Dr Leigh Gardner CMK.C322

This course is available on the MA Global Studies: A European Perspective, MRes in Quantitative Economic History, MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in Global History, MSc in International and World History (LSE & Columbia) and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Africa’s recent economic growth has prompted a new optimism about the ability of African countries to catch up to wealthier countries in Asia and Latin America. Viewed over the longer term, however, the current period of growth seems less exceptional. Earlier periods of growth have ended with reversals which have limited overall improvements in per capita income. This course will examine periods of growth and crisis in African economic history over the last millennium. Students will examine the key factors which underpinned ‘boom’ periods in the past, and those which led to their collapse. At the same time, it will examine how events in the past have continued to influence the growth trajectories of African countries over the long run. The course will conclude by re-assessing the current boom in historical perspective.

Readings will include both new research on Africa’s economic history as well as historical documents from the periods in question. The inclusion of primary sources on the reading list will allow students to build research skills while engaging with key questions about African economic performance. Students will be encouraged to take a critical approach to the readings and the methods and sources used in existing research. Topics addressed will include African economic geography, slavery and the slave trade, Africa’s place in a globalizing and industrializing world, colonial institutions, and structural adjustment.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT. 1 hour of lectures in the ST.

2-hour meetings weekly, with a flexible combination of lectures and seminars.

Students are required to make one class presentation and submit one paper during the term.

J. Iliffe, Africans: The History of a Continent (2nd edition, 2007); F. Cooper, Africa Since 1940 (2002); A. G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (1973); R. H. Bates, Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa (1983); R. Austen, African Economic History (1987); J. Sender & S. Smith, The Development of Capitalism in Africa (1986); M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (1996); J. Herbst, States and Power in Africa (2000); C. H. Feinstein, An Economic History of South Africa (2005); R. H. Bates, When Things Fell Apart (2008).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.

Survey questions on feedback to students may be non-informative because assessed work comes later in the term than the survey.