History of Africa

By Kevin Shillington

Book Overview

This fourth edition of this best-selling core history textbook offers a richly illustrated, single volume, narrative introduction to African history, from a hugely respected authority in the field. The market-leading range of illustrated material from prior editions is now further improved, featuring not only additional and redrawn maps and a refreshed selection of photographs, but the addition of full colour to make these even more instructive, evocative and attractive.

Already hugely popular on introductory African History courses, the book has been widely praised for its engaging and readable style, and is unrivalled in scope, both geographically and chronologically - while many competitors limit themselves to certain regions or eras, Shillington chronicles the entire continent, from prehistory right up to the present day. For this new edition, both content and layout have been thoroughly refreshed and restructured to make this wealth of material easily navigable, and even more appealing to students unfamiliar with the subject.

New to this Edition:
- Now in full colour with fresh new design
- Part structure and part intros added to help navigation
- New and improved online resources include a new testbank, interactive timelines, lecturer slides, debates In African history, essay questions and further readings
- Revised and updated in light of recent research

Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/history-of-africa-4e. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 113750403X
• ISBN13: 9781137504036
• Release Date: September 2018
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.6" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Great book must have.

Must have in your library

The scars of Western democracy?

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.

concise and thoughtful, without being superficial

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!

Admirable Intention

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.

Excellent survey for the first-time reader

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.

Absolutely outstanding for survey courses!

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.