Winston Churchill was remarkable, as much as for any other reason, for the sheer volume of words he produced. In a long life, during which he was often preoccupied by both family matters (he had four children) and matters of state, he nevertheless found the time to compose an inordinate number of books. I say compose, because he perfected a system during the first war, which revealed its efficacy more than ever in the second, of working through secretaries. There are many odd anecdotes told about Churchill, not the least of which is that his secretaries, sometimes working in rotation throughout much of the night, were obliged to attend to him and take down what he said, even in the bath. This way of getting the material down in print proved to be very effective, as the tens of thousands of published pages of his work amply demonstrates.

His long history of the Second World War continues with "The Hinge of Fate." Although he was personally assured that the American entry into the war meant the ultimate defeat of Germany, he still had to see to the day to day running of the war machine, and counter the perverse effects of both German victories and British pessimism. Now began, as well, the long battle with Stalin about opening up a second front in France, to take some of the heat off the Russian armies in the East. In fact, his relationship with the Russian leader is one of the most interesting sources of anecdotal references throughout this series.

This is history being well told by a man who was, while perhaps not a trained historian as such, so steeped in the history of his family and his country, that he an utterly unique point of view. The fact that he was also a central figure in the war itself, means that we have, if you like, a one in a million chance victory on our hands, as though we had just won a lottery of sorts, by being able to read him.

This book has managed to portray the most accurate review of South African High Schools. The pictures displayed throughout this informative book are the best to describe and show the spendour of fantastic South African Schools.

Following the television series, Wonders of the African World by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Africanist world refocused attention on slave trade in Africa. Gates Jr. oversimplified the complex history of slavery by suggesting that if Africans had not sold slaves, there would not have been any slavery. Pier Larson's text comes at an appropriate time, to demonstrate just how complex the story of enslavement was and to correctly warn that we do a lot of injustice to a complex history by stopping at identifying losers and winner, benefits and disruptions.

The study focuses on the realm of cultural transformation and is exceptional in several identifiable ways. First, it pays immense attention to the process of enslavement and to those who remained in the slave supplying society. Secondly, it re-integrates Madagascar into the wider Indian Ocean mercantile system and into the general history of Africa. Thirdly, the study demonstrates that slave trade entailed opportunities and challenges and that people made choices on the basis of their circumstances, some of which changed drastically and forced some to enslave kin, neighbors and relatives.

Larson argues that the notion of diapora ought to be extended. Many people were displaced within Africa. They were mostly women and children and they were more than those who crossed the Atlantic. The notion of diapora, he argues, ought to be extended to include intra-continental displacement. Finally, the study shows that some societies worked to create a post-slavery dispensation that was fruitful to their existence. In Madagascar, Larson demonstrates how the people constructed memories of slavery that they used to create their political and later ethnic identity as Merina while at the same time they constructed historical amnesia about those things they did not wish to remember.

This study is a welcome addition to the history of slave trade, the historiography of Africa and to the discipline of history. The study re-interprets the notion of historical sources in a more inclusive perspective. This should be intriguing to all historians. It also extends our history of social displacement which should be good reading for human rights activists, humanitarians and people operating in conflict situation. The author is not only persuasive but is also innovative and lucid in his analysis. I strongly recommend this book to all those mentioned above and students of African studies around the world.

With a sharp eye towards debunking a few centuries of self-serving white European mythic history about the origins of African societies, but without any particular ax to grind but those of intelligence and accuracy, J.D. Fage's work is scholarly and readable. It is a critical survey, with an excellent bibliography spanning a large number of subjects. His knowledge of west Africa is particularly impressive, and he clearly delineates the powers of both external cultural forces sweeping into Africa (Islam) as well as those that originated there.

Updates about Sao Tome economics

Some belated praise is due for Philip Hitti, author of History of the Arabs. The 2002 revised tenth edition reissue (last updated in 1970) brings to the world what may well be the best, and is almost certainly the longest, detailed survey history of the Arab world to date. The timeliness of this reissue couldn't be better.

Forget about contemporary politics, though. Like his shorter The Arabs: A Short History (which is also a fine work), this book covers a span from pre-Islam up to the rise of the Ottoman empire in slightly more than seven hundred small font richly detailed pages. Then follows another fifty pages covering the Turks and the twentieth century, much of which is too fast and sparse to be of great value. This actually is the only significant drawback in this work. What this means, though, is that for anyone looking for just a History, not a polemic on one side or the other, not an apology for Islam or an attack against it, this is the book to read. Although I'd recommend that the beginner start with something lighter, a seriously interested reader would be hard pressed to find a better source.

