Colonialism and imperialism Books

Book SynopsisQuah Ee Ling is Associate Professor, Culture & Society at Western Sydney University, Australia. She is the author of Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Women's Tales of Migration, Coloniality and Racial Capitalism (Bloomsbury, 2025), Transnational Divorce: Understanding Intimacies and Inequalities from Singapore (2020) and Perspectives on Marital Dissolution: Divorce Biographies in Singapore (2015).

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Book SynopsisThis edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolving landscape of African studies in the new millennium. It details new trends, approaches, and theoretical frameworks that have the potential to shape the future of the discipline. Curated by the up-and-coming scholar Eric Tsimi in collaboration with the distinguished anthropologist Andrea Behrends and field-leading decolonial theorist Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, this collection explores methods and approaches being developed across the humanities and social sciences for decolonizing knowledge, facilitating knowledge transfer, and addressing perceived gaps between theory and practical emergencies.For its broad coverage of a broad interdisciplinary field, as well as for its in-depth insights into the latest developments within the field as a whole, African Studies Now is a must-have for researchers and students of African studies, global development, indigenous studies, and related fields and disciplines.

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Book SynopsisSarah Inskip is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at University of Leicester, UK. A bioarchaeologist she specialises in the analysis of human skeletal remains and her current research assesses the impact of tobacco on the lives of British and Dutch populations from 1600-1900. Jason Hughes is Professor of Sociology at University of Leicester, UK. An elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Science and appointed Member of the European Academy, his research centres on problematized consumption (e.g. substance use) and production (e.g. work).

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Book SynopsisJustin Pack is a Lecturer at California State University, Stanislaus, USA. He studies thoughtlessness and has written books on thoughtlessness in higher education, thoughtlessness and the environmental crisis, thoughtlessness and money, meritocracy and conservative Christianity.

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Book SynopsisMexican history comes to life in this “fascinating” work by the author of Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans (The Christian Science Monitor).Fire & Blood brilliantly depicts the succession of tribes and societies that have variously called Mexico their home, their battleground, and their legacy. This is the tale of the indigenous people who forged from this rugged terrain a wide-ranging civilization; of the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec dynasties, which exercised their sophisticated powers through bureaucracy and religion; of the Spanish conquistadors, whose arrival heralded death, disease, and a new vision of continental domination. Author T. R. Fehrenbach connects these threads with the story of modern-day, independent Mexico, a proud nation struggling to balance its traditions against opportunities that often seem tantalizingly out of reach. From the Mesoamerican empires to the Spanish Conquest and the Mexican Revolution, peopled by the legendary personalities of Mexican history—Montezuma, CortÉs, Santa Anna, JuÁrez, Maximilian, DÍaz, Pancho Villa, and Zapata—Fire & Blood is a “deftly organized and well-researched” work of popular history (Library Journal).

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Book SynopsisCan universal human rights and different national citizenship regimes ever be compatible? This book argues that they can't, setting out a legal-philosophical critique of the tension between both. It explores whether the emergence of postnational models of citizenship that aim at decoupling human rights and citizenship succeed in overcoming tensions between the universal (multiculturalism; universal human rights; postnational values) and the particular (citizenship; borders; national values and diverse local narratives). As a result of this exploration, the author argues that it is illegitimate to speak of universal human rights, universal human dignity, or universal social justice. It is only by recognising this reality that a much needed transformation of human rights and citizenship can be undertaken in a meaningful way. This provocative and compelling work will appeal to both human rights and citizenship lawyers, as well as others involved in human rights law at NGOs, governments, international organisations and indeed anyone with an interest in the subject of how human rights evolved and new concepts for the future.

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Book Synopsis Un recuento crucial y preciso de los 122 anos de Puerto Rico como colonia de los EE. UU. A dos años del huracán María, Puerto Rico aún sigue recuperándose de la destrucción física de la tormenta y el colapso de la infraestructura resultante. La devastación agravó los efectos dañinos de más de un siglo causados por la explotación de Estados Unidos con sus políticas económicas, sociales y de asuntos políticos, incluido el trauma infligido por su crisis de deuda de 72 mil millones de dólares.En La isla de la fantasía, el periodista Ed Morales describe cómo, a lo largo de los años, Puerto Rico ha servido como un satélite colonial, una vitrina de la Guerra Fría del Caribe, un vertedero de productos manufacturados en Estados Unidos y un refugio fiscal corporativo. Emprendiendo al lector en un viaje ida y vuelta de San Juan a la ciudad de Nueva York, La isla de la fantasía es un relato crucial y claro de los 122 años de Puerto Rico como colonia de los Estados Unidos.

