Desert Frontier is a study of the ecological and economic impact of a long-term trend toward increasing aridity along the southern edge of the western Sahara. Beginning in the early seventeenth century, this climatological trend forced the desert approximately 200-300 kilometers to the south, transforming ethnic identities and ways of life along the length of the Sahel. Based on extensive archival research and on Saharan oral data, Desert Frontier argues that the principal historical dynamics of the precolonial Sahel were determined by this pervasive ecological crisis, rather than by the dynamics of a European-dominated world system.

About the Author
James L. A. Webb, Jr., is an associate professor of history at Colby College in Maine. He is the author of Desert Frontier: Ecological and Economic Change along the Western Sahel, 1600-1850.


Book Information
ISBN 9780299143343
Author James L.A. Webb, Jr
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Wisconsin Press
Publisher University of Wisconsin Press
Weight(grams) 355g