Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles | 
pickThere is a giant, gaping hole in my world history knowledge when it comes to Africa and this book helped to fill that in. It focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and dealt primarily with events from the last 60 years. Dowden clearly loves the people of Africa -- there are sections that have elements of travel writing combined with the history and I appreciated the depth that gave to the narratives. (Continued in comments)
lauralovesbooks1 He is fairly unflinching in his assessment of the impact of Europe and the US on African nations and he certainly gave me a lot to think about. This was published almost 10 years ago and I am interested to find out what changes the last 10 years have brought 7y
lauralovesbooks1 He also left me wanting to seek out more in depth information on many of the topics he covered -- a sign of really good nonfiction. 7y