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Book Cover
E-book
Author Brett, Michael, 1934- author.

Title Approaching African history
Published Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Rochester, NY : James Currey, ©2013

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Description 1 online resource (356 pages) : maps
Contents PART I. The Problem of African History -- PART II. The Making of African Society -- PART III. Africa in the World -- PART IV. The Unification of Africa -- PART V. The Arrival of African History
Summary "Africa is a huge continent, as large as the more habitable areas of Europe and Asia put together. It has a history immensely long, yet the study of that history as an academic discipline in its own right is little more than fifty years old. Since then the subject has grown enormously, but the question of what this history is and how it has been approached still needs to be asked, not least to answer the question of why should we study it. This book takes as its subject the last 10,000 years of African history, and traces the way in which human society on the continent has evolved from communities of hunters and gatherers to the complex populations of today. Approaching that history through its various dimensions: archaeological, ethnographic, written, scriptural, European and contemporary, it looks at how the history of such a vast region over such a length of time has been conceived and presented, and how it is to be investigated. The problem itself is historical, and an integral part of the history with which it is concerned, beginning with the changing awareness over the centuries of what Africa might be. Michael Brett thus traces the history of Africa not only on the ground, but also in the mind, in order to make his own historical contribution to the debate"--Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject HISTORY -- Africa -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Black Studies (Global)
Civilization
SUBJECT Africa -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001556
Africa -- Civilization. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85001534
Subject Africa
Afrika
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781782040644
1782040641
9781782047261
1782047263