Reid (African history, Univ. of Oxford; Warfare in African History) elaborates a perspective looking out from Africa, attending to its internal dynamics, rather than typical Eurocentric views that little or nothing significant was happening on the African continent until Europeans arrived in the Scramble for Africa. That’s a period that started with the Congress of Berlin in the 1880s and ended in 1914. His five-part narrative unfolds through a series of vignettes and moves in time and space to detail dynamic African change and creativity. In this book, warlords, merchants and insurgents take their places, along with itinerant European missionaries and ethnologists. Violence infused much of the scene across a continent rife with social aspirations and economic transformations that stirred continuous political instability on which European expansionism preyed. While focused heavily on southeast Africa, this work reflects multifaceted processes at work with remarkable energy along vibrant commercial highways that interconnected 19th-century societies across Africa. VERDICT An interactive history in which Africans and Europeans together played parts in transforming the continent in the modern age. Will appeal to students of Africa and general readers prepared for a fresh perspective.