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AfricaFocus Bulletin
As with other publications largely focused on current events, AfricaFocus Bulletin is
confronted with an exponentially increasing bombardment of daily news. My approach as
the editor is to select a particular topic of interest, sometimes highlighted in the
news and sometimes not, and try to put it into context for readers with excerpts from
the most relevant sources. But I also find it essential to try to step back and
refresh my understanding of the wider context. For that, I find I must turn to books.
The list below, which I decided to share with readers, is all non-fiction, but it is
not restricted to books explicitly on "Africa." As readers are aware, AfricaFocus
Bulletin centers Africa, but with the understanding that Africa is an integral part
of and fundamentally affected by the wider global context, including developments in
rich countries that still dominate the global order and disproportionately reap the
rewards of a deeply tilted global political economy. In this critical time for the
United States, my reading has also strongly concentrated on books providing context
for understanding the situation in this country, where racial, class, and other
divisions both parallel and help to mold global inequalities.
So, for your browsing and possible future reading, the lists below include books I
have recently read and recommend to others who are interested in the topics ("recent"
means in the last two years), as well as books I have noted that I would like to
read. There are three categories: "Africa Past and Present," "Current Global Issues,"
and "USA Past and Present." The comments are very brief, my own in the case of books
I have read and taken from publishers' descriptions in other cases.
I have also included links to Amazon listings, which often give access to a preview
of the text and to Kindle editions, although I also encourage you to purchase from
your own independent book store or from the publisher directly or suggest to your
library to order, when those options are feasible.
The last AfricaFocus Bulletin including a substantial list of recommended books was
in April, 2017: "African Feminism Past and Present"
(http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/wom1704.php).
This AfricaFocus Bulletin is somewhat of an experiment, and I don't know how
frequently I will post such book lists, either as part of a topical Bulletin or as a
separate Bulletin like this one. I know I definitely won't be able to read all
the books I would like to read! But if you find this of interest, and have additional
titles to suggest to me for future inclusion, be sure to send me your feedback and
recommendations by email at africafocus@igc.org
[Unless otherwise attributed, comments are from publishers' descriptions.]
Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. 2016.
Ernest Harsh, Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest and Revolution. 2017.
James Mittelman, Implausible Dream: The World-Class University and Repurposing Higher Education. 2017.
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
Recently Read and Recommended
Gilbert Achcar,
Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising. 2016
The first three of these books, on topics often in the news, provide in-depth
insights that go far beyond conventional reporting. Achcar's two books provide an
analysis and overview, focusing first on the Arab Uprising and then on subsequent
events highlighting the resilience of the old regimes. French provides a first-hand report
based on extensive interviews, featuring not the most often discussed geopolitical
role of China, but the diverse faces of Chinese migrants around the continent.
Angola, rarely covered by Western media, is well served for both specialist and
general readers by Soares de Oliveira, whose book is a well-informed and well-written
account of Angola in the 21st century.
Nancy Mitchell,
Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War. 2016.
Both books, Mitchell's an academic study weaving together interviews and archival
data and Urdang's a personal and journalistic memoir based on a lifetime of
engagement with African liberation, provide new insights even for those who were participants in or closely followed the
events they describe. Mitchell's primary focus is the Washington policy scene, where
she digs deeply into the debates within the Carter administration on how to respond
to Africa, given U.S. political realities. Urdang's memoir ranges from South Africa
to New York City to Guinea-Bissau to Mozambique, with reflections both on her
personal experience and the complex contradictions of unfinished struggles for
liberation.
Hope to Read Sometime
[Unless otherwise attributed, comments are from publishers' descriptions.]
Ibrahim Abdullah and Ismail Rashid, eds., Understanding West Africa's Ebola Epidemic:
Towards a Political Economy. 2017.
Kris Berwouts, Congo's Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle Since the Great African
War. 2017.
Mustafa Dhada, The Portuguese Massacre of Wiriyamu in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-2013.
2016.
Helen Epstein,
Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror. 2017.
Helon Habila, The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria. 2016.
Godfrey Kanyenze et al., eds. Towards Democratic Developmental States in Southern
Africa. 2017. Free download.
Seth M. Markle, A Motorcycle on Hell Run: Tanzania, Black Power, and the Uncertain
Future of Pan-Africanism, 1964-1974. 2017.
Sisonke Msimang, Always Another Country. 2017.
Alexis Okeowo, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women Fighting Extremism in Africa. 2017.
John S. Saul, On Building A Social Movement: The North American Campaign for Southern African Liberation. 2016.
Nick Turse,
Tomorrow's Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa. 2015.
Hendrik Van Vuuren, Apartheid Guns and Money. 2017.
Recently Read and Recommended
Bill Browder, Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice. 2015.
These three books, in quite different ways, highlight the fact that the Trump
election was the result not only of factors unique to the United States, but of
global developments. Browder's first-person account sheds light on the transition of
the Soviet Union into a kleptocratic state, and its links to a global financial
system facilitating these trends, as well as to the motives behind Russian
intervention in that election. Gest provides a detailed comparison of Youngtown, Ohio
and East London, UK, based on both interviews and survey data, highlighting both
economic decline and the targeting of resentment against both societal elites and
racial outsiders. And Mishra offers an intellectual history of resentment by angry
men adopting extremist ideologies across the religious and political spectrum, from
18th century Europe to present-day Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge,
Intersectionality. 2016.
