Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging Continent

Mammoth, highly informative and readable, this important new survey seems destined to become the contemporary equivalent of Inside Africa. Ungar covers the countries of major interest to Americans-Liberia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa-in full-length portraits. He also provides vignettes of many others and thumbnail statistical profiles of all the countries of sub-Sahara Africa. The frankly downbeat assessment of Africa's prospects emerging from the individual studies is summed up in a broad-ranging overview drawing together political and economic trends. This useful book should be widely read.