National liberation and independence Books

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Book SynopsisCatia Antunes is Associate Professor of Early Modern Economic and Social History at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She is the author of Globalization in the Early Modern Period (2004).Jos Gommans in Professor of Colonial and Global History at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is author of The Rise of the Indo-Afghan Empire, 1710-1780 (1999) and Mughal Warfare (2002).Trade ReviewThe individual essays are uniformly very good — they are exceptionally readable for this sort of genre, and they are likewise enjoyable and informative — and they collectively immerse the reader in a wide swath of the Netherlands’ overseas colonies and engagements. * The English Historical Review *[An] excellent and enjoyable overview of Leiden scholarship on Dutch colonial history. * European History Quarterly *Table of ContentsPreface Catia Antunes and Jos Gommans Introduction Catia Antunes PART I: AGENTS 1. South Asian Cosmopolitanism and the Dutch Microcosms in Seventeenth-Century Cochin (Kerala) Jos Gommans 2. Negotiating Foreignness in the Ottoman Empire: The Legal Complications of Cosmopolitanism in the Eighteenth Century Maurits van den Boogert 3. Pioneering in Southeast Asia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century Anita van Dissel 4. Nodal Ndola Robert Ross and Anne-Lot Hoek PART II: NETWORKS 5. The Networks of Dutch Brazil: Rise, Entanglement and Gall of a Colonial Dream Catia Antunes, Erik Odegard and Joris van den Tol 6. Networks of Information: The Dutch East Indies Charles Jeurgens 7. Paramaribo: Myriad Connections, Multiple Identifications Peter Meel 8. The Global Dutchman in Indonesian Waters J. Thomas Lindblad PART III: INSTITUTIONS 9. ‘Not out of Love, but for Money and Profit’: The Dutch-Japanese Trade from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries Wim Boot 10. Institutional Interaction on the Gold Coast: African and Dutch Institutional Cooperation in Elmina, 1600-1800 Henk den Heijer 11. Conflict Resolution, Social Control and Law-Making in Eighteenth-Century Dutch Sri Lanka Alicia Schrikker 12. Curaçao: Insular Nationalism vis-à-vis Dutch (Post-)Colonialism Gert Oostindie Conclusion: Globalizing Empire: The Dutch Case Jos Gommans Further Reading Index

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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 SynopsisThe deaths in and around Dunmanway in 1922 have always been shrouded in rumour and supposition. This book seeks to get to the bottom of them. One thing is certain: Captain Herbert Woods shot Commandant Michael O’Neill of the IRA on the stairs of Ballygroman House at 2.30a.m. on the 26th April and killed him. Who was Herbert Woods and why did shoot an unarmed man? Who was Michael O’Neill and what was he doing inside the house at that hour of the morning? What connection had this event to the killing of ten Protestants in West Cork over the next three nights? Are they connected with the killing of four British soldiers in Macroom on the same day? What was the effect on the local Protestant minority? What happened after Herbert Woods and his Hornibrook relations were arrested by the Irish Republican Police and disappeared? This book attempts to answer all these questions. Using previously overlooked evidence it proves that the real story is a simple one of revenge. It directly challenges claims of sectarianism and British involvement presenting a true story of these appalling events.Trade ReviewHis book is the best and most balanced account to come out * Sunday Independent *

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Book SynopsisGeorgia emerged from the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 with the promise of swift economic and democratic reform. But that promise remains unfulfilled. Economic collapse, secessionist challenges, civil war and the failure to escape the legacy of Soviet rule - culminating in the 2008 war with Russia - characterise a two-decade struggle to establish democratic institutions and consolidate statehood. Here, Stephen Jones critically analyses Georgia's recent political and economic development, illustrating what its 'transition' has meant, not just for the state, but for its citizens as well. An authoritative and commanding exploration of Georgia since independence, this is essential for those interested in the post-Soviet world.Trade Review'This impressive book represents a substantial achievement. It presents a rare but desperately needed and fresh analysis of contemporary Georgia. The author has unusually perceptive eyes that see through the stock categories and cliches that shape so much commentary and analysis about Georgia. I don't know of any other treatment of Georgia (or its neighbours) that is as thorough.' Dr Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor, Princeton University 'Written by one of the world's preeminent scholars of Georgia, this book is an essential volume of the field. Stephen Jones has written an urgent analytical critique of Georgia's current political and economic condition that is sensitive to cultural differences, knowledgeable, heartfelt and honest. The scope and depth of the work make it critical for academics and policy makers, as well as anyone who has a general interest in this small but interesting - and geopolitically crucial - country.' Dr Julie George, Associate Professor of Political Science, CUNY 'I believe that this book is a worthy contribution to the literature on contemporary Georgia. It is clear that Stephen Jones has achieved a rare mastery of Georgian domestic politics - a difficult subject matter, even for Georgian nationals - and has managed to translate his deep area expertise into a readable form for non-specialists. It also deserves to be said that the book is simply beautifully written.' Dr Jesse Driscoll, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Georgia: A Divided Democracy Chapter 2: Prelude to Revolution Chapter 3: Populism in Georgia Chapter 4: The Interregnum Chapter 5: The State Chapter 6: Democracy from Below? Chapter 7: The Economy Chapter 8: The Myth of Georgian Nationalism Chapter 9: National Security and Foreign Policy