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Book SynopsisFrom roughly 1818 to 1867, Faku was ruler of the Mpondo Kingdom located in what is now the north-east section of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Because of Faku's legacy, the Mpondo Kingdom became the last African state in Southern Africa to fall under colonial rule. When his father died, Faku inherited his power. In a period of intense raiding, migration and state formation, he transformed the Mpondo polity from a loosely organized constellation of tributary groups to a centralized and populous state with effective military capabilities and a prosperous agricultural foundation. In 1830, Faku allowed Wesleyan missionaries to establish a station within his kingdom and they became his main channel of communication with the Cape Colony, and later Natal. Ironically, he never showed any serious inclination to convert to Christianity. From the 1840s to early 1850s, this Mpondo king played a central, yet often understated, role in the British colonization of South Africa. While over the years his territory and power declined, Faku remained quite astute in diplomatic negotiations with colonial officials and used his missionary connections to optimum advantage. Timothy J. Stapleton's narrative and use of oral history paint a clear and remarkable portrait of Faku and how he was able to manipulate missionaries, neighbours, colonists and circumstances to achieve his objectives. As a result, Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom (c.1780-1867) helps illuminate the history of the entire Cape region.Trade Review``Stapleton's magisterial overview of the reign of Faku, chief from the early 1810s to 1867 of the Mpondo Kingdom in the northeastern portion of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, will be of considerable interest to southern African historians.... Stapleton's painstaking reconstruction of the military and political history of Faku's reign ... goes beyond individual biography to shed light on the regional politics of a complicated period. The work is more broadly a useful contribution to the project of reconstructing the history of rural South Africa before the advent of formal colonialism.... [T]his detailed examination of the Mpondo kingdom will doubtless be very helpful to those trying to work out the overall pattern of regional dynamics, as well as to those interested in early nineteenth-century African state formation. Stapleton reinforces what appears to be a growing consenseus that whatever the most important causes of regional conflict, scholars must look well beyond the Zulu and dig deeper than the 1820s and 1830s.... [T]his is a pioneering and significant work.'' -- Elizabeth Elbourne, McGill University -- Canadian Journal of African Studies, Vol. 36, no. 3, 2002, 200804``[An] impressive biography ... Stapleton's control of his sources is admirable. The story he tells is a complicated one, as Faku played politics for fifty years with a cast of characters that included British colonial officials, British traders, the Zulu, the Griqua, the San, and the Mpondo royal family and their clients. He has included helpful appendices listing all the players--African and European--and the significant dates and events. His conclusion is an excellent summary of both the substance and the themes of his book.'' -- Catherine Higgs, University of Tennessee -- International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 34, no. 3, 2001, 200210``With this book, Tim Stapleton cements his reputation as one of the most important historians of the Cape frontier in the 19th century. This was a period that saw the emergence of powerful and innovative African political leaders in much of southern Africa....Though poorly studied up to now, Faku belongs in this group. Though less revolutionary than Shaka and less innovative than Moshoeshoe, he parried the efforts of African rivals over a half-century and adeptly used his links with the British and with Wesleyan missionaries to establish his dominion over a large area. The Mpondo kingdom he created was the largest of the Xhosa states. Stapleton uses oral tradition, missionary letters, colonial archives and published accounts to give us a full and interesting picture of Faku's life and a vivid picture of the complex conflicts that shaped an area caught between the expanding power of first Zulu and then, British expansionism.'' -- Martin A. Klein, University of TorontoTable of ContentsTable of Contents for Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom (c. 1780â1867) by Timothy J. Stapleton Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Mpondo Royal Genealogy from c. 1800 Maps Preface Introduction The Rise of Faku and the Centralization of the Mpondo Kingdom (c.1780â1829) Missionaries, Colonial Officials and Mpondo Power (1830â36) Trekkers and Treaties (1837â44) The Expansion of the Cape Colony and Natal (1845â52) Direct Colonial Intrusion in Fakuâs Final Years (1852â67) Conclusion Afterword Appendix 1: Cast of Characters Appendix 2: List of Terms Appendix 3: Chronology of Major Events Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis text interprets Puerto Rico's attempt to end its colonial dependence on Spain. It examines the policies within Puerto Rico that led to the 1868 rebellion known as El Grito de Lares, and explores why the movement began decades after Spain's other colonies in the region had revolted.

