Has anyone else read this? It's a comprehensive account of the African countries post-independence.
Spoilers: It's depressing as fuck
Recommended especially to this forum, god knows that you need the perspective
I've read the first 50 pages, my copy is about 10 feet away from me, it's pretty good stuff. What's Meredith's background, beyond living in Africa?
>2016
>needing a book to tell you that Africa is a shitty place
>>1041693
>forum
where the fuck do you people come from
>>1041717
>>1041736
>>1041736
>no one takes it seriously
Except, you know, historians. People who actually know shit tend to take it seriously.
>>1041736
>triggered
>>1041701
Research fellow at Oxford, foreign correspondent in Africa for The Observer and Sunday Times
History degree I think as well
>>1041693
I support this. The book is a great read.
It honestly makes you doubt any faith you've ever had in the African continent, but it's a very in-depth perspective.
Anyone who's already read it should check out the recommendations it offers in the back. There are some very good ones.
>>1041693
Could we have a teasing of the book?
>>1041693
Is it as biased and filled with fallacious pseudo-science as Guns, Germs and Steel?
>forum
Seriously, where do you people come from?
>>1043789
a forum is a place where people talk. 4chan is a forum. deal with it
>>1043799
>newfag
The word "forum" is not a part of 4chan jargon, even if it is right. By using the word "forum" you give yourself out as a newfriend.
>>1041693
>forum
you mean
>image board?
>>1043816
This so much
>>1043799
We're an imageboard. The only people who use forum are people that have been here less than a week.
>>1043862
And yet you still look like a faggot for calling this place a forum
>>1043862
Go back to wherever you came from, please.
4chan is a forum just like /r/circlebroke, can't we all just see past our differences and agree that white people are the devil?
>>1043961
I have no clue what you're talking about. I don't call 4chan a "forum" generally, but when I see shitheads like you bitch about it, I tell you to shut up.
>>1041693
>Recommended especially to this forum, god knows that you need the perspective
That's a surefire way to sway an audience; talk down to them and be smug about it.
>>1041693
Why would I read a book that tells me Africa is an irredeemable shithole? I already know that
>>1043724
Jared Diamond is not a historian
Yeah I read it a few years ago. Looking on my Goodreads I gave it 5/5 which I very rarely give to books.
>>1046159
...I'd also recommend King Leopold's Ghost, but not so much these other ones.
Any other recommendations for Africa reads?
>WE
>>1046179
Collective Violence and the Agrarian Origins of South African Apartheid, 1900–1948, John Higginson
Just took a class with the author, he's pretty based, one of the best professors I've had. I haven't read the book but it's gotten good reviews.
>>1046179
Africa's World War.
>>1041693
Come on people, give us some of the knowledge that those books give.
>>1046254
Have been meaning to read this. Assume it'll make my head spin with the complexity.
>>1046318
Oh yeah. But it also has 11/10 bants.
>>1043816
is 5 years new still?
also does anyone have a link for a pdf of the book?
>>1046519
epubs of all the books mentioned in this thread are easy to find. Try #BOOKZ
Im curious what the writer's opinion on the colonial times are.
I personally support colonialism. My family owned large swaths of land in Rhodesia and South Africa, so I'm a bit biased.
However, the English (proud and eternally Anglo) treated the Africans with a great deal of respect. When they went to Africa, they expected the populace to be more receptive to the stability they would have, however they made the work of the English and the Africans that wanted stability incredibly hard, promoting harsh reactions to certain situations.
I am not condoning the heinous actions of immoral individuals. Keep in mind, the post and pre-colonial state of affairs was horrifically more barbaric than anything the British ever committed.
I am condoning the actions of your average conquest in order to better one's own nation. This is made especially true with the fact that the African nations were only to benefit from European intervention. These benefits would never have been reaped without the advancement of the European people. It started out rocky, but would have made Africa a powerhouse of progress if we stayed in the region.
If the politics at the time were not so "feeling-based" and didn't already look down at the "poor and helpless Africans who deserve the Western definition of independence!" the region wouldn't be plagued in the genocides and mass warfare and plagues the land and the people.
>>1046519
buy the book you cocksucker, folks like you are the reason bookstores are always empty.
>>1041937
It's only one of many view points though.
Taking this book as a sole representative of Africa's future is pretty silly.
>>1046918
>he still goes to physical bookstores
What is this the 90s?
>>1046910
nice Apologism
>>1047269
nice argument
