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Similar to Book list colonization imperialism and decolonization
Book list colonization imperialism and decolonization
- 1. Colonization, Imperialism, andDecolonization Ending Empires, Hendrik Spruyt Thesis: Political fragmentation in the imperial center allows more opportunities for delaying withdrawal from colonies. Question: Why did some empires withdraw more quickly than others? Type of History: Political History on Decolonization Location: Global Coverage Decolonization History in Three Keys, Paul Cohen Thesis: Three types of encounters with history – as an event, an experience, and a myth – all contribute important aspects of understanding to history and show that historians are never completely removed from the process of “making” history. Question: How can the past be understood and what allows us to build that understanding? Political and Social History Japan and Western Europe Imperialism? Empire Families, Elizabeth Buettner Thesis: Buettner addresses “the integral role of family practices in the reproduction of imperial rule and its personnel, accounting for the substantial degree of family continuity among the middle classes engaged with the raj Question: How to bridge the colonial-metropolitan divide History of Family, social history British and India Imperialism Satchmo Blows Up the World, Penny von Eschen Thesis: While the United States government was using the Jazz ambassadors to promote the triumph of American democracy, the black musicians were using the tours as an opportunity to promote the freedom and self-esteem of African-descended people throughout the world. African-American History Cold War USA, etc. Imperialism Ecological Imperialism, Alfred Crosby Thesis: he suggests that the domination of the globe by people of European cultural origins is based upon the conversion of alien environments into country suitable to their mode of living Question: "Perhaps European humans have triumphed because of their superiority in arms, organization, and fanaticism, but what in heaven's name is the reason that the sun never sets on the empire of the dandelion? Perhaps the success of European imperialism has a biological, and ecological, component." Environmental History Global Coverage Imperialism/Colonization Dominance by Design, Michael Adas Thesis: aims to describe the successive articulations of the “civilizing mission” that derived from a sense of technological progress and social superiority that were integral to the American experience History of Science/Political History Global Coverage
- 2. Colonization Guns, Germs, andSteel, Jared Diamond Thesis: the evolution and spread of cultural systems and ultimately the expansion of Europe can be explained by the original distribution of plants and animals suitable for domestication, combined with geographic ease of diffusion of domesticants and their social corollaries Question: Why did Europe colonize New Guinea instead of the other way around? Anthropological History? Global Coverage Colonization Empire of Love, Matt Matsuda Thesis: Asia and the Pacific but, rather, themselves producers of possible territories of French empire. Journalists, colonial bureaucrats, colonists, politicians, and naval commanders created their own official, archival "documents" and historical records out of the narratives established by his "fictions'" Social/Cultural History France and the Pacific Imperialism Orientalism, Edward Said Thesis: Orientalism was a network of assumptions which arose to perform a critical function in nineteenth and twentieth century Western culture, linking the arts and sciences as well as different political perspectives from conservative to Marxist. Criticisms: One of the central and most immediately recognized flaws in Orientalism was its tendency to be absolutist and ahistorical in lumping together all westerners who ever wrote about the Orient, or depicted oriental subject matter, as falsifiers and distorters by necessity, because they could not escape predetermined preconceptions, regardless of the time and the place in which they wrote and to which they belonged. This can be most glaringly seen in Said s treatment of Karl Marx Imperialism Social History Global Coverage Ornamentalism, David Cannadine Thesis: Cannadine proposes an approach centered on the power and appeal of social hierarchy across metropole and colonies that he claims provides a better explanation of empire than one linked to Edward W. Said's critique of Orientalism and concerned with discourses of racial difference and inequality. A gifted writer, Cannadine drives his wideranging argument from beginning to end of Ornamentalism. Part 1, "Beginnings," examines British responses to the hierarchical nature of Native American and Mughal Indian societies and efforts to establish hierarchically ordered societies in Ireland and the Americas. Part 2, "Localities," brings out the hierarchical structure and image of the dominions, India, African and Asian colonies, and Middle Eastern mandatories. Part 3, "Generalities," focuses on the imperial scope and role of the honors system and the monarchy and then expounds Cannadine's argument at greater length. The British perceived their colonial subjects more often in terms of "rank" than "race" (123) and conceived of the empire as a traditional and even "anti-capitalist" (128) projection of their own society. This part of the book concludes with a consideration of some of the forces undermining imperial hierarchy, from the political opposition of metropolitan radicalism, dominion nationalism, and anticolonial nationalism to the technological developments of "imperial modernity" (149). Part 4, "Endings," connects the end of empire to the end of