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Book SynopsisGeorgia emerged from the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 with the promise of swift economic and democratic reform. But that promise remains unfulfilled. Economic collapse, secessionist challenges, civil war and the failure to escape the legacy of Soviet rule - culminating in the 2008 war with Russia - characterise a two-decade struggle to establish democratic institutions and consolidate statehood. Here, Stephen Jones critically analyses Georgia's recent political and economic development, illustrating what its 'transition' has meant, not just for the state, but for its citizens as well. An authoritative and commanding exploration of Georgia since independence, this is essential for those interested in the post-Soviet world.Trade Review'This impressive book represents a substantial achievement. It presents a rare but desperately needed and fresh analysis of contemporary Georgia. The author has unusually perceptive eyes that see through the stock categories and cliches that shape so much commentary and analysis about Georgia. I don't know of any other treatment of Georgia (or its neighbours) that is as thorough.' -Dr Michael Reynolds, Associate Professor, Princeton University 'Written by one of the world's preeminent scholars of Georgia, this book is an essential volume of the field. Stephen Jones has written an urgent analytical critique of Georgia's current political and economic condition that is sensitive to cultural differences, knowledgeable, heartfelt and honest. The scope and depth of the work make it critical for academics and policy makers, as well as anyone who has a general interest in this small but interesting - and geopolitically crucial - country.' -Dr Julie George, Associate Professor of Political Science, CUNY 'I believe that this book is a worthy contribution to the literature on contemporary Georgia. It is clear that Stephen Jones has achieved a rare mastery of Georgian domestic politics - a difficult subject matter, even for Georgian nationals - and has managed to translate his deep area expertise into a readable form for non-specialists. It also deserves to be said that the book is simply beautifully written.' -Dr Jesse Driscoll, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Georgia: A Divided Democracy Chapter 2: Prelude to Revolution Chapter 3: Populism in Georgia Chapter 4: The Interregnum Chapter 5: The State Chapter 6: Democracy from Below? Chapter 7: The Economy Chapter 8: The Myth of Georgian Nationalism Chapter 9: National Security and Foreign Policy

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Book SynopsisThe history of the Irish republican movement is dominated by the story of the men who took up arms in Ireland's fight for freedom against the British. The names of men like Pearse, Connolly, Collins and Barry still resonate today as heroes who won independence for Ireland. However, the critical role of women in this fight for freedom has often been overlooked. Renegades examines the part played by women in the major political and social revolutions that took place from 1900– 1922. It explores the growing separation of republican women into two distinct groups, those active on the military side in Cumann na mBan and those involved on the political side, particularly with Sinn Féin. It also looks at the often ignored 'war on women', which manifested itself in the form of physical and sexual assaults by both sides during the War of Independence, and the fury of female republicans as the political establishment accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty. In this evocative account, Renegades restores the women of the republican movement to the prominent place they deserve in Irish history.

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Book SynopsisMany people who know the story of the 1916 Rising have heard the harrowing account of the wedding of Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol, on the day before his execution for his part in leading the Rising. However, what is not so well known is that Grace has five sisters, all of whom were involved in the Irish nationalist movement, including Muriel who was married to Thomas MacDonagh, and Nellie and Kate who were both imprisoned for their Republican activities. Unlikely Rebels tells the story of the sisters, who were, by virtue of their forebears and training, most unlikely Irish rebels. The daughters of staunchly unionist parents and rasied in the Protestant faith, all of them embraced the Republican movement wholeheartedly. When the opportunity arose for them to play their part in the struggle for Ireland's freedom, they seized it, despite the hardship and in some cases tragedy it brought them.