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Book SynopsisOsterhammel's book represents a new approach to the subject. The concise but sweeping study encompasses the process of colonization and decolonization from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Virtually all other studies to date have looked at strategies of colonial conquest, exploitation, and rule from the imperial point of view. Osterhammel shows that the colonial situation developed in ways that duplicated neither the metropolis nor the pre-colonial society, but instead blended these and added a new direction characteristic only of colonial realms. He emphasizes that the Europeans were normally not considered dangerous invaders by local populations until they threatened the traditional cultures with missionaries, European schools, and bureaucracy.Trade ReviewA conviction of imperial cultural superiority gave modern colonialism an aggressive turn. The result was ethnic and social stratification in the colonial society, even when colonists took over the pre-colonial administration and society as the British did in India. - Midwest Book Review

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Book SynopsisAugust 2019 saw numerous commemorations of the year 1619, when what was said to be the first arrival of enslaved Africans occurred in North America. Yet in the 1520s, the Spanish, from their imperial perch in Santo Domingo, had already brought enslaved Africans to what was to become South Carolina. The enslaved people quickly defected to local Indigenous populations, and compelled their captors to flee. Deploying such illuminating research, The Dawning of the Apocalypse is a riveting revision of the “creation myth” of settler colonialism and how the United States was formed. Here, Gerald Horne argues forcefully that, in order to understand the arrival of colonists from the British Isles in the early seventeenth century, one must first understand the “long sixteenth century”—from 1492 until the arrival of settlers in Virginia in 1607. During this prolonged century, Horne contends, “whiteness” morphed into “white supremacy,” and allowed England to co-opt not only religious minorities but also various nationalities throughout Europe, thus forging a muscular bloc that was needed to confront rambunctious Indigenes and Africans. In retelling the bloodthirsty story of the invasion of the Americas, Horne recounts how the fierce resistance by Africans and their Indigenous allies weakened Spain and enabled London to dispatch settlers to Virginia in 1607. These settlers laid the groundwork for the British Empire and what became the United States of America.

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Book SynopsisThose who control the world’s commanding economic heights, buttressed by the theories of mainstream economists, presume that capitalism is a self-contained and self-generating system. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this pathbreaking book—winner of the Paul A. Baran-Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award—radical political economists Utsa Patnaik and Prabhat Patnaik argue that the accumulation of capital has always required the taking of land, raw materials, and bodies from noncapitalist modes of production. They begin with a thorough debunking of mainstream economics. Then, looking at the history of capitalism, from the beginnings of colonialism half a millennium ago to today’s neoliberal regimes, they discover that, over the long haul, capitalism, in order to exist, must metastasize itself in the practice of imperialism and the immiseration of countless people. A few hundred years ago, write the Patnaiks, colonialism began to ensure vast, virtually free, markets for new products in burgeoning cities in the West. But even after slavery was generally abolished, millions of people in the Global South still fell prey to the continuing lethal exigencies of the marketplace. Even after the Second World War, when decolonization led to the end of the so-called “Golden Age of Capitalism,” neoliberal economies stepped in to reclaim the Global South, imposing drastic “austerity” measures on working people. But, say the Patnaiks, this neoliberal economy, which lives from bubble to bubble, is doomed to a protracted crisis. In its demise, we are beginning to see – finally – the transcendence of the capitalist system.Trade Review“The ideas outlined in A Theory of Imperialism are central to understanding the construction of the unequal global system in the past and in the present.” —Samir Amin, author, The Liberal Virus: Permanent War and the Americanization of the World

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Book SynopsisWashington Bullets is written in the best traditions of Marxist journalism and history-writing. It is a book of fluent and readable stories, full of detail about U.S. imperialism, but never letting the minutiae obscure the larger political point. It is a book that could easily have been a song of despair—a lament of lost causes; it is, after all, a roll call of butchers and assassins; of plots against people’s movements and governments; of the assassinations of socialists, Marxists, communists all over the Third World by the country where liberty is a statue. Despite all this, Washington Bullets is a book about possibilities, about hope, about genuine heroes. One such is Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso—also assassinated—who said: “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.” Washington Bullets is a book infused with this madness, the madness that dares to invent the future.Trade ReviewThis book brings to mind the infinite instances in which Washington Bullets have shattered hope. — Evo Morales Ayma, former President of Bolivia // Like his hero Eduardo Galeano, Vijay Prashad makes the telling of the truth lovable; not an easy trick to pull off, he does it effortlessly. — Roger Waters, Pink Floyd

