Shifting Sands (Hardback)
A Human History of the Sahara
Buy from
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
'Engrossing, enlightening, original ... brilliant' The Times
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
In this sweeping, majesterial account, Judith Scheele reveals the rich history and complex reality of the world's largest hot desert. Drawing on decades of research, and years spent living in the region, Scheele leads us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present - and the race for resources that will define the future. The Sahara covers parts of eleven countries, and Scheele follows in the footsteps and tyre-tracks of the many people who cross the desert, taking us into the homes, mosques, palm groves and battlefields where history is written, spoken and remade.
The result is a masterful portrait of the Sahara. Encompassing the geology, religions, peoples and politics that shape and fracture the region, Shifting Sands tells the immersive story of a place whose future holds implications for us all.
'A detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world ... a clearsighted study of life on the edge' Wall Street Journal
'A fascinating and intimate perspective of the region from the ground-up' Barnaby Rogerson
Shifting Sands (Ebook)
A Human History of the Sahara
Buy from
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
'Engrossing, enlightening, original ... brilliant' The Times
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
In this sweeping, majesterial account, Judith Scheele reveals the rich history and complex reality of the world's largest hot desert. Drawing on decades of research, and years spent living in the region, Scheele leads us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present - and the race for resources that will define the future. The Sahara covers parts of eleven countries, and Scheele follows in the footsteps and tyre-tracks of the many people who cross the desert, taking us into the homes, mosques, palm groves and battlefields where history is written, spoken and remade.
The result is a masterful portrait of the Sahara. Encompassing the geology, religions, peoples and politics that shape and fracture the region, Shifting Sands tells the immersive story of a place whose future holds implications for us all.
'A detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world ... a clearsighted study of life on the edge' Wall Street Journal
'A fascinating and intimate perspective of the region from the ground-up' Barnaby Rogerson
Shifting Sands (Audiobook)
A Human History of the Sahara
Buy from
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
'Engrossing, enlightening, original … brilliant' The Times
This is the story of the Sahara as you've never seen it before
In this sweeping, majesterial account, Judith Scheele reveals the rich history and complex reality of the world's largest hot desert. Drawing on decades of research, and years spent living in the region, Scheele leads us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present – and the race for resources that will define the future. The Sahara covers parts of eleven countries, and Scheele follows in the footsteps and tyre-tracks of the many people who cross the desert, taking us into the homes, mosques, palm groves and battlefields where history is written, spoken and remade.
The result is a masterful portrait of the Sahara. Encompassing the geology, religions, peoples and politics that shape and fracture the region, Shifting Sands tells the immersive story of a place whose future holds implications for us all.
'A detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world … a clearsighted study of life on the edge' Wall Street Journal
'A fascinating and intimate perspective of the region from the ground-up' Barnaby Rogerson
Reviews for Shifting Sands
The Times
Scheele presents a detailed, often gritty, picture of a fragile world. Her travels trace the web of exchanges, linguistic and material, that crisscross a harsh, vast and sometimes impassable terrain ...
Instead of "mental maps of vertical and historically immutable trade routes," Scheele finds a pattern of pathways that, like the grazing routes of the pastoralists' livestock, shifts with changes in climate, economics and politics ... this is a clearsighted and unsentimental study of life on the edge.
'
Dominic Green Wall Street Journal
James Copnall TLS
Jules Stewart Geographical
Maxim Samson, author of Invisible Lines
Barnaby Rogerson, author In Search of Ancient North Africa
Gregory Mann, Professor of History, Columbia University
Peregrine Horden, All Souls College, Oxford
Publishers Weekly
Richard Vinen Literary Review
Praise for Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara:
'An irresistible read ... something particular and intensely human'
'
Deborah Harrold The Journal of North African Studies
Roman Loimeier Africa
Ghislaine Lydon - University of California, Los Angeles
E. Ann McDougall - University of Alberta
Judith Scheele
Judith Scheele is a social anthropologist trained at Oxford. After a few years spent in Germany she now holds a professorship at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in France. She has spent many years living in and researching the Sahara, with a focus on Algeria, Mali and Chad and a more recent focus on northern Sudan and its borders with Libya and Egypt. She has published three books, one with James Currey, and two with Cambridge University Press. Her second book, Smugglers and Saints of the Sahara, has been described by Deborah Harrold (The Journal of North African Studies) as 'an irresistible read', 'something particular and intensely human', and, by Roman Loimeier (Africa), as 'an academic page-turner', 'brilliantly written and thrilling to read'.