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Book SynopsisThe critique of power in contemporary Africa calls for a new approach to the making of political subjectivities. Through theoretically informed anthropology, this book meets the urgent need to rethink our understanding of the moral and political force of memory, its official and unofficial forms, its moves between the personal and the social in postcolonial transformations. Memory and the Postcolony brings these transformations into perspective. It is divided into three sections in which distinguished anthropologists explore death and subjectivity; the memory work of elections and public commissions; and fundamentalism and the future. Presenting a sustained comparative analysis of memory as a politicized reality, the book will be essential reading for all scholars of postcolonial societies, as well as all those with an interest in contemporary Africa.Trade Review'Those who have come to fear that 'post-colonialism' is but another fashionable discourse destined to self-destruct in a cloud of specious theory and jargon will find proof to the contrary in this book. In the African 'crisis of memory' the contributors, distinguished senior and some of the most imaginative young scholars in the field, found a common theme and a complex of practises that holds these essays together. Above all, they demonstrate that anthropology's work did not end with the demise of colonialism and that it continues to produce findings and criticl insights worth to be pondered by historians, political scientists, students of law and religion, and many others.' - Johannes Fabian, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, University of Amsterdam 'The preface 'post' in 'postcolony' alludes to a potent predicate that can never be erased. From the ashes and ruins of colonial memory arise the violence of Zaire and Sudan, the memorials of Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Malawi and the utopian dreams of Ghanaian and Zambian Pentecostals. Two questions arise: how much suffering died with the so-called end of the colonial era in Africa, and what is being remembered and regenerated? Drawing together a leading group of Africanists and anthropologists, Richard Werbner has assembled an excellent collection of original research and critical theoretical work about the role of the signs and symbols of Africa's colonial legacy in shaping attitudes toward power and the contemporary public spaces. The result is a stunning and first-rate anthology that uncovers the historical and ethnographic roots of the postcolonial condition. ' - Bennetta Jules-Rosette, Professor of Sociology and Director of the African and African-American Studies Research Project, University of California, San Diego 'The essays in this volume are must reading for all who contemplate life in the African postcolony' - African Studies ReviewTable of Contents 1. Introduction - Richard Werbner 2. Beyond the Grave: Death, Body and Memory in Postcolonial Zaire/Congo - Filip De Boeck 3. Death, Memory and the Politics of Legitimation: Nuer Experiences of the Continuing Sudanese Civil War - Sharon Hutchinson 4. Smoke from the Barrel of a Gun: Memory, Postwars of the Dead, and Reinscription in Zimbabwe - Richard Werbner 5. The Uses of Defeat: Memory and Political Morality in East Madagascar - Jennifer Cole 6. Systematic Judicial and Extra-Judicial Injustice: Preparations for Future Accountability - Sally Moore 7. Fundamentalism, Cultural Memory and the State: Contested Representations of Time in Postcolonial Malawi - Rikj van Dijk 8. 'Make a Complete Break with the Past': Memory and Postcolonial Modernity in Ghanian Pentecostalist Discourse - Birgit Meyer 9. Memory and Becoming Chosen Other: Fundamentalism and Elite-Making in a Zambian Catholic Mission School - Anthony Simpson 10. Afterword - Liisa Malkki

