Johan Fourie is Professor of Economics at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, where he coordinates the Laboratory for the Economics of Africa's Past (LEAP). He is a National Research Foundation-rated scholar, co-founder of the African Economic History Network and former editor of Economic History of Developing Regions.

Introduction: How do we thrive?; 1. Who are the architects of Wakanda? African economic historians and the stories we tell; 2. What happened at Blombos in 70,000 BCE? The Out-of-Africa hypothesis and the peopling of the world; 3. Why are the Danes so individualistic? The Neolithic Revolution and the rise of civilisations; 4. Why does isiXhosa have clicks? The Bantu migration; 5. How did Joseph and his eleven brothers solve the three economic problems? Custom and command in the ancient world; 6. What do Charlemagne and King Zwelithini have in common? Feudalism; 7. Why do Indians have dowry and Africans lobola? Precolonial African economic systems; 8. Who was the richest man ever to live? The spread of Islam in Africa and the Crusades; 9. How did 168 Spanish conquistadores capture an empire? Europeans in the New World; 10. Why was a giraffe the perfect gift for the Chinese emperor? The Indian Ocean trade and European imperialism; 11. Who visited Gorée island on 27 June 2013? The Atlantic slave trade and Africa's long-run development; 12. What is an incunabulum? Book printing and the Reformation; 13. Who was Autshumao's niece? The arrival of Europeans in South Africa and the demise of the Khoesan; 14. What did Thomson, Watson & Co. purchase? The emancipation of the enslaved; 15. What do an Indonesian volcano, Frankenstein and Shaka Zulu have in common? The Mfecane and Great Trek; 16. Why was the spinning jenny not invented in India? Science, technology and the Industrial Revolution; 17. Why did railways hurt Basotho farmers? South Africa's mineral revolution; 18. What did Sol Plaatje find on his journey through South Africa? Property rights and labour coercion; 19. Why can you have any car as long as it is black? The rise of American industry; 20. What does a butterfly collector do in the Congo? The Berlin Conference and the colonisation of Africa; 21. Who wrote the best closing line of modern literature? The Great Depression and the New Deal; 22. How could a movie embarrass Stalin? Russia and the turn to communism; 23. Who is the perfect soldier? The causes and consequences of the Second World War; 24. What was the Great Leap Forward? Mao Zedong, famine and the Cultural Revolution; 25. Why should we cry for Argentina? A country reverses; 26. Who was the last king of Scotland? African independence struggles; 27. How did Einstein help create Eskom? South Africa industrialises; 28. Why would you want to eat sushi in the Transkei? The economics of apartheid; 29. Why do the Japanese play rugby? The rise of the East Asian economies; 30. What do Lego and the greatest invention of the twentieth century have in common? The second era of globalisation; 31. What is funny about Moore's law? ICT and the Fourth Industrial Revolution; 32. What bubbles in Iceland? The Global Financial Crisis of 2008; 33. What did The Economist get spectacularly wrong? Africa after 2000; 34. Will Madiba's Long Walk to Freedom ever end? The first 25 years of democracy and the future of South Africa; 35. What should no scholar ever do? Predicting the future; Epilogue: How do you win a World Cup?