... Here is a well-written and straightforward presentation of important information about events that have taken place in the continent, especially since the end of the cold war. Its readability makes it suitable for upper-level undergraduate courses, while politicians and decision-makers in both the public and private sectors, as well as people in business and workers in non-governmental organisations, will find the factual details and careful analyses very useful -

• Part One States and citizens: Africa in perspective; nationalism, ethnicity and democracy; youth and violence; movements of religious renewal; building public morality. Part Two Institutions and policies: the institutional foundations of growth; formal and informal economic activities; the diversity of adjustment in agriculture; constraints on manufacturing production; an agrarian continent in transition. Part Three Africa in the world: the crisis of the state; regional integration; the politics of aid effectiveness; some legal aspects of migration; Africa's future and the world.