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Book SynopsisDecolonization and White Africans examines how African decolonization affected white Africans in eight countries – Algeria, Kenya, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, Mozambique, South West Africa (Namibia), and South Africa – and discusses their varied responses to decolonization, including resistance, acquiescence, negotiations, and migration. It also examines the range of mechanisms used by the global community to compel white Africans into submitting to decolonization through such means as official pressure, diplomatic negotiations, global activism, sanctions, and warfare.Until now, books about African decolonization usually approached the topic either from the perspective of the colonial powers or from an anti-colonial black African perspective. As a result, white African perspectives have been marginalized, downplayed, or presented reductively. Decolonization and White Africans adds white African perspectives to the story, thereby broadening our understanding of the decolonization phenomenon.

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Book SynopsisBased on research in Russian, French, and Belgian archives, Latvia’s Ordeal traces the complex story of Latvian state-building. Pinning hopes on the outcome of World War I, Latvia’s nationalist intelligentsia advocated self-determination and the establishment of a new state within ethnographic borders. Independence emerged in a complex domestic and international landscape. While part of Latvia’s ethnic territories were occupied by German troops, half of the population and much industry had been evacuated to the Russian interior. Proclaiming independence in German-ruled Riga on November 18, 1918, Latvian politicians hoped for Allied support as the German Empire fell apart.Nevertheless, Latvia’s solemn declaration of independence was not enough. As the anxious Allies were awaiting the results of political and military confrontations between the still-deployed German troops, the Bolsheviks ruling in Riga, and military units of the anti-communist White Russian movement, the new Latvian state had to navigate a difficult path between these competing parties and their own people. Ultimately, a peace treaty with Soviet Russia was the only way to guarantee, at least temporarily, Latvia’s independence as a new nation-state.

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Book SynopsisConcerns about the place of Islam in Palestinian politics are familiar to those studying the history of the modern Middle East. A significant but often misunderstood part of this history is the rise of Islamic opposition to the British in Mandate Palestine during the 1920s and 1930s. Across the empire, imperial officials wrestled with the question of how to rule over a Muslim-majority countries and came to see traditional Islamic institutions as essential for maintaining order. Islam under the Palestine Mandate tells the story of the search for a viable Islamic institution in Palestine and the subsequent invention of the Supreme Muslim Council. As a body with political recognition, institutional autonomy and financial power, the council was designed to be a counterweight to the growing popularity of nationalism among Palestinians. However, rather than extinguishing the revolutionary capacity of the colonized, it would become a significant opponent of British rule under its highly controversial president, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni. Making extensive use of primary sources from British and Israeli archives, this book offers an innovative account of the Supreme Muslim Council's place within a colonial project that aimed to control Palestinian religion and politics. Roberts argues against the standard view that the council's creation was an act of appeasement towards Muslim opinion, showing how British actions were guided by techniques of imperial administration used elsewhere in the empire.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Inventing Palestine: The Holy Land in the British Imagination Chapter 2: Building a Religious System Chapter 3:Politics in 1920s Palestine Chapter 4:The Mufti and the Supreme Muslim Council Chapter 5:The Politicization of the Supreme Muslim Council Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThe Fall is a play collaboratively written by the original cast as a reaction to and reflection on the South African student protests in 2015 and part of 2016. The #RhodesMustFall and subsequent student-led movements in South Africa alerted the country and the world to the latent ongoing issues brought about by colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. Students were also protesting about the lack of change in the way black Africans were educated and treated at South African universities more than two decades after the end of white-minority rule. They were also angry about fee increases, which disproportionately affected black students, in a country of continued extreme income inequality. The Fall details the experiences of seven students within this movement and how they deal with their traumas, while still moving towards activism for a free decolonised education. This powerful ensemble piece goes to the heart of how race, class, gender, power and history's voices intersect. It premiered at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, toured to other venues in South Africa and to the Edinburgh Festival and the Royal Court Theatre, London. It was awarded The Stage Cast Award and a Scotsman Fringe First award in Edinburgh, and was described in The Stage as:"a truly ensemble production which has both teeth and heart. And one which stands for student revolt around the world and down the ages."Trade ReviewPowerfully driven... A truly ensemble production which has both teeth and heart. And one which stands for student revolt around the world and down the ages. * The Stage *There is no doubt that this work is full-throated, full-throttle, militantly artistic theatre on stage and page. * The Cape Times *This is history told just as it happens. * What's On In Cape Town *There is no doubt that this work is full-throated, full-throttle, militantly artistic theatre – on stage and page. * Cape Times *

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