The author of this book is clearly literate and well-read, and puts together a really interesting chronology and analysis of the effects of the breakup of the European empires. At the beginning I wasn't very encouraged, as I found the first chapter to be a little too abstract and opining, but thereafter the author quickly gets into some fascinating matters of real substance. We learn where the term 'third world' was first used; how when the inhabitants of French Guinea opted for full independence the French decolonised so emphatically they took the phones off the walls when they left; how Bokassa's coronation ceremony is alleged to have cost a quarter of his country's wealth, and so on.

Don't let the brevity put you off: this is a well-written, well-rounded portrait of decolonisation by a guy with informed opinions on these matters. A great read.