Africa since 1940
The Past of the Present

A history of decolonisation and independence, this text helps students understand how Africa's global position has emerged since 1940.

Frederick Cooper (Author)

9781108480680, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 July 2019

336 pages, 41 b/w illus. 4 maps
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.66 kg

'This educational book, which discusses important concepts while presenting the major axes of the recent history of continent, is an excellent introduction to the history contemporary of Africa.' Claire Nicolas

Africa since 1940 is the flagship textbook in Cambridge University Press' New Approaches to African History series. Now revised to include the history and scholarship of Africa since the turn of the millennium, this important book continues to help students understand the process out of which Africa's position in the world has emerged. A history of decolonisation and independence, it allows readers to see just what political independence did and did not signify, and how men and women, peasants and workers, religious and local leaders sought to refashion the way they lived, worked and interacted with each other. Covering the transformation of Africa from a continent marked by colonisation to one of independent states, Frederick Cooper follows the 'development question' across time, seeing how first colonial regimes and then African elites sought to transform African society in their own ways. He shows how people in cities and villages tried to make their way in an unequal world, through times of hope, despair, renewed possibilities, and continued uncertainties. Looking beyond the debate over what or who may be to blame, Cooper explores alternatives for the future.

1. Introduction
2. Workers, peasants, and the challenge to colonial rule
3. Citizenship, self-government, and development: the possibilities of the post-war moment
4. Ending empire and imagining the future
Interlude: rhythms of change in the post-war world
5. Development and disappointment: economic and social change in an unequal world, 1945–2018
6. White rule, armed struggle, and beyond
7. The recurrent crises of the gatekeeper state
8. Twenty-first century Africa
Index.

Subject Areas: National liberation & independence, post-colonialism [HBTR], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], African history [HBJH]