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Book SynopsisThese essays on postcolonial subjectivities cross the frontiers of critical theory by illuminating the contradictory predicaments Africans confront in strikingly different parts of the continent at the start of the 21st century. The focus is on the making of subjectivities as a process which is political, a matter of subjugation to state authority; moral, reflected in the conscience and agency of subjects who bear rights, duties and obligations; and realised existentially, in the subjects' consciousness of their personal or intimate relations. The notion of agency is interrogated, without lapsing into the new Afro-pessimism. The essays recognise postcolonies troubled by state decline and increasing exploitation, dispossession and marginalisation, but avoid Afro-pessimism's reduction of subjects to mere victims. Even more against the grain of conventional postcolonial studies is the radical questioning of the force of 'modern subjectivism' in struggles for control of identity, autonomy and explicit consciousness, and through artistic self-fashioning in globally driven consumption. With substantial cases based on autobiography, personal experience and long-term scholarly fieldwork in countries as diverse as Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Botswana and Cameroon, the book opens out a fresh field for comparative research and theory on postcolonial transformations in intersubjectivity. This is to take seriously the people's perception, so widespread in postcolonial Africa, that to live life to the full is to live it in interdependence, in conviviality, if possible; that care and respect for others - indeed, civility - is a precious, and indeed, precarious condition of survival and as such is the object of recognised strategies for its conscious defence; and that because significant others are opaque - never being totally knowable - uncertainty, ambivalence and contingency are inescapable conditions of human existence.Trade Review'An inspirational collection of themes and methods for future researchers in Africa.' Richard Fardon, SOAS, University of London 'A lively collection of essays on a topic that could hardly be more timely or challenging. It will be widely read and discussed, and will help scholars in several disciplines to understand questions of consciousness and identity in contemporary Africa.' James Ferguson, University of California, IrvineTable of Contents Introduction: Postcolonial Subjectivities: The Personal, The Political and the Moral - Richard Werbner Part I: Consciousness, Conscience and the Other 1. Nuriaty, the Saint, and the Sultan: Virtuous Subject and Subjective Virtuoso of the Post-Modern Colony - Michael Lambek 2. "I am like a movie star in my street": Photographic Self-creation in Postcolonial Kenya - Heike Behrend 3. The Making and Unmaking of Consciousness: Nuba and Gamk Strategies for Survival in a Sudanese Borderland - Akira Okazaki 4. Gendered Violence and the Militarization of Ethnicity: A Case Study from South Sudan - Sharon Elaine Hutchinson and Jok Madut Jok Part II: Uncertainties, subjection and the subjunctive 5. 'A child is one person's only in the womb': Domestication, Agency and Subjectivity in the Cameroonian Grassfields - Francis B. Nyamnjoh 6. Uncertain Citizens: Herero and the New Intercalary Subject in Postcolonial Botswana - Deborah Durham 7. Subjectivity and Subjunctivity: Hoping for Health in Eastern Uganda - Susan Reynolds Whyte 8. Ancestral Incests and Postcolonial Subjectivities in the Karembola (Madagascar) - Karen Middleton Afterword: Provoking Postcolonial Subjectivities in Africa - Paul Stoller

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Book SynopsisDid white South Africa crack, or did its leadership yield sufficiently and just in time to avert a revolution? The transformation has been called a miracle, belying gloomy predictions of race war in which the white minority went into a laager and fought to the last drop of blood. Why did it happen? Professor Welsh views the topic against the backdrop of a long history of conflict spanning apartheid's rise and demise, and the liberation movement's suppression and subsequent resurrection. His view is that the movement away from apartheid to majority rule would have taken far longer and been much bloodier were it not for the changes undergone by Afrikaner nationalism itself. There were turning points, such as the Soweto uprising of 1976, but few believed that the transition from white domination to inclusive democracy would occur as soon -- and as relatively peacefully -- as it did. In effect, however, a multitude of different factors led the ANC and the National Party to see that neither side could win the conflict on its own terms. Utterly dissimilar in background, culture, beliefs and political style, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk were an unlikely pair of liberators. But both soon recognised that they were dependent on each other to steer the transformation process through to its conclusion.Trade Review"Narratively structured, it flows effortlessly. Compulsive reading." - Stanley Uys "An authoritative, balanced and lucid history of the rise and demise of apartheid. This is liberal history at its best." - Hermann Giliomee "Informative, succinct and stimulating." - F van Zyl Slabbert

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Book SynopsisIn the Americas, both indigenous and postcolonial languages today bear witness of massive changes that have taken place since the colonial era. However, a unified approach to languages from different colonial areas is still missing.The present volume studies postcolonial varieties that emerged due to changing linguistic and sociolinguistic conditions in different settings across the Americas. The studies cover indigenous languages that are undergoing lexical and grammatical change due to the presence of colonial languages and the emergence of new dialects and creoles due to contact. The contributions showcase the diversity of approaches to tackle fundamental questions regarding the processes triggered by language contact as well as the wide range of outcomes contact has had in postcolonial settings.The volume adds to the documentation of the linguistic properties of postcolonial language varieties in a socio-historically informed framework. It explores the complex dynamics of extra-linguistic factors that brought about the processes of language change in them and contributes to a better understanding of the determinant factors that lead to the emergence and evolution of such codes.

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