Shifting Sands: A Human History of the Sahara

Judith Scheele

Two decades of field work argue the desert is a connective region rather than an empty barrier, with a coherence that ignores every border drawn across it.

Scheele has worked across the Sahara for two decades, and argues that it is a connective region rather than an empty barrier, with a coherence in trade, language and kinship that cuts straight across every border drawn over it. She spent years living in the Chadian Sahara, and the book is a good argument for reading about places you had not thought about.

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Recommended by 1 Person

Tyler Cowen

A quite good, informative, and readable book on a very much undercovered topic. Saharan civilization is something that runs deeper, and is more coherent, than any set of national boundaries in the region. The author spent years living in the Saharan region of Chad.

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