
African History
A Very Short Introduction
Oxford University Press
Published on 22. March 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-0-19-280248-4 (ISBN)
Description
Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa's history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Reviews / Votes
A very well informed and sharply stated historiography... should be in every historiography student's kitbag. A tour de force... it made me think a great deal. * Terence Ranger, The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies * You will finish this book better informed, with a better understanding of Africa and a clearer idea of the questions. * Robert Giddings, Tribune * This small book is a smart and stimulating essay exploring issues of history, sources and methods, Africa in the world, colonialism and postcolonialism, and the past in the present as a means of introducing students and others to academic thinking about African history. * Tom Spear, Journal of African History *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
29 halftones, 4 maps
Dimensions
Height: 178 mm
Width: 111 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
160 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-280248-4 (9780192802484)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2007
OUP eBook
€5.49
Available for download

E-Book
03/2007
OUP eBook
€5.49
Available for download
Persons
John Parker teaches African history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He specializes in the history of Ghana and is the author of Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (2000) and (with Jean Allman) Tongnaab: The History of a West African God (2005). He is currently researching a book on the history of death and burial in Ghana.
Richard Rathbone is Honorary Professor of History in the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Emeritus Professor in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has written on south and west Africa and his books include Ghana (1992), Murder and politics in colonial Ghana (1993) and Nkrumah and the chiefs (2000). He is currently working on 19th century west African intellectuals.
Richard Rathbone is Honorary Professor of History in the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Emeritus Professor in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He has written on south and west Africa and his books include Ghana (1992), Murder and politics in colonial Ghana (1993) and Nkrumah and the chiefs (2000). He is currently working on 19th century west African intellectuals.
Author
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Honorary Professor of History, University of Aberystwyth
Content
1. The idea of Africa ; 2. Africans: diversity and unity ; 3. Africa's past: historical sources ; 4. Africa in the world ; 5. Colonialism in Africa ; 6. Imagining the future, rebuilding the past ; 7. Memory and forgetting, past and present