Synopses & Reviews
James C. McCann provides a synthesis of evidence and a narrative of Africa's evironmental history over the past two centuries. In a book readily accessible to undergraduates and nonspecialists, Professor McCann argues that far from being pristine and primordial spaces, Africa's landscapes were created by human activity. This argument contrasts strongly with the idealized notions of an African Eden commonly held in the West and in Africa itself. It also confronts more recent alarm about degradation of Africa's natural and human resources by examining the historical evidence of environmental change. Key topics within the book are the effects of population growth, disease, agricultural change, the state of natural resources, and the changing role of the state in how Africans have managed and changed their own landscapes.
Synopsis
James C. McCann provides a synthesis of evidence and a narrative of Africa's evironmental history over the past two centuries.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Part I: Patterns of History
2. Africa's Physical World
3. Environment and History in Africa
Part II: Africa's Historical Landscapes
4. Desert Lands, Human Hands
5. A Tale of Two Forests: Narratives of Deforestation in Ethiopia, 1840-1996
6. Food in the Forest: Biodiversity, Food Systems, and Human Settlement in Ghana's Upper Guinea Forest, 1000-1990
7. Soil Matters: Erosion and Empire in Greater Lesotho, 1830-1990
Epilogue: Africa's Environmental Future as Past