The Making of Contemporary Africa : The Development of African Society Since 1800 - Bill Freund

The Making of Contemporary Africa provides a refreshing reinterpretation of the complex events in sub-Saharan Africa since the eighteenth century. It also serves as a succinct introduction to the history of modern Africa, incorporating in the text a critical appraisal of the best scholarship in recent years. The book first examines indigenous social development and the significance of contact with pre-industrial Europe. Following the Industrial Revolution, the impact of colonialism is considered from the perspective of class formation and capital penetration. Social and cultural changes during this period are given special attention. Decolonisation and the post-colonial development of Africa are analysed on the foundation of basic economic changes, not by the usual, narrowly-conceived chronological political catalogue. New chapters look at the revolutionary process in southern Africa and focus on the contemporary themes of economic crisis, structural adjustment and the pitfalls of democratisation.

Bill Freund (1944  2020) was an American academic historian who was particularly known as an authority on the economic and labour history of Africa. His research focused primarily on South Africa. For much of his career, he taught at the University of Natal and its successor institution the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

A self-described "materialist", Freund is best known for The Making of Contemporary Africa (1984) which was widely praised as a survey of scholarship on the social and economic history of Africa in the colonial and post-colonial eras. He wrote widely on subjects related to African labour and urban history.