JOHN READER

The roots of our ancestry lie in Africa. John Reader's brilliant, panoramic survey traces the development of this huge continent from its earliest geological formation and the beginnings of life, through to the civil war and genocide that mark it today. He explores the complex, widely differing societies from the great inland estuaries of the Niger and the Okavango, to the rain forests of the Equator and the deserts of the North, the devastating impact of European exploitation on those societies and the recent emergence of independent nations. Challenging many widely held misconceptions, his illuminating account will change the way many people think about Africa.

Drawing on many years of African experience, John Reader has written a book of startling grandeur and scope that recreates the great panorama of African history, from the primeval cataclysms that formed the continent to the political upheavals facing much of the continent today. Reader tells the extraordinary story of humankinds adaptation to the ferocious obstacles of forest, river and desert, and to the threat of debilitating parasites, bacteria and viruses unmatched elsewhere in the world. He also shows how the worlds richest assortment of animals and plants has helped - or hindered - human progress in Africa.