Although the years since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999 have seen an increased interest in its history and politics, Nigeria remains one of the most under-researched African countries today, especially in relation to its size and its cultural, political and economic importance. Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton address this predicament with an immensely readable and up-to-date introduction to Nigerian history. Providing a chronology, the CVs of notable Nigerians and a good number of contemporary images, their book makes it easy for readers to engage with Nigerian history in a number of different ways. Selected bibliographies for each chapter include excellent references to a large number of African authors and invite the reader to explore the book's main themes further, as well as emphasizing that the book was not produced in an ideological space limited by European and North American approaches to the study of Africa.

The authors' concern with the African experience also shapes the book's first two chapters, which offer a discussion of states and societies in the region from 9,000 BCE to the early nineteenth century. Chapter 1 engages with the continuing influence of European and Egypt-centred interpretations of African history in scholarly debate, and while it acknowledges and validates the links of many early societies in what is now Nigeria with other parts of the world, it also emphasizes the importance of local developments. In the second chapter, the authors explore the importance of slavery and the slave trade for pre-colonial states and societies, and explain how local systems of slavery differed from those in the New World and especially America. In this way they address the focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries offered in most comparable publications and introduce the reader to important debates about African history.

After these introductory chapters, the book refers more directly to debates on Nigeria. The third chapter emphasizes the success of the Sokoto caliphate after 1804 before the eventual establishment of British rule from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, discussed in Chapter 4. The authors suggest that while the expansion of Islamic government created great instability in the south, it also led to a pre-colonial consolidation of much of Nigeria's present territory under African leadership. But Falola and Heaton are not nostalgic about any form of empire or its elites, and they treat the success of the caliphate in the same way they discuss the greater and more enduring success of the British, by emphasizing the alien and transformative nature of government produced on the basis of military victory and administrative integration. As a result, the authors are not only able to offer a balanced assessment of both African and European strategies of expansion in the age of imperialism, but also provide an insight into the agency of local groups in the contradictory struggles preceding the creation of the colonial state.

Chapters 5 and 6 concentrate on colonial Nigeria, and the authors divide this period by the nature of African engagement with the state. They suggest that the early decades of colonial rule were characterized by localized responses to administrative and economic innovation, and that the 1929 Women's War in south-east Nigeria represented the beginning of strategies of protest and engagement beyond the boundaries of local communities. Their emphasis on the nature of Nigerian society allows the authors to foreground the social changes associated with colonial rule, such as the ossification and stratification of existing hierarchies through Indirect Rule, on the one hand, and the dramatic social transformation associated with urbanization and shifting gender roles on the other. In reflection of such contradictions, the 1930s saw the beginning of political activity that would lead eventually to the independence of Nigeria, but they also witnessed the rise of class differences, compounded by ethnic and regional chauvinism. As a result, Nigeria was both economically dependent and politically divided when it emerged from Britsh rule in 1960.

Chapter 7 explores the political instability and the civil war which marred the first decade of Nigeria's independence and led to the emergence of the Nigerian military as the country's main political force. As Chapter 8 illustrates, the growth of Nigeria's oil economy enabled successive military governments to embark on linked strategies of devolution and centralization in order to ensure national unity. But the oil wealth also enabled the growth of corruption on a national scale, which eventually contributed to the demise of a short experiment with civilian rule in 1979–83 and ushered in another prolonged period of military rule. This period is discussed in Chapter 9, which focuses on the growth of civil society organizations and their engagement with the increasingly abusive military governments from 1984 to 1999, as well as with the civilian government of former military ruler, then President, Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999–2007. Finally, Chapter 10 reflects on the contribution of Nigeria to world history, highlighting its contribution through forced migration to the population and politics of the New World, the long history of Nigerian engagement with pan-Africanism, Nigeria's foreign policy since independence, and especially the growth and importance of the new Nigerian diaspora, which has settled, since the 1980s, in large numbers in North America, Europe and other parts of the world.

Emphasizing the experiences, ambitions and contributions of non-elite Nigerians also after colonial rule, this book challenges the implicit pessimism of many contemporary histories of Nigeria. Only occasionally, the authors' historical optimism seems overstated, as when they suggest that the ‘ability of pro-democracy civil society organizations to thrive despite the coercive and oppressive tactics of the military regimes led … finally to a successful transfer of power to … Obasanjo in 1999’ (p. 211). Many observers would argue that while the activities and campaigns of civil society organizations – both in Nigeria and in the diaspora – were crucial in drawing attention to the need for a transition to civilian rule, the fact that the military gave up its sole control of the political space was also due to international pressure and circumstance, including the sudden death of former military dictator Sani Abacha in 1998. As, at the time of writing, political decisions in Nigeria continue to be linked closely to elite negotiations, it seems moreover important to acknowledge the endurance and adaptability of this ruling class, if only so as not to underrate the obstacles still faced by the many Nigerians committed to increasing the possibilities for participation in public debate and decision making.

But Falola's and Heaton's commitment to rewriting Nigerian history is not limited to arguments about the historical nature of power. Providing a view on Nigerian history that is rooted in a deep commitment to Nigerian perspectives, the authors provincialize European and North American ideas about Africa in an accessible and convincing way. This alone means that the book should be taken seriously by all scholars who engage with the history of Nigeria and its diasporas, and that it should be considered an indispensable source for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching on Africa. Perhaps more importantly, in an age when the renewed interest in Nigeria, and Africa more generally, is often associated with the desire to address its real or presumed failures, this book offers a history which also acknowledges and affirms African achievements.