"Originally published in 2025 by Profile Books in Great Britain"-- Title page verso

What comes to mind when we think about the Sahara? Rippling sand dunes, sun-blasted expanses, camel drivers and their caravans perhaps. Or famine, climate change, civil war, desperate migrants stuck in a hostile environment. The Sahara stretches across 3.2 million square miles, hosting several million inhabitants and a corresponding variety of languages, cultures, and livelihoods. But beyond ready-made images of exoticism and squalor, we know surprisingly little about its history and the people who call it home. Shifting Sands is about that other Sahara, not the empty wasteland of the romantic imagination but the vast and highly differentiated space in which Saharan peoples and, increasingly, new arrivals from other parts of Africa live, work, and move. It takes us from the ancient Roman Empire through the bloody colonial era to the geopolitics of the present, questioning easy clichés and exposing fascinating truths along the way. From the geology of the region to the religions, languages, and cultural and political forces that shape and fracture it, this landmark book tells the compelling story of a place that sits at the heart of our world, and whose future holds implications for us all. --

"A top scholar's new history of the Sahara, debunking myths of a timeless, unchanging wasteland and revealing a world of porous borders, constant change, and adaptation in the face of extremes"--

Introduction: Desert Lore -- Part One: What Makes a Desert? -- Sand, Rocks and Yellowcake -- Like the Deserts Miss the Rain -- Cherchez le dromadaire -- Part Two: Endless Movement -- To Be from Far Away -- Saints on Trucks -- Qadis on Camelback -- Part Three: Margins of Empire -- Land of Dissidence -- When Crisis Becomes Permanent -- In Search of Security -- Conclusion: Tracing the Lion's Footprints