- 3. hierarchy in Britishsociety, although in Schumpeterian fashion Cannadine does note hierarchical survivals. An appendix, "An Imperial Childhood?," offers reminiscences of growing up and coming of age in Britain between the 1950s and early 1970s as this core society experienced the unnamed metropolitan variant of what we call decolonization in peripheral societies. Ornamentalism clearly conveys the fact that the British and their far-flung collaborators developed flexible and, at least for a time, relatively stable modes of colonial rule. Imperialism Social History Primarily Great Britain Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon Thesis: Fanon began on the initial premise that he was concerned with the emancipation of all of humanity. Marx had said that "Labour in the white skin cannot emancipate itself until labour in black skin is free." Fanon also posits the view that "All forms of exploitation are identical because all of them are applied against the same object: Man."4 He also writes, "I want that the enslavement of man by man cease forever. That it be possible for me to discover and to love man, wherever he may be."5 In the same book, he also says: "Today I believe in the possibility of love; that is why I endeavour to trace its imperfections, its perversions."6 Fanon, thus, sought ways to facilitate "a healthy encounter between black and white." And to the extent that he accepted another of Marx's principles, economic determinism, he was able to envisage the conflict in "class" terms rather than "race" terms. Decolonization Irresistible Empire, Victoria de Grazia Thesis: According to Victoria de Grazia, as America was focusing on raising the standard of living for all, European cultural elites "feared a debasement of taste, craftsmanship, and civility" (p. 78). Irresistible Empire provides a richly detailed and fascinating account of the creation of a trans-Atlantic market for consumer goods. It explains the evolution of business practices and standards on both sides of the Atlantic through the twentieth century, with a particular emphasis on the adoption of American institutions and norms within Europe. global fast-food franchises (conclusion). The story de Grazia wants to tell is one of American hegemony through the imposition of the Market Empire on Europe. America regarded other nations as having limited sovereignty over their public space (p. 6). This was particularly obvious in the realm of culture. Identifying this view as an imperialist characteristic involves the implicit value judgment that nations (or influential national elites) should have dominion over people's consumption decisions whenever these decisions have spillovers into the public space. Imperialism America and Europe Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon (from Grant Kamenju’s review in Transition, no. 26, 1966) Thesis: Effective and real decolonization requires violence to achieve Question: How to address the political, economic and social problems of colonization? Type of History: Marxist inspired Region: African and Asian colonies Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, Ann Laura Stoler (from Catherine Hall review in Social History, November 2004) Thesis: The categories of colonizer and colonized were secured through sexual control concerning racial mixing and sexual control. Question: Rethinking colonial categories
- 4. Type of History:Social/Cultural History Region: French and Dutch Empires Dominance by Design, Michael Adas (from Daniel Headrick review in Journal of World History, March 2007) Thesis: Adas evaluates American foreign policy and contends that the US has treated non-Western peoples with condescension, aggression, and violence. In contrast to American exceptionalism, the book argues American history is an ongoing moral disaster. Question: How did technology impact America’s foreign relations beginning with Commodore Perry and moving forward to the aftermath of 9/11/ Type of History: Political History Region: United States Foreign Policy/Global coverage Fast cars, clean bodies: decolonization and the reordering of French culture, Kristin Ross (from James Kwak review in Theory and Society, October 1996) Thesis: “Decolonization and capitalist modernization were historically interrelated, and the specific contradictions resulting from their coexistence have marked the identity of France today” (p. 745 of review) Type of History: Social and Cultural History Region: France Europe and the People Without History, Eric Wolf (from John W. Cole review in Theory and Society, January 1985) Thesis: Virtually all peoples on earth were connected through long distance networks long before the Europeans came to dominate those relationships five centuries ago. Type of History: Economic History Region: Europe The Rise of the “Rest’: Challenges to the West from Late Industrializing Economies, Alice Amsden (from James Cypher review in Journal of Economic Issues, March 2002) Thesis: The development of countries comes from the incorporation of manufacturing supported by wise government development policies based on a reciprocity link between government support and industrial performance. Type of History: Economic History Region: Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East Imperialism, JA Hobson (from Daniel H. Kruger, Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1955) Thesis: Imperialism is a necessity for controllers to find other markets for goods due to underconsumption by the home market. If wealth were better distributed in the home market, then there would be no underconsumption and no need for imperialism. ***** This is a key theory in world history. Question: General Theory of Imperialism Type of History: Economic Region: Europe/Global Coverage Imperialism, VI Lenin (from Daniel H. Kruger, Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1955) Thesis: Lenin’s take on imperialism is informed from Hobson’s argument. He believes imperialism is “the monopoly stage of capitalism…in which the division of the world by international trusts has begun” (p. 256). The growth of monopoly led to colonial policies and increased competition for the divided areas of the world. Type of History: Economic History Region: Europe/Global Coverage
