The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Africa were a period of transition, with the trade in slaves and firearms on the Atlantic coast laying some of the foundations for European colonialism. But for most of the continent, external forces were still of marginal significance. African initiative remained supreme and produced a rich variety of political, social and intellectual innovations. In eight regional chapters the contributors to this volume, all established experts in their field, bring together for the first time these developments as they affected the whole of Africa. A concluding chapter surveys Africa in Europe and the Americas during this period.

‘The virtues to the book are many: its writers have synthesised and summarized a vast amount of material and organised it into a coherent whole. Scholars and students acquainted with a single small area of Africa will now be able to place this in perspective by reference to what was occuring elsewhere in the continent. The book has an excellent index and it is well printed on good paper. In short, it is all that one might expect a Cambridge history to be.’

Source: New Society