Shifting Sands: A Human History of the Sahara - Couverture rigide

Scheele, Judith

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1541607112 ISBN 13 : 9781541607118

Editeur : Basic Books, 2025

Synopsis

A “detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world” (The Wall Street Journal) that tells the history of the Sahara from prehistory to the present, showing how Saharans have navigated scarcity, conquest, and the relentless challenges of the desert environment

What comes to mind when we think about the Sahara? Rippling sand dunes, sun-blasted expanses, camel drivers and their caravans perhaps. Or famine, climate change, civil war, desperate migrants stuck in a hostile environment. The Sahara stretches across 3.2 million square miles, hosting several million inhabitants and a corresponding variety of languages, cultures, and livelihoods. But beyond ready-made images of exoticism and squalor, we know surprisingly little about its history and the people who call it home.   

Shifting Sands is about that other Sahara, not the empty wasteland of the romantic imagination but the vast and highly differentiated space in which Saharan peoples and, increasingly, new arrivals from other parts of Africa live, work, and move. It takes us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present, questioning easy clichés and exposing fascinating truths along the way. From the geology of the region to the religions, languages, and cultural and political forces that shape and fracture it, this landmark book tells the compelling story of a place that sits at the heart of our world, and whose future holds implications for us all.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Judith Scheele is professor of social anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, EHESS). She has spent almost two decades living in and researching Saharan societies. The author of three previous books, she now lives in Marseille, France.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Basic Books
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1541607112
• ISBN 13: 9781541607118
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 368
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible