Seven American academics search for a more nuanced understanding of many of the most basic issues in colonial and postcolonial African history. Their seven essays cover much of former British Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, from the conquest of the Transkei and Natal to contemporary Botswana and Zimbabwe. Writing from varied perspectives anthropological, historical, historical sociological they explore the culture of power and the power of culture, how policies were made and unmade, state formation and popular culture, the nature of rule and the ways in which the colonized shaped and critiqued it, and created social movements engaged with modern state formation. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
