'At long last, we have a scholarly book that effectively integrates the seemingly bewildering array of recent conflicts in Africa into a longer historical narrative about African social life. Admirably synthesizing vast amounts of historical research, Warfare in African History retains great readability, making it an accessible and necessary corrective to simplistic and ahistorical understandings of violent conflict in contemporary Africa. In revealing both the transformative and destructive capacities of warfare across the vast temporal and geographic sweep of African history, this book humanizes Africa's histories of violence. In so doing, it changes how we think about African social, cultural and military history, and opens exciting new avenues towards including Africa in global military histories.' Michelle Moyd, Indiana University