One of our most influential anthropologists reevaluates her long and illustrious career by returning to her roots—and the roots of life as we know itWhen Elizabeth Marshall Thomas first arrived in Africa to live among the Kalahari San, or bushmen, it was 1950, she was nineteen years old, and these last surviving hunter-gatherers were living as humans had lived for 15,000 centuries. Thomas wound up writing about their world in a seminal work, The Harmless People (1959). It has never gone out of print.Back then, this was uncharted territory and little was known about our human origins. Today, our beginnings are better understood. And after a lifetime of interest in the bushmen, Thomas has come to see that their lifestyle reveals great, hidden truths about human evolution.As she displayed in her bestseller, The Hidden Life of Dogs, Thomas has a rare gift for giving voice to the voices we don’t usually listen to, and helps us see the path that we have taken in our human journey. In The Old Way, she shows how the skills and customs of the hunter-gatherer share much in common with the survival tactics of our animal predecessors. And since it is “knowledge, not objects, that endure” over time, Thomas vividly brings us to see how linked we are to our origins in the animal kingdom.The Old Way is a rare and remarkable achievement, sure to stir up controversy, and worthy of celebration. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is the author of seven books, nonfiction and fiction—among them The Hidden Life of Dogs, The Harmless People, and Reindeer Moon. She has written for The New Yorker, National Geographic, and The Atlantic, and lives in New Hampshire. When Elizabeth Marshall Thomas first arrived in Africa to live among the Kalahari San, or bushmen, it was 1950, she was nineteen years old, and these last surviving hunter-gatherers were living as humans had lived for fifteen thousand centuries. Thomas wound up writing about their world in a seminal work, The Harmless People (1959), a book that is still in print. The history of mankind that most of us know is only the tip of the iceberg, a brief stint compared to fifteen thousand centuries of life as roving clans that seldom settled down adapted every day to changes in environment and food supply, and lived for the most part like the animal ancestors from which they evolved. Those origins are not so easily abandoned, Thomas suggests, and our wired, documented, and market-driven society has plenty to learn from the Bushmen of the Kalahari about human evolution. As she displayed in The Hidden Life of Dogs, Thomas helps us see the path that we have taken in our human journey. In The Old Way, she shows how the skills and customs of the hunter-gatherer share much in common with the survival tactics of our animal predecessors. And since it is "knowledge, not objects, that endure" over time, Thomas brings us to see how linked we are to our origins in the animal kingdom. "Heartbreaking and gorgeously observed . . . The Old Way is not only a timely work, but also a timeless one—a last look back before we decide how to go forward."—Alexandra Fuller, The New York Times Book Review "Heartbreaking and gorgeously observed . . . The Old Way is not only a timely work, but also a timeless one—a last look back before we decide how to go forward."—Alexandra Fuller, The New York Times Book Review "It is fascinating to see how Thomas has honed her observational powers over the year . . . and how her notion of 'culture' has broadened."—Los Angeles Times "With a perspective honed over the intervening 50-odd years . . . Thomas captures the fascinating customs of a people that had no future as a tribe."—The Daily News "A fascinating and rewarding read . . . Marshall proves again and again the full humanity and astonishing sophistication of a people so 'primitive' that she offers them as a link to our earliest Paleolithic forebears, the first humans."—Chauncey Mabe, The San Diego Union-Tribune "Part memoir, part anthropological study, part skewering of the forces of modernity that have destroyed a way of life that was not just ancient and extraordinary, but full of clues about how we came to be who we are today . . .Thomas has produced a magnificent elegy to a way of life that has only recently passed us by . . . Her book provides us with a cultural artifact of the rarest kind—a first-hand account of a way of life usually only guessed at by experts poring over bones and fossils in the dirt."—Austin Merrill, The News and Observer (Raleigh)“Throughout the book Thomas evocatively imagines the ancient lives based on what she witnessed during the twilight of one of the last hunter-gatherer societies . . . The Old Way reveals how an indigenous people and an American family were able to transcend their tremendous cultural divide and find common ground.”—The Explores Journal"In 1950, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas' father, the retired president of Raytheon, together with his wife, a former English teacher, and their two teenage children went out to live among some of the last people in the world still living as nomadic hunter-gatherers. It would be a coming of age like no other, with stunning and unforeseen rewards for the field of Anthropology. Her mother, Lorne Marshall, would write The !Kung of Nyae Nyae, one of the great ethnographies of all time; her brother John made a series of films culminating (just before he died) in the epic Kalahari Family, chronicling the fate of the !Kung through early contacts and discovery of their remarkable way of life, to their tragic displacement from the lands that had sustained them for so many thousands of year. Elizabeth herself, an extraordinarily gifted writer went on to write a number of best-selling books. Now, half a century later, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas returns to those early experiences and re-examines what she learned from the people, places, animals and lifeways encountered in the Kalahari long ago. The result is a brilliantly conceived, wise and hauntingly vivid, portrait of the natural and social worlds inhabited by people living much as our earliest human ancestors must have. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’ finest book to date, The Old Way, is a deeply felt, deeply observed masterpiece that transforms the way we look at our own world."—Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection "This is the owner's manual we need for humankind. The Old Way gives us critical insight into our past at a turning point in human history by one of the few people who has seen our kind living as we have lived for most of our species' existence. This will be one of the most important books of the millennium."—Sy Montgomery, author of The Snake Scientist and The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans "A meticulous discussion of the names applied to the people [now called] 'Ju/wasi' . . This is Thomas at her best: respectful of scholarship, traditions and peoples . . . Essential."—Library Journal

