Customer Reviews

History of Africa, Revised Edition

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Shillington provides a good survey style textbook on African history from antiquity to the modern period. He covers in great detail and quality of the relationship between Africa and Islam as well as the nature of slavery and apartheid. He covers the slave trade in quite a bit of detail, explaining the value of the African as a marketable commodity. He also explains the origins of apartheid as a colonial parting gift that became entrenched racist national policy for more than fifty years. Shillington's survey is quite appropriate for a high school African history class, an undergraduate African history survey or introduction or even as a first book for a graduate African history course. The topics covered here are obviously from an Africanist point of view although there is a minimum, if any, level of bias on Shillington's part.

Kevin Shillington's organization and structure serve well the one semester survey course in African history. There are 29 chapters from pre-history to post-independence Africa. The maps are excellent - the best I have seen. The book does not get bogged down into too much detail but has the most important concepts, people and events. We use it at the Air Force Academy every year with no plans to change in the near future.

The book is written from an African point of view, which is badly needed in the current world of academia. Shillington does a great job of portraying things from the "other side". The only defect is that he can sometimes be too sympathetic to the other side and penalize westerners, giving the book a slight bias. Despite this, it is an excellent book for getting a look into African history from another angle.

Extremely well written and hard to put down.

Shillington has an obvious affection for Africa, but I expected it and allowed for it. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a first survey of African history.

I would like to have seen more maps, with less information on each map.

I'm not sure the book would make a good text for college, but it makes a great book for general reading.

Here is the best one-volume history of this misunderstood continent, one which highlights Africans' agency and creativity. Now in a third edition, it has more useful features than any competitors. Numerous superb illustrations present images ranging from rare to famous. The maps are even better, allowing readers to locate places, peoples and developments precisely. And the text displays Shillington's mastery of all the latest scholarly work on the continent. His sober, balanced approach is sometimes dry, but the style is always readable. Publisher and author claim that "History of Africa" is both a high school and college text, but plentiful (not excessive) detail makes it a challenge for all but the most advanced secondary students. More direct quotations from oral and written sources would improve the book, but this is a minor problem remedied by using supplementary materials. Lastly, the cost is reasonable, less than half the average for comparable surveys of Western Civ or US history. This volume will satisfy the curiosity of the general public too.

I had the good fortune to be introduced to this book by reading it aloud as a volunteer for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Shillington builds a lucid case that the decline of the Egyptian civilization coincided with a shift away from trade and toward imperial domination -- which failed over long distances. Each chapter provides a clear perspective and a compelling read. High praise for a textbook!

I have to be honest and admit that until reading this book I was very uninformed about the history of Africa outside of Egypt and Ethiopia and in any other periods than the ancient and Medieval. This book was a great general introduction to the history of Africa from the dawn of man through to modern times. The illustrations and pictures, both modern and historic, that were featured were very helpful in bringing the subjects to life. The flow of the text itself helped very much in connecting the dots and helping me to understood the flow of African history from one event, period, person, etc. to the next. Overall, I would recommend this is a good general introduction to the history of Africa that would come in use to someone who, like me, knew little to nothing about the history of this great continent.

Imperialistic colonization and foreign domination are a stain on the forehead of democracy.
But since when monopolization of ethical thoughts under the pretext of urban development and building a nation fed by foreign interests paved the way to progress and national prosperity?

This book might appear as anti- European propaganda, but it is not.

The severe tone of the book is not to be ignored, and I admit the arguments lack historic foundation, nevertheless, the scars of African sufferings are still bleeding, and there is a powerful lesson to learn from this book.

Everything came as stated in the online description. The book came on time as mentioned when I purchased the book.

Shillington's tome races through the whole tale of Africa, sketching the big picture, but often with little time for more than names and dates. At many points, such as the 1960 crisis in the newly independent Congo, he exposes the bias of previously prevailing accounts. The emphasis is deliberately positive, emphasizing people's accomplishments or heroic struggles against adversity. But I couldn't help but be freshly shocked by the longstanding traditions of businesspeople or politicians treating their customers with naked contempt.

For example, we have this typical item concerning Sudan in the mid-1800s: "The European, Egyptian and Sudanese merchants based in Khartoum ... found it more profitable to raid than to trade and the Egyptian government placed no restrictions on their activities on the upper Nile" (p. 281).

Across Africa, the companies and governments of the both colonial and post-colonial eras launched massive schemes, supposedly for the development of Africa: "But in practice the system was widely open to abuse, mainly because it was motivated purely by short-term private profit ... the companies concentrated on the violent expropriation of the people and their natural resources" (pp. 332-333).

The armies and police forces evicted farmers from their land, enforced economic and political monopolies, and crushed any customers who protested. Instead of trying to earn their customers' patronage, these business and political leaders commonly took whatever they wanted by violence.

Shillington does offer glimpses of a different emerging reality, where businesses and governments have to earn rather than enforce support from the customers. We catch sight of community-based development and women's initiative in places like Botswana, Kenya, or Burkina Faso.

The whole story has both hopeful and disturbing implications for the global future of corporate and political power. How does a "for profit" system work when the leaders of great institutions have little but contempt for their workers and customers? And how does that change?