Tir a' Mhurain: The Outer Hebrides Of Scotland is a new and impressive edition showcasing the 105 duotone, breathtaking, sequenced photographs by Paul Strand (1890-1976) drawn from his 1954 sojourn to the untamed island of South Uist, located near the west coast of Scotland. Glorious images of landscapes and sea, personal portraits of fishermen, and wondrous natural splendor mark this volume which is a joy to leaf through as it presents captured images and memories of a truly timeless beauty. With an informative text by Basil Davidson and featuring an excellent introduction by Catherine Duncan, Tir a' Mhurain is a much appreciated contribution to the art of photography and a highly recommended acquisition for personal, professional, and academic "History of Photography" reference collections.

Paul Strand, one of the great photographers of the world, spent three months in 1954 on the Island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Long a fan of Scottish photographers and Scotland (he had devoted the first gallery in his 1937 "Centenary of Photography" exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art to the work of the Scottish pioneers Hill and Adamson) he excelled himself with Tir a'Mhurain (the title is Gaelic for "Land of the bent grass" one of the Gaelic names for Uist).

It is sumptuous, penetrating and great art. The book is long out of print and this re-print (not quite perfect as some of the pictures appear a little soft) is a rare opportunity to own it without forking out hundreds of pounds for an original (not that they come on the market).

If you are interested in photography, the Western Isles, Scotland or even just life and people, buy it!

Basil Davidson was a pioneering Africanist when the study of Africa, or at least from the perspective of Africans, was unfashionable even laughed at. This English socialist was on the front-line for over 50 years and nothing can take that away from him. This book is a selection of his writings and a good intro to Davidson. However, there are a few dissappointments. His prediction of what was to happen in SA was out (OK, predictions are a dangerous game). What really dissappointed me was his support for people like Bernal and Diop whose work has been exposed as inaccurate and wrong. This reluctance to "face facts" when it comes to the bad side of Africa means that Davidson exhibits an almost naive optimism in Africa that just doesn't square with happened/is happening. Nonetheless, Davidson was a great Africanist and this book should be read.

There is so much more to Africa than ever makes it to the news and the school books. This book is a survey of Davidson's main interests: Africa's rich pre-colonial history, the manufacture of the ideology of racism by European intellectuals to justify the atrocity of the Atlantic slave trade, and the courage and success of African freedom fighters against staggering odds.

According to the list at the beginning of this book, Basil Davidson has written almost 30 books on African politics and society, and he has studied these topics for decades, so he definitely knows what he's talking about. Unfortunately he knows even more about Eastern Europe, which he can't stop talking about (much to this book's detriment); and he gets himself into trouble by approaching areas that he's clearly not strong in, like cultural anthropology. Hence, Davidson takes a subject in which he could have written an authoritative masterpiece, and delivers a rambling, unfocused mess instead.

Davidson tries to present past events and their influence on the current world, which requires distinct and chronological history writing, but this is a failure as he keeps jumping around from ancient to modern times with no rhyme or reason. He also tries to tie the ancient beliefs and customs of African peoples to their success, or lack thereof, in modern nation building, but he doesn't know enough about cultural anthropology to do much more than frustratingly skirt this interesting concept. And the biggest blunder in this book is Davidson's refusal to directly address the most commonly accepted theory that political scientists use to describe Africa's current problems. This would be the stipulation that the national borders in Africa don't make any sense, and are leftovers from old colonial partitions. Many ethnic groups are spread across multiple "nations," peoples within the same national borders often hate each other, and people are often more closely allied to their kinsmen in other countries instead of other peoples in their own nation. This explains why most African nations are a mess, because these "countries" are only accepted as entities by the outside world, and not by the people living in them. Davidson states early in the book that this phenomenon is irrelevant to discussions of current African politics. But he still can't help coming back to this theory again and again, such as in his discussions of social processes in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, and Liberia. Instead, he dwells on the unconvincing argument that the problem is caused by Europe-inspired political models used in the nation-building process.

Davidson spends at least half of this book trying to define the term "nation-state," as opposed to "country" or "nation." There are some important nuances between these terms, especially for political science, but taking so much time to cover them is unnecessary. In his discussion of the historical development of African nation-states, Davidson inexplicably forgets to mention Ethiopia and their King Haile Selassie. This nation was the only African state within thousands of miles to remain intact and non-European during the colonial period. Ethiopia would be enormously relevant to this discussion. Most irritatingly, chapters 5 and 9 (one-fifth of the book) are entirely about Europe. Here Davidson tries to amaze us with his knowledge of European history to endlessly draw weak comparisons to nation-state processes in Africa. These two chapters only contain a few useless non-sequiturs to remind you that you're reading a book about Africa. A much more useful comparison would be with independence movements in Latin America, but apparently Davidson only avoids that area so he doesn't have to do more research into it.