These two books challenge and guide readers to think more deeply about current
issues. Collins and Bilge provide a succinct and clear exposition of the concept of
"intersectionality" as indispensable for analyzing society "not as shaped by any
single axis of social division, be it race or gender or class, but by many axes that
work together and influence each other." Tufekci provides a brilliant account of the
complex effects and potential of social media drawing both on personal experience as
an activist and keen scholarly insights.
Branko Milanovic,
Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. 2016.
Yes, these books are by economists and include statistics and tables. But they are
also well written, address fundamental issues, and are worth extra effort by noneconomist
readers. Milanovic is the leading scholar on changes in inequality
in the modern world, both "within-nation" and "between-nation." Varoufakis is the
former foreign minister of Greece who tried, but failed, to combat the destructive
and myth-based austerity policies imposed by Germany and others on his country.
Hope to Read Sometime
[Unless otherwise attributed, comments are from publishers' descriptions.]
Andy Clarno, Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994. 2017.
Jeremy Leggett, The Test: Solar light for all: a defining challenge for humanity. 2017. Free download.
Sasha Polakow-Suransky, Go Back to Where You Came From: The Backlash Against
Immigration and the Fate of Western Democracy. 2017.
Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold
Through Our Genes. 2017.
Recently Read and Recommended
Carol Anderson,
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. 2016.
These works by three scholars writing for the public as well as other scholars, all
written before the Trump election, are complementary. Anderson provides the clearest
succinct account I am aware of the history of white backlash to Black advancement,
from Reconstruction through Obama. Tesler presents survey data highlighting "modern"
(coded) racism as compared to old-fashioned racism through the Obama years. And
Taylor highlights the role of "black faces in high places" in the uneven advance of
Black liberation from the civil rights movement through the rise of
#BlackLivesMatter.
William J. Barber II, The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming
the Politics of Division and Fear. 2016.
Superficially, these two books, one on the imperative of a new civil rights movement
today and the other on the history of the civil rights movement in the U.S. South,
might seem contradictory. But they both have a deeper understanding of U.S. history,
looking back to Reconstruction and based on personal experience of engagement on the
front lines of struggle, than a simplistic contrast of non-violence and violence.
Nonviolent protest and political organizing, whether in the days of Reconstruction,
the 20th century, or the 21st century, depend on some force that can defend those
engaged in peaceful organizing.
Ari Berman, Give us the ballot : the modern struggle for voting rights in America. 2016.
These two books by journalists, although different in style (Palast is a gonzo
journalist in the style of Michael Moore), both provide well-documented accounts on
the decades-long and successful Republican campaign to remove voters from the voters'
rolls, which continues to be a fundamental and potentially decisive feature of U.S.
elections.
Katherine J. Cramer, The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and
the Rise of Scott Walker. 2016.
These two books by scholars are well-researched and well-written case studies, making
use of both quantitative data and extensive personal interviews. Each explores in
depth the views of a constituency that was critical in the 2016 Trump victory, going
beyond stereotypes of "the Trump voter." Cramer focuses on small-town Wisconsin.
Longazel on his home town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth
Plan for America. 2017.
These are two fundamental books on the money and the minds behind the rise of the
radical right in American politics and culture. Historian MacLean provides an in-depth
analysis, based on archival sources, on the wide-ranging influence of
"libertarian" economist James McGill Buchanan and the role of the billionaire Koch
brothers in boosting his influence both in the academic and public policy arenas.
Investigative journalist Mayer includes the Koch family, but also stresses that they
are only one of a larger group of right-wing billionaires pushing the view that
"liberty" means freedom of wealth from any public responsibilities.
Mark Landler, Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Twilight Struggle
over American Power. 2016.
These two books on the shaping of U.S. foreign policy into the 21st century take two
very different approaches. Landler is a careful but conventional account focused on
the inside story of the distinctive policies of President Barack Obama and his
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Shoup provides a much deeper and historically
rooted analysis of the molding of foreign policy consensus on fundamental issues,
which lies behind and constricts the debates over specific policy decisions.
[Personal note: I was the co-author with Shoup of
Imperial Brain Trust (1977), the early predecessor to this comprehensive second
volume on the role of the Council of Foreign Relations, which takes the story from
1976 to 2014. Unlike Shoup, I have not followed up with our early research on this
topic. I applaud the fact that he persevered and highly recommend this book to anyone
trying to understand today's foreign policy.]
Hope to Read Sometime
[Unless otherwise attributed, comments are from publishers' descriptions.]
Hillary Rodham Clinton, What Happened. 2017.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power. 2017.
E.J. Dionne Jr., Norman J. Ornstein, and Thomas E. Mann, One Nation After Trump: A
Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported. 2017.
Joshua Green, Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the
Presidency. 2017.
Nikhil Pal Singh, Race and America's Long War. 2017.
Charles Sykes, How The Right Lost Its Mind. 2017.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted
commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and
international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please write to this
address to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about reposted
material, please contact directly the original source mentioned. For a full archive
and other resources, see http://www.africafocus.org
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