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Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State by Frederick Cooper Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press , 2014. Pp. xiii + 130. $35 (hbk)
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This short but densely argued book originated in a series of public lectures at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard. The three main chapters address 'Africa and', respectively, 'capitalism', 'empire' and 'the nation-state'. The book distils and selectively enlarges upon elements from Fred Cooper's extraordinarily productive career to date. The preface succinctly and deftly situates the reader in the intellectual context of the 1960s and 1970s. It was in the latter decade that Cooper began his trilogy of books on the history of labour on the east coast of Africa. The capitalism chapter proceeds in part from that monographic research as well as from the continuing succession of wider debates. The empire chapter draws on Cooper's sole- and joint work on colonialism in Africa and on the world history of empire. The final substantive chapter, despite having 'Africa' in its title, is devoted specifically to French West Africa, and makes...