A History of African Societies to 1870

This newly comprehensive and detailed exploration of the African past, reaching from prehistory to approximately 1870, is intended to provide a fully up-to-date textbook, thematically organized, for undergraduate students of African history.
Reflecting several emphases in recent scholarship, Professor Isichei focuses on the changing modes of production, on gender relations and on ecology, laying particular stress on viewing history 'from below'. A distinctive theme is to be found in her analyses of cognitive history.
The work falls into three sections. The first comprises a historiographic analysis, covering the period from the dawn of prehistory to the end of the Early Iron Age. The second and third sections are, for the most part, organised on regional lines; the second section ends in the sixteenth century; the third carries the story on to 1870. Explaining each facet of the continent's history with exceptional erudition, balance and sympathy, Professor Isichei displays both an immense learning and a thorough command of the literature.
A second volume, now in preparation, will cover the period from 1870 to 1995.