The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800

by Christopher Ehret 480 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 80 halftones, 10 line drawings, 24 maps http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/ehret2.html#Related%20LinksCloth ISBN 0-8139-2084-1 $50.00 Paper ISBN 0-8139-2085-X $22.50 Available May 2002 With his focus on precolonial Africa, Christopher Ehret provides in The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 a remarkably complete and original overview of African history during the long periods sparsely covered in most other general histories of the continent. He examines African inventions and civilizations from 16,000 BCE to 1800 CE from the northern tip of Tunisia to the Cape of Good Hope in the south. Logically organized by topic and era, Ehrets heavily illustrated and easily accessible text reveals the diversity of African history. It explores the wide range of social and cultural as well as technological and economic change in Africa, and it depicts African agricultural, social, political, cultural, technological, and economic history in relation to developments in the rest of the world. Designed to address the glaring lack of texts concentrating on Africa before 1800, this book can be fruitfully combined with histories of Africa since 1800 to build a full and well-rounded understanding of the roles of Africas peoples in human history.

From the text:

"Africa lies at the heart of human history. It is the continent from which the distant ancestors of every one of us, no matter who we are today, originally came. Its peoples participated integrally in the great transformations of world history. . . . Bigger than the

United States, China, India, Australia, and Europe combined, the African continent presents us with a historical panorama of surpassing richness and diversity."

Table of Contents
Introducing Africa and Its History Africa in a Global Frame Getting the Terms of Our Discourse Straight Themes in History: What to Look For in Our Reading Africa and Human Origins Africa before the Agricultural Age, 16,0009000 BCE Africa and the World: From Gathering to Farming Geography and Climate in African History Afrasan Civilization Nilo-Saharan Peoples and the Middle Nile Archeological Tradition Niger-Congo Civilization Khoisan Civilization Summing Up the Period 16,0009000 bce in Africa Culture and Technology in Africa, 90003500 BCE The Environments of Agricultural Invention Inventing Agriculture: The Eastern Sahara, 90005500 BCE The Aquatic Tradition of the Sudan, 90005500 BCE Sudanic Civilization: The Intertwining of the Sudanic Agripastoral and the Aquatic Traditions Inventing Agriculture: The Horn of Africa and the Northern Sahara, 90005500 BCE

Agricultural Invention: West African Planting Agriculture, 90005500 BCE Livelihood and Culture History in Africa, 55003500 BCE Themes in the History of Culture, 90003500 BCE Persistent Gatherer-Hunters: The Southern Third of Africa Africa 90003500 bce in the Context of World History Diverging Paths of History: Africa, 35001000 BCE Africa in Comparative Historical Perspective The Spread of Agriculture into Central Africa Cultivation and Herding Come to Eastern Africa The Middle Frontier: Early Agriculture in the Upper Nile Region Sahara, Sudan, and the Horn of Africa, 35001000 BCE New Ways of Life in Northeastern Africa Crops and Metals in West Africa Lands of States and Towns: Nubia and Egypt Africa, 35001000 BCE: What Have We Learned? An Age of Commerce, an Age of Iron: Africa, 1000 BCE to 300 CE Africa in World History, 1000 bce to 300 CE Eastern Africa in Its Classical Age Western Equatorial Africa: Social and Economic Repercussions of Agricultural Expansion Commerce, Merchants, and States: Northeastern Africa North Africa in the Carthaginian and Roman Eras An African Development of Commerce: West Africa, 1000 BCE

to 300 BCE Southern, Central, and Eastern Africa: The Middle Centuries, 300 1450 Africa and the World: Issues and Themes of the Age Subsistence and Society in Southern Africa, 3001450 Growth of Political Scale: The Southern Woodland Savannas and Equatorial Rainforest, 6001450 Eastern Africa, 3001450 Southern, Central, and Eastern Africa: Taking the Long View Northeastern, West, and North Africa: The Middle Centuries, 300 1450 Themes of Change Northeastern Africa, 3001450 West Africa, 3001450 North Africa and the Sahara, 300 1450: Competing Legitimacies, Competing Hegemonies Agriculture, Technology, and Culture: A Continental Overview, 3001450 The Early Atlantic Age, 14501640 Africa and the World Enter a New Historical Era Western Africa, 14501640 Atlantic Commerce and the Coastal Hinterlands of Africa Commerce, Religion, and Political Struggle in Northeastern Africa Northern Africa and the Sahara History in the Eastern and Central Sudan, 14501640 History in the African Interior, 1450 1640 Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 16401800

The Middle Era of the Atlantic Age: Themes and Issues West Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade Central Africa: The Expanding Impact of Atlantic Commerce Southern Africa: New Pastoral and Trading Frontiers Eastern Africa: States and Stateless Societies Northeastern Africa: An Age of Political and Cultural Realignment North Africa: The Decline of Ottoman Rule The Close of the Eighteenth Century: A New Era Begins

Reviews
"An authoritative and strikingly original overview of African history up to 1800, written at a level that will be accessible to entering college students." Patrick Manning, Northeastern University, author of Migration in Modern World History, 1500-2000

The Author
Christopher Ehret is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400 (Virginia).

Related Links

The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800 by Christopher Ehret 480 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 Cloth ISBN 0-8139-2084-1 $50.00 Paper ISBN 0-8139-2085-X $22.50 Available May 2002
http://www.upress.virginia.edu/ehret2.html Revised 7/1/02