The University of Wisconsin Press
Press Kit for The Postcolonial State in Africa
The Postcolonial State in Africa press kit | Blurbs | Reviews | Author's
bio | Author's website | Author's
photo | Cover image | Excerpt
|
The Postcolonial State in Africa Body Copy: In The Postcolonial State in Africa, Crawford Young offers an informed and authoritative comparative overview of fifty years of African independence, drawing on his decades of research and first-hand experience on the African continent. Young identifies three cycles of hope and disappointment common to many of the African states (including those in North Africa) over the last half-century: initial euphoria at independence in the 1960s followed by disillusionment with a lapse into single-party autocracies and military rule; a period of renewed confidence, radicalization, and ambitious state expansion in the 1970s preceding state crisis and even failure in the disastrous 1980s; and a phase of reborn optimism during the continental wave of democratization beginning around 1990. He explores in depth the many African civil wars—especially those since 1990— and three key tracks of identity, Africanism, territorial nationalism, and ethnicity. Only more recently, Young argues, have the paths of the fifty-three African states begun to diverge more dramatically, with some leading to liberalization and others to political, social, and economic collapse—outcomes impossible to predict at the outset of independence. Blurbs: “An extraordinary tour de force that cogently captures the dynamic political trajectory of the African state during the continent’s first half century of independence.”—Michael Schatzberg, Series Editor “A highly readable, sweeping, and yet detailed analysis of the African state in all its failures and moments of hope. Crawford Young manages to touch upon all the important issues in the discipline and crucial developments in the recent history of the African continent. This book will be a classic.”—Pierre Englebert, author of Africa: Unity, Sovereignty and Sorrow [Reviews will be posted when they
are available.] Excerpts: Author's bio: Crawford Young is the Rupert Emerson Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His many books include The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, Ideology and Development in Africa, The Politics of Cultural Pluralism, and The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective. N/A For more information, in addition to this press kit, contact our publicity manager, phone: (608) 263-0734, email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu [Return
to the book page for The Postcolonial State in Africa]
|
Cover image: These images can be downloaded
and used in any web-based publicity for this book. For
a 300 dpi version, click here.
|
|
|
If you have trouble accessing
any page in this web site, contact our Web manager. Updated July 13, 2012 © 2012, The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System |