Combining archeological evidence and scholarly research, Davidson traces the exciting development of the rich kingdoms of the lost cities of Africa, fifteen hundred years before European ships first came to African shores.

This is the Third Edition of a famous book first published in 1983. Written in the shadow of the many crises that face Africa's institutions and society today, Basil Davidson considers the origins of these problems, the fragility of Africa's nation states, and the emerging solutions she is finding to her present troubles. The book starts in the early years of the 20th century, with Africa still the property of colonial powers; moves on through the processes of decolonization and independence through to the late 1980s, and concludes with an overview, much extended for this new edition, of the...

This is a survey of pre-colonial West Africa, written by the internationally respected author and journalist, Basil Davidson. He takes as his starting point his successful textA History of West Africa 1000-1800, but he has reworked his new text specially for a wider international readership. In the process he offers a fascinating introduction to the rich societies and cultures of Africa before the coming of the Europeans.

Prior to the original publication of Africa in History, the history and development of Africa had been measured by the European concept of "civilization," applying a Eurocentric approach to African art and literature. Basil Davidson's landmark work presents the inner growth of Africa and its worldwide significance, the internal dynamic of its old civilizations and their links with Asia, Europe and America, as well as the development of specific areas, tribes and cultures. From accounts of the days of the green Sahara and the great iron age, the earliest Portuguese colonization, the...

The African Genius presents the ideas, social systems, religions, moral values, arts, and metaphysics of a range of African peoples. Basil Davidson points toward the Africa that may emerge from an ancient civilization that was overlaid and battered by colonialism, then torn by the upheaval of colonialism's dismantlement. Davidson disputes the notion that Africa gained under colonialism by entering the modern world. He sees, instead, an ancient order replaced by modern dysfunction. Davidson's depiction of the sophisticated native genius that has carried Africans through centuries of change is...

These essays and articles, written between 1953 and 1993, explore the development of an African historiography and, in that context, the author's own development. People who have been involved all their lives with Africa will be reminded of how many times Basil Davidson has given them new insights. People who approach the study of Africa for the first time will find this collection opens out their perceptions. North America: Times/Random House

In this lively and instructive memoir of his experience with the anti-Nazi underground in Italy and Yugoslavia during World War II, Basil Davidson throws needed light on a much-neglected part of European history. Sent to the area as a representative of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), he is able to recount at first hand the intense determination of the revolutionary partisans, who hoped that their sacrifices would lead to a new society, and the equally determined policy of the Allies to suppress them.

A general social and cultural history of Africa.

The "New York Review of Books" has praised Basil Davidson as "the most effective popularizer of African history and archeology outside Africa, and certainly the one best trusted in Black Africa itself." "The Lost Cities of Africa" was the first book published in Davidson's highly praised series on African culture. Combining archeological evidence and scholarly research, Davidson traces the exciting development of the rich kingdoms of the lost cities of Africa, fifteen hundred years before European ships first came to African shores.