While observing a family of elephants in the wild, Caitlin O’Connell noticed a peculiar listening behavior—the matriarch lifted her foot and scanned the horizon, causing the other elephants to follow suit, as if they could “hear” the ground. The Elephant’s Secret Sense is O’Connell’s account of her groundbreaking research into seismic listening and communication, chronicling the extraordinary social lives of elephants over the course of fourteen years in the Namibian wilderness.            This compelling odyssey of scientific discovery is also a frank account of fieldwork in a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged country. In her attempts to study an elephant community, O’Connell encounters corrupt government bureaucrats, deadly lions and rhinos, poachers, farmers fighting for arable land, and profoundly ineffective approaches to wildlife conservation. The Elephant’s Secret Sense is ultimately a story of intellectual courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. “I was transported by the author’s superbly sensuous descriptions of her years spent studying the animals. . . . Conjures a high-class nature documentary film in prose.”—Steven Poole, Guardian “A ride as rough and astonishing as the roads of the African floodplain.”—Joan Keener, Entertainment Weekly “A successful combination of science and soulfulness, explaining her groundbreaking theory of how elephants use seismic communication. . . . O’Connell’s account is studded with sympathetic insights and well-turned phrases.”—Publishers Weekly “This fascinating book reads like a fast-paced detective story of a scientific discovery and adventure set in contemporary Africa. . . . By the end, O’Connell takes her rightful place among the leading biographers of the African elephant.”—Iain Douglas-Hamilton, author of Among the Elephants  

Navigating Africa can be daunting, particularly when planning a safari – an experience that varies greatly according to location. This guide demystifies the process, by detailing the safari stats of 18 African countries with maps, color photographs, illustrations of wildlife, 11 useful charts, and an accommodation guide with a detailed rating system.

Namibia is a sizeable and significant country in southern Africa that is little known to the outside world. A vast country of startling beauty with a storied history, including one of the world's worst genocides and a war of independence that lasted nearly a quarter century, this "land between two deserts" is a fascinating result of its African, German, and English influences.Culture and Customs of Namibia is one of very few English language works written about Namibia's history, culture, and society. The book reveals details about Namibian daily life, gender relations, modern youth culture, and the influence of traditional cultures that allow readers to appreciate this country's unique character. A section on tourism explains how Namibia—an extremely arid country with an immense number and diversity of wildlife—is on the cutting edge of ecotourism.

On 12 May 1883, the German flag was raised on the coast of South-West Africa, modern Namibia - the beginnings of Germany's African Empire. As colonial forces moved in , their ruthless punitive raids became an open war of extermination. Thousands of the indigenous people were killed or driven out into the desert to die. By 1905, the survivors were interned in concentration camps, and systematically starved and worked to death. Years later, the people and ideas that drove the ethnic cleansing of German South West Africa would influence the formation of the Nazi party. "The Kaiser's Holocaust" uncovers extraordinary links between the two regimes: their ideologies, personnel, even symbols and uniform. The Herero and Nama genocide was deliberately concealed for almost a century. Today, as the graves of the victims are uncovered, its re-emergence challenges the belief that Nazism was an aberration in European history. "The Kaiser's Holocaust" passionately narrates this harrowing story and explores one of the defining episodes of the twentieth century from a new angle. Moving, powerful and unforgettable, it is a story that needs to be told.

