Africa in History [Paperback]

Basil Davidson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0684826674 | ISBN-13: 978-0684826677 | Edition: Revised

Prior to the original publication of Africa in History, the history and development of Africa had been measured by the European concept of "civilization," applying a Eurocentric approach to African art and literature. Basil Davidson's landmark work presents the inner growth of Africa and its worldwide significance, the internal dynamic of its old civilizations and their links with Asia, Europe and America, as well as the development of specific areas, tribes and cultures. From accounts of the days of the green Sahara and the great iron age, the earliest Portuguese colonization, the coming of slavery and the subsequent legacy of violence and mistrust, the growth of Islam in the north and the cults of the Congo, the sophistication of art and architecture, and the pattern behind social and tribal mores, the entire picture of the continent emerges. This revised edition reflects the recent astonishing changes in South Africa, including the release of Nelson Mandela.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is the fourth revision of an excellent book by the prolific and acclaimed author who has done more than anyone else to bring the history of Africa to a popular audience. It covers the general themes of African history and is suitable both as an undergraduate text and for the general reader. The revisions appear to have been minimal, limited primarily to the final chapter and concerned with updating recent events in South Africa. Nevertheless, this is the type of book that most collections of African history, from basic to comprehensive, ought to have.
- Paul H. Thomas, Hoover Inst. Lib., Stanford, Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Book Week Today the history of Africa is undergoing a revolution. No one has done more for that much-needed revolution than Basil Davidson.

Africa, the journal of the International African Institute The best work now available to the general public on the main outlines of the prestigious past of the African continent.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone Books; Revised edition (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684826674
• ISBN-13: 978-0684826677
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #708,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of African history, April 28, 2000

By 

Nitay Artenstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa in History (Paperback)

Basil Davidson has written an excellent overview of African history, ranging from the Egyptian and Nubian kingdoms to the trading empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhay. An especially adept treatment is given to the Colonial Period; Refraining from the accepted subjective views, Davidson tries to analyze the true effect Europeans had on the continent, without pathos or exaggeration. This does not mean that he resents their interference less - few authors could hold more negative views of individual European exploiters making use of the continent for their private ends.

One point against this book is that it is perhaps too short for its scope. Less than 400 pages, the reader is left with the sensation that he has been told much, and yet has been told nothing - an appropriate sensation, perhaps, to provide the incentive to continue reading about the subject, but the aggregate increase in knowledge resulting from the reading is still not large.

Nevertheless, I would warmly recommend this book to anybody seriously interested in the African subject.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I'll just add to what's above, March 8, 2002

By 

Thomas Smith (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa in History (Paperback)

Without knowing much on the subject, I will say that all the arguments in this book seem sound. However, it is written in such an incoherant manner - switching back and forth from century to century, that you often don't know what century the author is talking about, much less his current argument. Instead the book comes across as Basil rambling, and this has more to do with the above stated, "being told much, but being told nothing." You'd have to re-write every fact and place them all in cronological order to make any sense of it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Things blur together, April 24, 2011

By 

Chuck - See all my reviews

This review is from: Africa in History (Paperback)

If others find this book to be a good overview of African history, more power to them. I side with the reviewer here who found the book to be distractingly jumpy and a bit disconnected, switching from one period and one civilization to another. For me this isn't really a brief history of Africa as much as it is a polemic to counter what had been decades of wrong-headed Western thinking about Africa. Evidently it had been acceptable in respected academic circles to declare the Africans to be simple primitives who had no culture, who needed the "help" of outside cultures to accomplish anything noteworthy. Davidson's primary aim is to refute this attitude and he cites to highly-developed cultures throughout Africa's pre-colonial history. The problem is that to do this, he employs a checklist of anthropological benchmarks (established trade routes, refined metalwork, etc.) against which to measure the historic African societies. This makes for a real sameness, a feeling of not having any flavor of any of the societies he describes because they're just grist for his general anthropological mill. It really was hard for me to keep the narrative straight.

I've previously read an expose and debunking of the arrogant Eurocentric academic attitude toward Africa (see Martin Bernal's "Black Athena") so I didn't feel I needed a replay of it from Davidson. I came to the conclusion, in light of the extreme generality with which Davidson treated his subject, that I'd do better with histories of particular regions/countries. So I'm starting out with a history of Ethiopia, maybe I'll move on to a history of South Africa, who knows after that.