Peter Duignan

Colonial Rule in Africa@@@Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960. Volume II, The History and Politics of Colonialism 1914-1960

In a review published in this journal last year, this writer noted that the forthcoming volumes of the series Colonialism in Africa 1870190, edited by Messrs Gann and Duignan, were anticipated with sane confidence that they would maintain the scholarship and continuity of the first volume. Now the second volume of this ambitious series has appeared, and once again we are faced with a compendium: an anthology of some fourteen pieces all written by different scholars, and most dealing with quite different regions or topics. Like the first volume, this collection is so broad in scope that it almost defies any specific review of each of its component parts. But unlike the first volume which had a topical arrangement giving it a kind of chronological and geographic continuity, this volume is organized around several distinct though related problems having to do with the several structures of colonial rule in Africa, whether French, British, Portuguese, or Belgian. Thus, it confronts the reviewer with an almost impossible task. By rights it ought to be reviewed by a panel of experts, though such an event is not likely to occur. The book is designed for the general reader as well as the specialist, and there are several things which must be said about it.

Imperialism@@@Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960: Volume I, The History and Politics of Colonialism 1870-1914@@@Modern Imperialism: Western Overseas Expansion and Its Aftermath, 1776-1965@@@Europe in the Age of Imperialism, 1880-1914

The author discusses the conditions which made global imperialism possible, and examines the results of the nineteenth-century scientific and technological revolution, as well as the political relations among the Great Powers. By concentrating on both the social and economic bases of imperialism, their ideological implications, and their expression in the arts, he presents a wholly original analysis which opens up a new approach to this crucial epoch.

La Documentation de l’Afrique portugaise

Parce que l’Angola et le Portugal se trouvent constamment dans la presse ces jours-ci, nous avons pense qu’une etude de sources, archives, et mouvements sur les Portugais en Afrique serait precieuse pour les lecteurs. Des documents pour l’etude de l’Afrique portugaise sont eparpilles un peu partout (et ils ne constituent qu’une source fragmentaire); les endroits ou cette documentation existe ne sont generalement pas connus. Nous avons done essaye de constituer une liste partielle d’instituts, bibliotheques, et des sources sous forme de periodiques ou de livres ayant trait a ce sujet. Nous voulohs aussi fournir un guide des groupes politiques luttant pour la domination de 1’empire portugais en Afrique.