General Jannie Geldenhuys is widely regarded as one of the leading military commanders South Africa has ever produced. As Chief of the South African Defence Force from 1985 to 1990 he brought his experience to bear on the South African Border War, and was part of the negotiating team which brought an end to the conflict in 1989. In this completely revised and updated edition, Geldenhuys reflects on a life defined as much by a military career spanning more than four decades as it was by politics and indeed the need for peace on the African sub-continent. This book covers the years before and during the protracted Border War. But rather than a blow-by-blow official history, it consists of Geldenhuys' personal experiences and insights. These include facts unknown to civilians and even to some high-ranking military officials. In particular, Geldenhuys sheds light on the final years of the conflict and the negotiated settlement. Geldenhuys also writes of his early years, as he evolved from a rugby-mad young subaltern officer to a deep-thinking, reflective man with ever-sharpening insights into, war, peace, politics and, most of all, himself.

Namibia gained its independence in 1990 after decades of struggle against South African rule. Before its battles with South Africa, the country spent years within the grip of German colonialism. In this book, the first general history of Namibia to be published in more than two decades, a celebrated historian and a renowned archaeologist provide fresh perspective on these events, as well as a detailed account of the country's precolonial period.The volume begins with an absorbing history of Namibia from earliest times to the arrival of German colonialism in the nineteenth century. Drawing on sources in English and German, the authors explore trajectories of migration, production, and power in the precolonial period, changes triggered by European expansion, and the dynamics of formal colonialism. They relate the full experience of German rule, including the genocide of 1904-1908, the wars of central and southern Namibia, and the fate of defeated Africans who were imprisoned in concentration camps. Final chapters discuss African nationalism, apartheid, and war between 1946 and 1990, and the development of Namibia in the two decades since independence. An invaluable introduction and resource, this volume reasserts Namibia's crucial role in the history of southern Africa and, with its rich insight and extensive bibliography, furthers responsible research on the country and the continent. (7/13/2011)

Germany’s overseas colonial empire was relatively short lived, lasting from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange.Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The Devil’s Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a brilliant cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a new conceptualization of the colonial state and postcolonial theory. Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behavior in precolonial European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as “noble savages,” and depictions of Chinese culture were mixed. The effects of status competition among colonial officials, colonizers’ identification with their subjects, and the different strategies of cooperation and resistance offered by the colonized are also scrutinized in this deeply nuanced and ambitious comparative history. (20060926)

The gripping account of Arn Durand s first two years with Koevoet, South Africa s most deadly fighting unit during the Border War. Through Durand s eyes, the reader will experience the madness, mayhem and complexity of the war.A unit of the South African police, Koevoet was the most deadly fighting force involved in the Border War. This book is the account of Arn Durand s first years with Koevoet, from 1982 to 1983. He describes patrols, ambushes and contacts, situations of certain death, dealings with the enemy and relationships with his Ovambo colleagues. This book does not glorify war or peddle propaganda. It simply relates, in a deadpan style, what it was like to be a killing machine in the heat of battle.

Southern Africa - long famous for the oldest and best-managed game parks on the continent - is becoming increasingly popular as an adventure travel destination. In the 1990s the number of visitors to the region nearly doubled, to more than 6.5 million tourists per year, as adventure travelers abandoned traditional safari sites in Kenya and Tanzania for the world-class national parks of Botswana and Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. Favorable political changes have inspired an increase in tourism to South Africa, and the pristine wilderness areas in the smaller nations of Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland have become favorites with budget travelers in search of adventure well off the beaten track."Adventuring in Southern Africa "is a comprehensive guide to the geography, culture, natural history, and adventure opportunities in these eight countries, including: The legendary areas of Victoria Falls, the Okavango Delta, the Zambezi River, Etosha, and Kruger National Park The classic safari as well as unconventional car, hiking, rafting, and canoe trips The nuts and bolts of how to plan a trip, including what to pack, how to adjust to local customs, what documents to take, and safari etiquette A full range of travel styles, from luxury tours to independent budget travel How to stay healthy while traveling in Africa With appendices listing safari tour operators and conservation groups, as well as a helpful safari bibliography, Adventuring in Southern Africa is an essential tool for anyone planning a trip to this spectacular and still unspoiled part of the world.