Africa: A beginner's guide
本书为非洲初学者提供入门指南，概述撒哈拉以南非洲的现状，并教授如何批判性分析历史与政治叙述，避免信息过载。
When it comes to Africa, I am a beginner. ‘Beginning’ Africa can be daunting: the diversity and size of the continent is reflected in the quantity and length of books about it, and there are few which provide an adequate introduction in under five hundred pages. Tom Young's Africa: A beginner's guide is intended as ‘a guide to the sheer bulk of information and discussion’ and as such is an ideal entry to the subject. Rather than examining the details of historical and political developments in specific countries, the book looks at the continent overall and asks how and why sub-Saharan Africa arrived at its present state. Taking a standpoint of critical distance, this introduction does not aim to provide a full account of African history or politics; rather it provides the reader with the tools for interrogating accounts of history and politics that she may read in the future. At the same time, the boxed texts in each chapter provide engaging insights into more country-specific issues on subjects ranging from ‘the Songhai empire’ to ‘age sets’ and ‘the Lord's Resistance Army’. The beginner is thus given some idea of the variety of cultural, historical, and political topics involved in this complex story without becoming lost in an excess of information.