Includes index.

Introduction: understanding the contours of Africa's past -- Part I. Polity, society, and economy: ingenuity and violence in the nineteenth century -- Western transitions: slave trade and "legitimate" commerce in Atlantic Africa -- Eastern intrusions: slaves and ivory in Eastern Africa -- Southern frontiers: colony and revolution in Southern Africa -- Part II. Africa and Islam: revival and reform in the nineteenth century -- Revival and reaction: North African Islam -- Jihad: revolutions in Western Africa -- The eastern crescent: the Islamic frontier in Eastern Africa -- Part III. Africa and Europe: commerce, conflict and co-option, to c.1920 113 -- The compass and the cross -- "Whatever happens ...": towards the scramble -- Africans adapting: conquest and partition -- Part IV. Colonialisms -- "Pax colonia"? Empires of soil and service -- Hard times: protest, identity, and depression -- Battles home and away: Africa in global war (again) -- Part V. The dissolution of empire -- The beached whale: colonial strategies in the postwar world -- Conceiving and producing nations -- Compromising conflict: routes to independence -- Part VI. Legacies, new beginnings, and unfinished business -- Unsafe foundations: challenges of independence -- Violence and the militarization of political culture -- Rectification, redemption, and reality: issues and trends in contemporary Africa.