Thanks for the suggestions. One of the classes I ‘ll be taking soon (see: http://www.afewgoodpens.com/blog/category/about-me/) will cover the history of Africa, in part, so I’ll keep you’re reading list in mind.

As I move into a masters program, I’m more likely to explore a genre than a period, probably something where history and cultural studies intersect. Haven’t really defined that yet; I’ve got a couple of years left to finish the BA first. What I’ve covered so far, though, has stepped through various eras from early modern Europe through contemporary European and American history, politics, and government, and I’ll be focusing on several specific regions (Russia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe, for example) in the courses I have left. So, in effect, I’m doing a little of both … survey-type courses of an era, followed by an international/regional focus.

Bye for now….

Since Cooper cited Africa – if you’re interested – start with:
Africana – The Concise Desk Reference – Appiah & Gates
Africa – A Biography of the Continent – John Reader
Frontiers – Noel Mostert
The River – Edward Hooper – mainly deals with the search for the source of HIV/AIDS, and has interesting items regarding Africa.

There are other books that would round out your reading – if you truly want to be a student of history, let me know and I’ll see if I can steer you in the right direction.

By the way, the reason history repeats itself is that we forget or never learn the lessons that history should have taught us.

Case in point – How often do we hear about someone getting scammed, and it’s usually a elderly person. Quite often, yes?

The same things happened in the 1970′s, 1980′s, 1990′s and were lead stories in the newspapers and on television, politicians rose up and demanded justice, yadda, yadda, yadda.

After almost 40 years of this happening over and over – one would think we’d learn.

Take care.

Machiavelli makes a good point, of course. Another element of historical cycles I might like to explore sometime stems from the fact that each generation has to learn so much about the past almost from scratch … that is, we have no innate knowledge of our own history or of anyone else’s, so cycles may occur at least partially because we have to keep starting over. I’m sure that’s too simplistic an explanation for the broader idea of historical cycles, but I have no doubt that it plays into it.

Interesting you mentioned colonialism repeating itself … That would actually be a good place to start, to tear apart the ideas and politics behind colonialism and try to learn why it occurs and why it keeps recurring. A “large subject” certainly, but we need to shed our fears of large subjects as much as possible (since they just keep getting larger). I like to hope that over time, the broader availability of information and the increased speed of its transmission might give future generations new options for exploring and understanding the past, and intercepting damaging cycles.

Bye for now,

Dale

(P.S. If a plugin I installed is working, you should have gotten this as an e-mail. I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know…. tx!)

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, I certainly appreciate it. Glad you are enjoying my writing; stay tuned (as I say repeatedly), there will be plenty more!

Thanks again,

Dale

To go further and because I am lazy this night to quote

Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results.
Machiavell