Bagachi, Amiya Kumar. Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Ascendancy of Capital. 2005. A spirited radical critique of Western imperialism.

Conklin, Alice. A Mission to Civilize: The French Republican Ideal and West Africa, 1895–1930. 1997. An outstanding examination of French imperialism.

Cook, Scott B. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. 1996. A stimulating and very readable overview.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century: A Turbulent History. 2009. English translation of a highly regarded history by a premier African scholar.

Findley, C. The Turks in World History. 2005. An exciting reconsideration of the Turks in long-term perspective.

Harper, Marjory, and Stephen Constantine. Migration and Empire. 2010. A comparative study of migration throughout the British Empire.

Headrick, D. Tools of Empire. 1991. Stresses technological superiority in Western expansion.

Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. 1999. The definitive account of King Leopold’s Congo and the human rights crusaders who exposed its horrors.

Hourani, A. A History of the Arab Peoples, 2d ed. 2010. Offers brilliant insights on developments in the nineteenth century.

Law, Robin, ed. From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa. 2002. Leading scholars describe the transition to legitimate trade from an African perspective.

Lovejoy, P. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, 3d ed. 2012. A fine synthesis of current knowledge.

Medard, Henri, and Shane Doyle. Slavery in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa. 2007. A significant contribution to the understudied story of slavery in East Africa, mainly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Meredith, Martin. Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa. 2007. An excellent account of the British scramble for South Africa from 1806 to the South African War (1899–1902).

Nugent, Walter. Crossings: The Great Transatlantic Migrations, 1870–1914. 1992. A classic study of migration history.

Wright, John. The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade. 2007. A well-researched study of slavery in a long-neglected region of Africa.