Africa: A Modern History

The end of the Second World War heralded the rapid end of European African empires. In 1945, only four African countries were independent; by 1963, thirty African states created the Organization of African Unity. Despite numerous problems, the 1960s were a time of optimism as Africans enjoyed their new independence. By the 1990s, however, the high hopes of the 1960s had been dashed. Dictatorships by strongmen, corruption, civil wars, genocide, widespread poverty, and the interventions and manipulations of the major world powers had all relegated Africa to the position of a Third World “basket case,” the poorest and least-developed continent on the planet. In A Modern History , Guy Arnold brings a lifetime of thought and experience to his examination of the continent during these momentous years. He argues that imperialism has cast a long shadow and differentiates between external pressures to control Africa and the internal failures of its leadership. Additionally, he asks whether twenty-first-century Africa can promote its own recovery and renaissance. At one thousand pages, and with more than fifty maps and fifty illustrations, A Modern History will become the definitive reference work on Africa in the twentieth century.