Africa's Past, Our Future engages the history of the African continent through the perspective of global issues such as political instability, economic development, and climate change. Since the past may offer alternative models for thinking about our collective future, this book promotes an appreciation for African social, economic, and political systems that have endured over the long-term and that offer different ways of thinking about a sustainable future. Introducing readers to the wide variety of sources from which African history is constructed, the book's ten chapters cover human evolution, the domestication of plants and animals, climate change, social organization, the slave trade and colonization, development, and contemporary economics and politics.

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This book is an innovative, important, and courageous addition to African and world history scholarship. . . . Africa's Past is a much-needed text for teaching African history. Smythe not only provides an excellent survey of the latest research on Africa's past, she also presents a concise and clear argument as to why this history is relevant today.

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Recommended.