I consider this neutrality to be a good thing. There are plenty of books covering the politically extremely sensitive subject of Arab history. Hitti is impervious to virtually all of the politics because besides being an intellectually honest historian - taking a warts and all approach to history - he also wrote this book quite a few years ago, 1937 for the first edition. Thus the framework for History of the Arabs has no room for anti-Israel propaganda because there was no Israel at the time (though a couple sentences have been added to later editions, also neutral). And I should add that although the style of writing is a bit old fashioned, it is generally not dull. This book has aged well.

So, what sort of writing is included? What does a warts and all approach look like? Hitti was himself a Maronite Christian Arab from Lebanon, and clearly had great enthusiasm for the history of his people. This much is obvious. It manifests itself in countless ways, from his attention to detail (Hitti respects the intellect of his readers) to his occasional light hearted comments. He takes no sides (yes, I am harping on this point, but these days this is a hard trait to find), and sometimes produces some very picturesque lines. At one point, he comments that Arab philosophers were digesting and expanding on Greek philosophy when Charlemagne and his lords were dabbling in the art of writing their own names. Contrast this to his statement that if the Arab world today was forced to rely today on scientific texts of Arab origin, it would be further back than it was in the eleventh century. Though he writes very highly of Muhammad's accomplishments, he points out quite casually that his favorite wife was so young that she brought her toys along when she moved into his house. Comments like these could be dwelt upon by contemporary attackers or defenders of Islam (In the right context, this is not necessarily a bad thing), but to Hitti they simply add life and color to History. A history that shows staggering highs and frightful lows. A history that covers what was once the pre-eminent civilization of the hemisphere and has failed and fallen since then. A history that has at times shown intellectual rigor and superstitious brain sloth, that has been a model for tolerance and the source of insatiable bigotry. This is History, everyone, and I've seen few writers who handle it better than Philip Hitti.

Sundkler was an Africanist scholar and a working missionary. This is his last book, completed at his death by his research assistant. It covers the entire rich history of Christianity in Africa, with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. With such a magisterial attempt to cover a huge number of eras and regions, it is bound to be less than perfect, yet what is amazing is how close it gets. Sundkler brings his scholarly study of the independent churches into the context of the entire Christian development from the time of Christ. Nothing in print matches this book, and it will be awhile before another scholar of this ability appears to attempt it.

George Washington Williams was a nineteenth century black Christian, who wrote "from a love for the truth of history". Imbued with a sense of a Christian progression of history, Williams states that racism is "a sad commentary on American civilization," but did not view racism as a defining characteristic of American society. This view spawned the criticism of twentieth century black writers such as Garvey and Dubois.

Williams was born in 1849 of racially mixed parentage and was a Union Soldier, Baptist minister, and Ohio State legislator. In preparing the history, he "consulted over twelve thousand volumes and thousands of pamphlets" (1:vi). One thousand works are referred to in footnotes and its conceptualization and methodology are similar to the work of Robert Benjamin Lewis. This monumental epic divides the history into two segments. The first half is devoted to African origins, slavery in the colonies and the Negro during the revolution. The second volume focuses on the nineteenth century and deals with such topics as the Negro participation in the Civil War and Reconstruction. Social and cultural history are covered in each volume.

Williams declares this history is necessary because he "became convinced that a history of the colored people in America was required, because of the ample historically trustworthy material at hand; because the colored people themselves had been the most vexatious problem in North America, from the time of its discovery down to the present day; because that in every attempt upon the life of the nation, whether by foes from without or within, the colored people had always displayed a matchless patriotism and incomparable heroism in the cause of Americans, and because such a history would give the world more correct ideas of colored people, and incite the latter to greater effort in the struggle of citizenship and manhood". (1:iii-iv)

The work is moralistic in tone and contains a futuristic assessment of Africa as "taking its place among the modern nations of the world once it is Christianized."

Having come to the America and entering the Christian fold, blacks become shapers of their own history. They resisted slavery and became poets, scientists, soldiers and property owners. Williams concludes his history on this optimistic note: "Race prejudice is bound to give way before the potent influence of character, education and wealth" (2:551-52).

After spending three weeks in South Africa this summer, I realized the real effects Apartheid had on the country. After reading this book, I could envision the entire process of the rise & fall of their government as it happened, and the events that occurred in between. This book is a denfinite good read for anyone learning about or knowledgeable of South African history. Like all political cartoons, it puts current events in a language we can all understand, and helps us realize what's really going on. (Clifford Galiher, 13)

This book recounts the author's return to the West African country where she grew up. Called a lyrical memoir by the New York Times (9/11/88), Honey From the Lion provides fascinating insights into a young woman's transnational and cross-cultural coming of age. Ideal for all readers.