The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives

A former Africa editor for The Economist, Robert Guest addresses the troubled continent's thorniest problems: war, AIDS, and above all, poverty. Newly updated with a preface that considers political and economic developments of the past six years, The Shackled Continent is engrossing, highly readable, and as entertaining as it is tragic.

Guest pulls the veil off the corruption and intrigue that cripple so many African nations, posing a provocative theory that Africans have been impoverished largely by their own leaders' abuses of power. From the minefields of Angola to the barren wheat fields of Zimbabwe, Guest gathers startling evidence of the misery African leaders have inflicted on their people. But he finds elusive success stories and examples of the resilience and resourcefulness of individual Africans, too; from these, he draws hope that the continent will eventually prosper. Guest offers choices both commonsense and controversial for Africans and for those in the West who wish Africa well.

• Economics: Private and Public Choice
• Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
• Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima
• A History of Chemical and Biological Weapons
• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
• Principles of Chemistry: A Molecular Approach (3rd Edition)
• The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with Updates on Economic Issues and Main Characters
• Homer Economicus: The Simpsons and Economics
• The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster
• Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles