African Dominion cover art

African Dominion

A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa

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About this listen

A groundbreaking book that puts early and medieval West Africa on the map of global history.

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces how Islam's growth in West Africa, along with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A radically new account of the importance of early Africa in global history, African Dominion will be the standard work on the subject for years to come.

©2018 Princeton University Press (P)2020 Tantor Africa Civilization Politics & Government World Middle Ages Ancient History Middle East
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The author buries some interesting history under a thick crust of servile transfigurations, latifundiums, nexuses and other jargon. Its possible such words are why the narrator goes so achingly slow. (x1.5 speed was a must!)

So inaccessible, it's bulletproof

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I thoroughly enjoyed this detailed perspective in this region of the world. It was certainly worthy of Princeton University Press! It features characters as well as events and places. This book has life.

What stood out the most was the book's focus

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