Product Description
Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include


* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* dos, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken


"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very useful item for travelers to Botswana
I found this item to be very useful for travel to Botswana.It's also an entertaining read!

Packed full of facts
Mike Main provides a complete snapshot of the people and cultures of Botswana. It is not the usual tourist guidebook of only places to visit. This small book packs a large amount of essential information for a traveler who wishes to understand the people, their history and avoid embarrassing moments. I would highly recommend this book as an essential read before a visit to Botswana. Its small size means that you can also take it with you!

Knowledgeable and Entertaining
We have recently returned from Botswana and had the very good fortune of spending three days in the Kalahari with Michael Main. He is extremely knowledgeable, entertaining and most importantly very well informed - just as he is in his book about the culture in Botswana.

For those travelers who are going to Botswana and are interested in more than just seeing the "Big Five" this book is for you. After all, the people are just as much, if not more, a part of the travel experience and Michael Main knows the people of Botswana. ... Read more

Product Description
A textbook presenting the history of Botswana from the origins of mankind to the present day. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Botswana," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Botswana in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Botswana when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Botswana, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description
While most of Africa has been described as a political and economic disaster zone, Botswana stands out as a democracy that has achieved rapid economic growth for more than three decades. Clark Leith traces the evolution of Botswana's economic policies and democratic political systems and the forces that have shaped them since the country achieved independence in 1966. Leith shows that other African nations endowed with resources failed to stimulate growth but Botswana prospered because of a democratic political system and economic interests that were anchored in tradition, tempered by leadership, and shaped by growing institutions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Thorough, well researched, and boring
This book is highly recommended for economic and political science doctoral students.It is very well researched and a real achievement in terms of analyzing Botswana's economic success.But for the average person fascinated and curious about Africa's greatest success story, this book is extremely boring.Don't buy this unless you are either a serious post-graduate student or the Ambien you're taking is starting to become ineffective. ... Read more

Product Description

In the rush to development in Botswana, and Africa more generally, changes in work, diet, and medical care have resulted in escalating experiences of chronic illness, debilitating disease, and accident. Debility and the Moral Imagination in Botswana documents how transformations wrought by colonialism, independence, industrialization, and development have effected changes in bodily life and perceptions of health, illness, and debility. In this intimate and powerful book, Julie Livingston explores the lives of debilitated persons, their caregivers, the medical and social networks of caring, and methods that communities have adopted for promoting well-being. Livingston traces how Tswana medical thought and practice have become intertwined with Western bio-medical ideas and techniques. By focusing on experiences and meanings of illness and bodily misfortune, Livingston sheds light on the complexities of the current HIV/AIDS epidemic and places it in context with a long and complex history of impairment and debility. This book presents practical and thoughtful responses to physical misfortune and offers an understanding of the complex dynamic between social change and suffering.

Product Description
This is the first full study of an African country during World War II. Unusually, it provides both Africanist and imperialist perspectives. Using extensive archival and oral evidence, Jackson explores the social, economic, political, agricultural, and military histories of Botswana. He examines Botswana's military contribution to the war effort and the impact of the war on the African home front. The book focuses on events and personalities "on the ground" in Africa, and also considers Botswana's interaction with and impact upon events and personalities in distant imperial centers, such as Whitehall and the wartime British Army headquarters in the Middle East. The attitudes, aims, and actions of all levels of colonial society--British rulers, African chiefs, military officials, and ordinary African men and women--are likewise studied, thus producing a unique and "total" history of an African country at war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating.
Jackson writes with authority on the forgotten African veterans of World War II. ... Read more

Product Description
The fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of Botswana_through its chronology, introductory essay, appendixes, map, bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, institutions, and significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects_provides an important reference on this burgeoning African country. ... Read more

Product Description
Botswana has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents the socio-environmental history of black people around Kuruman, on the edge of the Kalahari in South Africa.Considering successive periods--Tswana agropastoral chiefdoms before colonial contact, the Cape frontier, British colonial rule, Apartheid, and the homeland of Bophuthatswana in the 1980s--Environment, Power and Injustice shows how the human relationship with the environment corresponded to differences of class, gender, and race.While exploring biological, geological, and climatological forces in history, this book argues that the challenges of existence in a semidesert arose more from human injustice than from deficiencies in the natural environment.In fact, powerful people drew strength from and exercised their power over others through the environment.At the same time, the natural world provided marginal peoples with some relief from human injustice. Nancy J. Jacobs is Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies and the Department of History at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.She is a recipient of the Alice Hamilton article prize from the American Society for Environmental History. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Are self-interested elites the curse of liberal democracy in Africa? Is there hope against the politics of the belly, kleptocracies, vampire states, failed states, and Afro-pessimism? In Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana, Richard Werbner examines a rare breed of powerful political elites who are not tyrants, torturers, or thieves. Werbner's focus is on the Kalanga, a minority ethnic group that has served Botswana in business and government since independence. Kalanga elites have expanded public services, advocated causes for the public good, founded organizations to build the public sphere and civil society, and forged partnerships and alliances with other ethnic groups in Botswana. Gathering evidence from presidential commissions, land tribunals, landmark court cases, and his lifetime relationship with key Kalanga elites, Werbner shows how a critical press, cosmopolitanism, entrepreneurship, accountability, and the values of patriarchy and elderhood make for an open society with strong, capable government. Werbner's work provides a refreshing alternative to those who envision no future for Africa beyond persistent agony and lack of development.

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Botswana Safari Guide is very disappointing
While the book promises details of "the best areas to visit and the notable wildlife you can expect to see", it is very general and provides little detail as to where or when (within each broad area) you can expect to see the "notable" (read commonly seen) wildlife.I was looking for a guide that would help me plan where to go (ie what areas within each Park) and when, not just provide some pretty pictures of what I might see in the Park as a whole if I went.It certainly does not provide "all I need to know to prepare for a trip" to Botswana. Nice pictures but fairly hopeless as a "guide". ... Read more

Product Description
This series honours the lives of southern African leaders who helped shape the history of the region. The books include activities for exploration in the classroom. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Bechuanaland Protectorate. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 64. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Bechuanaland Protectorate (BP) was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom in southern Africa. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966. Bechuanaland meant the country of the Bechuana (now written Batswana or Tswana). The Bechuanaland Protectorate eventually became divided into two. The southern part, south of the Molopo River became the crown colony known as British Bechuanaland, later became part of the Cape Colony and is now in South Africa. This is the area around Mafikeng (then spelled "Mafeking"). The Bechuanaland Protectorate (1904: Area (estimated), 225,000 square miles, population 120,776) formed the northern part; its territory was expanded north in 1890. In 1882 British Bechuanaland (1904: Area, 51,424 square miles, population 84,210) suffered two short term secessions by the Boer states of Stellaland and Goshen, although both were brought back to British control with a few years. In 1891 the South African Customs Union was extended to British Bechuanaland, and in 1895 the country was annexed to the Cape Colony. The British government originally expected to turn over administration of the protectorate to Rhodesia or South Africa, but Tswana opposition left the protectorate under British rule until Independence in 1966. The BP was technically a protectorate rather than a colony. Originally the local Tswana rulers were left in power, and the British administration was limited to a police force to protect Bechuanaland's borders against other European colonial ventures. But on 9 May 1891 the British Government gave the administration of the protectorate to the High Commissioner for South Africa, who started to appoint offici...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=432499 ... Read more