Truly,one of the greatest historians in living memory.This is an analogy of where the african continent has been and is going.

Maybe like the Israelites of old who had to wander for forty years before entering the promised land to shake off the servitude to Pharaoh mentality, African's will need many years after "independence" to shake off the colonized minds. Great book and should be read along with Franzt Fanons "The wretched of the Earth" to get a better understanding. As Albayruni said "The colonized trys to immitate the colonizer". Dashed hopes, disappointing "leaders" and continued interference has been the fate of Africa and Davidson gets to the very root of the crisis. It is one of confidence and will, resulting in Africans reviving the colonial state in indeginous garb.

Davidson's contribution is masterfully presented and I came away with the impression that he is a leading authority. However, this book is lacking in two area. First, there is a stunning dearth of illustration, in a book that should be replete with maps of trade routes, city outlines, and illustrations of artifacts. The reader is left wondering where just where did all of these event happen? Second, the text is too obviously derived from lectures, in that it often repeats and reasserts points that the reader has likely accepted several chapters ago. This makes for dull reading. I have long awaited such a book, knowing that such a history had only to be revealed. Although I learned a great deal from this text, I was on the whole disappointed by the presentation because it detracts from what the book has to offer. A new edition could easily remedy these shortcomings.

An excellent source of information on ancient civilizations in Africa. Since so energy has been focused on Ancient Egypt, the civilizations across the rest of the continent have often gone unseen. Basil Davidson touches on many areas with the expertise of a scholar who is highly familiar with African culture and history.

This book takes you on a raw one-of-kind look at modern Africa. I had little knowladge of the topic before reading this book, but this book took me step-by step through Africa's difficulties. This is a must read for anyone looking to expand their knowladge on world events.

This is an excellent overview of vernacular architecture from various parts of asia and africa. Well documented color photo illustrations were tremendous source inspiration in addressing sustainabilty issues in modern western architecture.

Without knowing much on the subject, I will say that all the arguments in this book seem sound. However, it is written in such an incoherant manner - switching back and forth from century to century, that you often don't know what century the author is talking about, much less his current argument. Instead the book comes across as Basil rambling, and this has more to do with the above stated, "being told much, but being told nothing." You'd have to re-write every fact and place them all in cronological order to make any sense of it.

This book emphasized the social and historical effects that trade and commerce have had on changing the landscape of African society. I was fascinated to learn about the many kingdoms and empires that existed in ancient Africa. The details of the great trading cities of the West coast, and the great trading kingdoms of the East Sudan areas were new information for me. Also, the effect of the slave trade on disrupting political and socio-economic situations was disheartening. Finally, the current political situation was explained, and I got a picture of how things got to the mess they are today. Now I see how the family unit was disrupted by colonization economics, and how the breakdown of society has affected all levels. Unfortunately, this book was written before the plague of AIDS, the recent Afro-unification efforts, and the South African Peace and Reconciliation commission were set up. So I look forward to reading more about those situations. Additionally, I think the author was soft on many of the corrupt and failed leaders that have squandered so many efforts for democracy and justice that have been attempted in the past fifty years. But taken in light of the long and troubled history of this land, I am not left without hope. The main failure of this book in my opinion, was the lack of the heart of the African, with its inner sense of joy and ability to survive even the harshest situations that I have so learned to admire in my African friends I have made over the years, was not explored. The personal face of the diverse and warm-hearted peoples of this content was not shown by this more academic and political history. So that inspires me to read more about this amazing continent.

Basil Davidson has written an excellent overview of African history, ranging from the Egyptian and Nubian kingdoms to the trading empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhay. An especially adept treatment is given to the Colonial Period; Refraining from the accepted subjective views, Davidson tries to analyze the true effect Europeans had on the continent, without pathos or exaggeration. This does not mean that he resents their interference less - few authors could hold more negative views of individual European exploiters making use of the continent for their private ends.

One point against this book is that it is perhaps too short for its scope. Less than 400 pages, the reader is left with the sensation that he has been told much, and yet has been told nothing - an appropriate sensation, perhaps, to provide the incentive to continue reading about the subject, but the aggregate increase in knowledge resulting from the reading is still not large.

Nevertheless, I would warmly recommend this book to anybody seriously interested in the African subject.