History scholars and teachers alike are sure to value this brief but significant introduction to the 1700–1875 period of African history. Trevor Getz, a historian of Africa, knows all too well that the period comprising the final full century of the transatlantic slave trade and the onset of European occupation of Africa in the late nineteenth century is commonly glossed as one in which the former seamlessly gave way to the latter. The result is that the majority of mainstream audiences hold on to erroneous notions of Africa as forever primitive and lacking the ability to solve its own predicament. Connected to this, it is common that West Africa and West Central Africa are generalized as representing the entire African continent's history in the period. Getz recognizes the importance of disrupting such misguided impressions with bold counter-examples that are sure to shake up normalized sensibilities about Africa and its people. This book will help readers understand that Africa was of central important to global history in this period.

To begin dismantling the ubiquitous trope that rests on an entrenched idea of a primitive Africa, Getz cleverly uses the word ‘cosmopolitan’ in the book's title. For most readers, the juxtaposition of ‘cosmopolitan’ with ‘Africa’ will immediately instigate a state of cognitive dissonance. His tactic rightly makes readers ask, just what does he mean? But he helps them quickly regain their footing with his early and clear definition. He explains that Africa is cosmopolitan because its peoples ‘were connected to each other and to other parts of the world by trade, the exchange of ideas, and the migration of people’, both within the continent and across the oceans and seas that surround it. What is more, he says, their ‘societies were flexible and complex enough to deal with the influx of new ideas and movement of peoples that these networks necessitated’ (p. xiv). In other words, readers learn that Africa, like everywhere else in the world, was a dynamic place with dynamic people doing dynamic things.

Getz's framing of the book and of the period allows him to introduce readers to concrete examples of economic networks, political systems, sociocultural ways, and knowledge-based industries. Through these he demonstrates that diverse populations of African people innovated and elaborated across large regions of the continent and beyond. Chapter 1 shows us that elaborate relationships and networks were the social glue that sustained societies. Getz's example of the centrality and deeply rooted place of matriclans in Asante society (pp. 10–11) is especially telling, as it underscores the relevance and status of women in early times and the ways in which increased complexity in trade ties and migration can instigate changes in political organizing and social positioning. Chapter 2 shines a light on the transoceanic connections forged by people living in areas abutting African coastlines, creating economic linkages that stretched across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the Indian Ocean. Here Getz draws attention to the much-used concept of creole populations and societies to point readers toward understanding that Africa, too, hosted European, Asian, and other immigrants who settled its coast. He also discusses the establishment of racially and ethnically mixed communities (pp. 34–36).

Chapter 3 introduces readers to the importance of understanding the histories and historical contexts of African people. Getz reminds readers of the centrality of the heterogeneous cosmologies, worldviews, and epistemologies that informed and shaped lives and communities. Central to this is the role of spirituality and religion, which the author effectively shows as inextricably linked to all sociocultural institutions. Here readers are introduced to indigenous African religions as well as Christianity and Islam. Chapter 4 brings the previous chapters together by showing readers just how and to what extent African entrepreneurs participated in the rise and sustaining of the industrial revolution. Readers learn that the development of industrial-driven global economies depended on African people's willingness – Getz draws attention to their agency – to establish and maintain relationships with European counterparts. It also introduces the well-known debate about this period's role in shaping later colonial occupation (p. 81).

The book's final chapter focuses on the role of African intellectuals and writers who are sometimes maligned or accused, in hindsight, of abetting the European colonial project. Getz is clear that he is not interested in absolution or placing blaming. Instead, he wants us to focus on these men's role in history for having ‘recognized that European technology and science were reaching a point where for the first time they were in serious advance of Africans’ abilities to resist them militarily or economically’ (p. 99). One major consequence would be the destabilization of Africa's cosmopolitanism. Curiously, Getz begins this chapter by posing the question ‘Men and women in the middle?’, even though these women are never heard in the chapter, nor is their omission addressed. While sources that capture women's intellectual perspectives may not have been available to him, a sentence or two that clarified this for the reader would go far in removing the sense that something seems to have been left out of the chapter.

In five succinct chapters readers are given solid examples of key developments that transpired in the 175-year span covered. Just as importantly, they are told where they can turn in order to learn more. Each chapter ends with a list of basic references that will help readers seeking additional information. Particularly useful to teachers will be the primary source excerpts at the end of each of Chapters 1–4, which make it possible easily to integrate lessons in primary source analysis.

Cosmopolitan Africa is written in a very accessible style, steering clear of excessive jargon or the need to have prior knowledge of Africa's history. It is a contribution to Oxford University Press's ‘African world histories’ series and, like other volumes in the series, it ought to be an invaluable resource for teachers and students ranging from high school to college.