Shifting Sands A Human History of the Sahara

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

Blue-veiled nomads, camels crossing infinite dunes, oases shimmering on the horizon: ready-made images of the Sahara are easy to conjure. But they can never truly capture a region that crosses eleven countries and is home to millions.

This sweeping account upends old fantasies, revealing the far more interesting reality of the Earth's largest hot desert. Drawing on decades of research, and years spent living in the region, anthropologist Judith Scheele takes us from Libya to Mali, Algeria to Chad, from the ancient Roman Empire to contemporary regional battles and fraught international diplomacy, questioning every easy cliche and exposing fascinating truths along the way.

From the geology of the region, to the life it shelters, to the religions, languages and cultural and political forces that shape and fracture it, this is a landmark work that tells the compelling story of a place that sits at the heart of our world, and whose future holds implications for us all.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Hardback
ISBN13: 9781788166454
Published: May 2025

Number of pages: 384
Width: 156 mm
Height: 236 mm
Depth: 38 mm

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd