Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State

Frederick Cooper

Published by Harvard University Press 2014

Africa in the World

Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State

Frederick Cooper

https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674369306

Overview
Contents

About this book

Of the many pathways out of empire, why did African leaders follow the one that led to the nation-state, whose dangers were recognized by Africans in the 1940s and 50s? Frederick Cooper revisits a long history in which Africans were empire-builders, the objects of colonization, and participants in events that gave rise to global capitalism.

Author / Editor information

Cooper Frederick :

Frederick Cooper is Professor of History at New York University.

Reviews

In a gem of a book you can read either as world history or African history, you see a historian’s craft at its best: Cooper foregrounds the history of the continent to show how Africa has been entwined with global processes for centuries as he revisits old concerns with new insights, reminding us that contexts may shift but a scholar’s passionate regard for place and people does not.
-- Luise White, author of Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa

Cooper’s focus on a deep understanding of the ‘pathways’ and ‘junctures’ by which history is made, at the time, is brought here to one of the largest questions in twentieth-century African history: how did the nation-state triumph as the political form for post-colonial life? He applies his range of historical skills, and his lifetime of erudition in the study of empires, to suggest answers which promise to provoke discussion, research, and interest among scholars and citizens for a long time to come.
-- Jane I. Guyer, Johns Hopkins University

In this brilliant and compelling book, Cooper reflects on both the possibilities and the constraints presented by Africa’s uneven insertion into global capitalism and imperial systems, demonstrating that the troubled nation-state was not the inevitable outcome of decolonization. Informed by a scholarship remarkable for both its breadth and depth, Africa in the World will be obligatory reading for specialists and non-specialists alike.
-- Megan Vaughan, author of Creating the Creole Island: Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Maps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Africa and Capitalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Africa and Empire Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3. Africa and the Nation-State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Conclusion: Africa in the World, Past, Present, Future Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Pilot project, eBook available to selected US libraries only
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 144
Illustrations
- Other: 4 maps

eBook

Published: March 24, 2014
ISBN: 9780674369306