Tall order

To write the history of Africa in one relatively slim volume may seem a tall order, but John Iliffe has pulled it off with Africans: The History of a Continent (Cambridge University Press, £12.95, ISBN 0 521 48422 7). His secret is that he looks at every era or event – from the slave trade to the impact of European diseases during the colonial period to apartheid – in terms of the symbiosis of the African peoples with their environment. This is Africa seen in a new and unusual light – as the product of a demographic equilibrium in which culture, belief, politics, climate and disease are all factors.