- 5. Indian Society andthe Making of the British Empire, Christopher Bayly (from Ian Kerr review in The International History Review, August 1989) Thesis: The evolving nature and structure of Indian society in the late 1800s shaped the emerging Indo- British colonial relationship. This relationship was “prolonged, profound, and multilayered with consequences made as much by Indians as by the British” (p. 543). Question: Describe the emergence of the mature colonial India of late nineteenth century Type of History: Social/Economic History Region: India Ecological Imperialism, Alfred Crosby (from William Cronon review in The Journal of American History, June 1987) Thesis: European migrations to new areas were most successful when “they occupied ecosystems capable of sustaining the cultigens, domesticated animals, and diseases on which so much of Old World culture and agriculture depended” (p. 151). Type of History: Ecological History Region: North America/Europe Tools of Empire, Daniel Headrick (from Ann Beck review in The American Historical Review, February 1982). Thesis: European technological advances in transportation, weaponry and medicine impacted the timing and success of the “scramble for Africa.” Question: Causes and motivations of European Imperialism Type of History: Technological History Region: Europe/Africa Tentacles of Progress, Daniel Headrick (from Nancy Gallagher review in The American Historical Review, October 1989). Thesis: Colonized areas did not industrialize because the technology transfer of the age “came wrapped in flags” and if Africa and Asia had not been conquered, they would have possibly become more modern or industrial (p. 1064). Question: Why did colonized areas not industrialize themselves despite the technology transfer from Europe during the Imperial Age? Type of History: Technological History Region: Europe/Africa/Asia Industry and Empire, Eric Hobsbawm Age of Empire, Eric Hobsbawm Pursuit of Power, William McNeill The World Revolution of Westernization, Theodore von Laue Islamic and European Expansion, Michael Adas Empire and Information, Christopher Bayly Law and Colonial Cultures, Lauren Benton Colonizer’s Model of the World, James Blaut “The Environment beyond Europe and the European Theory of Empire” by Philip Curtin in Journal of World History 1 Disease and Empire, Philip Curtin Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis Countering, Colonization, Carol Devens “‘If We Get the Girls, We get the Race:’ Missionary Education of Native American Girls” by Carol Devens in Journal of World History 3
- 6. Missionary education ofNative American Girls deprives the girls of their “continueing tutelage of their mothers and other female relatives-instruction that was the key to assuming their place as a women within her own cultural traditional.” In other words, it takes away the girls' cultural identity as an Native American. - Carol Devens, p.220. Native American History/Imperial History Colonization Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, David Northrup “Northrup surveys the global flow of indentured migrants that developed after the end of the slave trade from Africa and continued until shortly after the First World War...Northrup presents the experience of indentured labour as a distinct phenomenon, showing that it was not a continuation of slavery, and was introduced in places that did not even experience slavery.” -Verene A. Shepherd, p.860. Type of History: Migration/Immigrant History. Region-Global. Colonization Age of Gunpowder Empires, William McNeill After Colonialism, Gyan Prakash Prakash argues for “the importance of resisting disciplinary boundaries and geographical enclosures” when studying colonialism. “The major theme in this collection is the colonial construction of identities.” -Kirk A. Hoppe, p154. Regions- South America, African, and India. Imperial History and identity/ Social History. Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said European culture, through Victorian texts and novels, created “the historical and poltiical context of imperialism” that we still engage today.-Audrey A. Fisch, p. 98. Race and the Education of Desire, Ann Stoler Stoler argues that “racial episteme of the nineteenth-century world order … effect on European sensibilities and bodily constitutons of its gulag of suject people. Just as sugar and tea revoltutionized European tastes so, too, did sexual experience drawn from the externalized Others in the colonies.”- William D. Wilder, p.1087. Region-Europe (British, French, and Dutch mainly) Southeast Asia Social History/Imperialism Colonial Masculinity, Mrinalini Sinha “By foregrounding masculinity as a critical site of power, Mrinalini Sinha recontectualizeds four contentious episodes in the political hisotry of India from the 1880s and 1890s. Customarily, the Ilbert Bill, native volunteer movement, native participation in public administration, and the age of sexual consent have been viewed as polarizing events that defined the landscape of colonial and nationalist politics.” -Douglas M. Haynes, p. 909. Region-India Imperial History/ Social History. Colonization German Women for Empire, Lora Wildenthal “Wildenthal argues the strong and immediate relationship between culture and politics in Germany and in the colonies. German authors, officials, and politicians, both female and male, imagined the colonies at cultural frontiers raising questions and generating evidence about German women and men's proper roles and relationships to nation and race.”-Kirk A. Hoppe, p. 88-9. Gender and Political History. Germany and colonization.
- 7. “The Search forEuropean Differences and Domination in the Early Modern World: A View from Asia” R. Bin Wong in American Historical Review 107 Wong examines the origin of European economic domination and refute the idea that the pre-19th Century European economy is fundamentally unique and apart from the rest of the world's. He does so by comparing the pre-19th Century European economy to the Chinese economy to show that “the supposed European differences from and domination over others in economic matters may simply be false; they are at best weakly supported empirically.” - R. Bin Wong, p.447-8. Economic History of Europe and Asia. Siam Mapped, Winichakul Thongchai Thongchai argues that nation states originate from maps. “He seeks to demonstrate that there are extra- scientific procedures involved in geographical knowledge and that an interpretive process is involved in understanding a modern map. Thus, while in theory a map merely reflects the preexisting political boundaries of the nation, in reality the territorial nation exists first, and sometimes only, on the map.”- Prasenjit Duara, p. 478. Asian History. Lords of All the World, Anthony Pagden Explores “the expansion of Western Europe after the fifteenth century brought sweeping changes in aboriginal populations; the formation of new, mixed ones; the development of new trade routes and commerce; the erosion of old cultures; and the creation of new states and political forms.”-Woodrow Borah, p.80 European Imperial History in the Americas.