Africa: A Biography of the Continent - Softcover

Reader, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140266755 ISBN 13: 9780140266757

Publisher: Penguin, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Synopsis:

A one-volume history of Africa which starts in geological pre-history and the formation of the continent. It spans; the ecology of the continent and the arrival of man; first settlement 30,000 years ago, the developments of the black population; the formation of tribes and animist religion etc; then white colonization, the slave trade, missionaries, gold and diamonds in South Africa, the scramble for colonies, and finally in this century, decolonisation and African nationalism. this massive book will be the result of four years research most of it in Africa.

About the Author:

John Reader is a writer and photojournalist with more than forty years professional experience, much of it in Africa. Born in London in 1937, he currently holds an Honorary Research Fellowship in the Department of Anthropology at University CollegeLondon, and is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Geographical Society. He is the author of Pyramids of Life, Missing Links: The Hunt for Earliest Man; Kilimanjaro; The Rise of Life; Mount Kenya and Man on Earth.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140266755
• ISBN 13: 9780140266757
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 816