On the Making of Modern Libya
Ahmida, Ali Abdullatif. The Making of Modern Libya: State Formation, Colonization, and Resistance, 1830-1932. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. pp. 222. Paperback.
This is a great history of Libya up to the end of the “pacification” of Libya (which was actually a genocidal war culminating in the internment of the entire population of Cyrenaica). The first three chapters are statistical and offer broad outlines primarily for Tripolitania. The book picks up in the fourth chapter with coverage on the Sanusi in Cyrenaica. The final chapter deals with anti-colonialism.
In short, a classic.