Unter afrikanischer Sonne

Meine Kindheit in Simbabwe

Author: Alexandra Fuller

Publisher: Goldmann Verlag

ISBN: 3894807873

Category: Fiction

Page: N.A

View: 5513

Alexandra Fuller ist zwei Jahre alt, als ihre Eltern zu Beginn der Siebzigerjahre beschließen, ihrer englischen Heimat den Rücken zu kehren und nach Rhodesien - in das heutige Simbabwe - auszuwandern. Es ist ein hartes Leben voller Entbehrungen, das die Fullers erwartet, doch allen Widrigkeiten zum Trotz empfindet Alexandra schon früh eine fast schmerzhaft intensive Verbundenheit zu diesem faszinierenden Land voller exotischer Schönheit: Der Duft von schwarzem Tee und jungem Gras, das Rascheln der Tabakblätter im Wind, die flirrende Hitze und der Staub auf der Haut erfüllen sie mit einem Gefühl von Geborgenheit und Glück. Und selbst wenn sie schon in jungen Jahren lernen muss, was Bürgerkrieg und Flucht bedeuten, so ist Alexandra doch zutiefst verwurzelt mit dem Schwarzen Kontinent, der ihr zur über alles geliebten - zur einzigen Heimat wird.
  • Tim Jeal
  • History
  • 2011-10-06

Stanley

Africa's Greatest Explorer

Author: Tim Jeal

Publisher: Faber & Faber

ISBN: 0571265642

Category: History

Page: 592

View: 4636

Henry Morton Stanley was a cruel imperialist - a bad man of Africa. Or so we think: but as Tim Jeal brilliantly shows, the reality of Stanley's life is yet more extraordinary. Few people know of his dazzling trans-Africa journey, a heart-breaking epic of human endurance which solved virtually every one of the continent's remaining geographical puzzles. With new documentary evidence, Jeal explores the very nature of exploration and reappraises a reputation, in a way that is both moving and truly majestic.
  • Martin Meredith
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • 1997

Nelson Mandela

A Biography

Author: Martin Meredith

Publisher: St Martins Press

ISBN: 9780312181321

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 596

View: 8957

A portrait of a man who has inspired millions around the world with his experiences in both prison and the presidency of South Africa
  • Paula McLain
  • Fiction
  • 2015-08-21

Lady Africa

Roman

Author: Paula McLain

Publisher: Aufbau Digital

ISBN: 3841210287

Category: Fiction

Page: 464

View: 8255

Die Frau, die den Himmel bezwang. Aufgewachsen als Tochter eines Lords im afrikanischen Busch, interessiert sich die junge Beryl nicht für Seidenkleider und Etikette. Dafür ist sie stark und mutig wie ein Kipsigis-Junge und hat von ihrem Vater alles über Rassepferde gelernt. Doch im britischen Protektorat – dem späteren Kenia – der vorigen Jahrhundertwende ist kein Platz für solch ein ungezähmtes Mädchen. Bis sie in Karen Blixen eine Seelenverwandte findet – und in deren Geliebtem, dem Flieger und Großwildjäger Denys Finch Hutton, das Abenteuer ihres Lebens. Die Autorin des internationalen Bestsellers „Madame Hemingway“ erzählt in diesem großen Afrika-Epos die wahre Geschichte der Flugpionierin Beryl Markham, die als erste Frau den Atlantik überquerte.
  • Fred Bridgland
  • History
  • 2017-06-19

The War for Africa

Twelve Months that Transformed a Continent

Author: Fred Bridgland

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 1612004938

Category: History

Page: 360

View: 6016

The Angolan Civil War lasted over a quarter of a century, from 1975 to 2002. Beginning as a power struggle between two former liberation movements, the MPLA and UNITA, it became a Cold War struggle with involvement from the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa and the USA. This book examines the height of the Cuban-South African fighting in Angola in 1987–88, when 3,000 South African soldiers and about 8,000 UNITA guerrilla fighters fought in alliance against the Cubans and the armed forces of the Marxist MPLA government, a force of over 50,000 men. Bridgland pieced together the course of the war, fought in one of the world’s most remote and wild terrains, by interviewing the South Africans who fought it, and many of their accounts are woven into the narrative. This classic account of a Cold War struggle and its momentous consequences for the participants and across the continent, is released in a new edition with a new preface and epilogue.
  • Nigel Watt
  • Burundi
  • 2008

Burundi

Biography of a Small African Country

Author: Nigel Watt

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 9781850659174

Category: Burundi

Page: 234

View: 9025

Little known in the English-speaking world, Burundi is Rwanda's twin, a small Central African country with a complex history of ethnic tension between its Hutu and Tutsi populations that has itself experienced traumatic events, including mass killings of over 200,000 people. The country remained in a state of simmering civil war until 2004, after which Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela took turns as mediators in a lengthy, and eventually successful, peace process which has endowed Burundi with new institutions, including a new constitution, that led to the election of a majority Hutu government in 2005. But there are many problems still to solve apart from ethnic tensions, above all the entrenched poverty of most Burundians, which has seen it designated by NGOs as one of the most deprived countries on earth.Nigel Watt's book discusses the troubled political fortunes of this beautiful yet disturbed country in the heart of Central Africa. He traces the origins of its political crises, sheds light on Burundi's recent history by means of interviews with leading participants and those whose lives have been affected by horrific events, and helps demystify the country's ethnic divisions.