Africa’s Development in Historical Perspective

This edited volume addresses the root causes of Africa's persistent poverty through an investigation of its longue durée history.

Part I. Introduction: La Longue Durée: 1. Africa in history Christopher Ehret; 2. Reversal of fortune and socioeconomic development in the Atlantic world: a comparative examination of West Africa and the Americas, 1400-1850 Joseph Inikori; 3. The impact of malaria on African development over the longue durée David N. Weil; 4. African population, 1650-2000: comparisons and implications of new estimates Patrick Manning; Part II. Culture, Entrepreneurialism, and Development: 5. Redistributive pressures in sub-Saharan Africa: causes, consequences, and coping strategies Jean-Philippe Platteau; 6. Accumulation and conspicuous consumption: the poverty of entrepreneurship in Western Nigeria, ca.1850-1930 Ayodeji Olukoju; 7. Changing dynamics of entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Africa Emmanuel Akyeampong; 8. The textile industry of Eastern Africa in the longue durée William Gervase Clarence-Smith; 9. Explaining and evaluating the cash crop revolution in the 'peasant' colonies of tropical Africa, c.1890-c.1930: beyond 'vent-for-surplus' Gareth Austin; 10. Re-inventing the wheel: the economic benefits of wheeled transportation in early colonial British West Africa Isaias Chaves, Stanley L. Engerman and James A. Robinson; 11. Mbanza Kongo/São Salvador: culture and the transformation of an African city, 1491 to 1670s Linda Heywood; Part III. Institutions: 12. The fragile revolution: rethinking war and development in Africa's violent nineteenth century Richard Reid; 13. The imperial peace Robert Bates; Part IV. External Forces: 14. Dahomey in the world: Dahomean rulers and European demands, 1726-1894 John Thornton; 15. The transatlantic slave trade and the evolution of political authority in West Africa Warren C. Whatley; 16. Gender and missionary influence in colonial Africa Nathan Nunn.