READ [EBOOK] A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
Description for A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
Review 'This meticulously researched book, based on archival research in nine countries, lays out a comprehensive overview of the economic history of West Africa and West-Central Africa before and after the slave trade. . . . A�valuable history written in an accessible style.' (Publishers Weekly)'Drawing on written accounts and oral histories from nine countries, Green traces the long-term consequences of a European-dominated capitalist system that gave rise to mounting inequality and political upheaval in West and West-Central Africa. . . . Summing Up: Essential.' (CHOICE)�His book is a work of staggering scholarship, drawing on previously untapped sources locked away in European vaults and historical records which, taken as a whole, contradict the age-old perceptions foisted on Africa.� � (Telegraph (UK))'Green�s A Fistful of Shells illuminates the flourishing and connected economy of West Africa that existed long before a European capitalist system established itself on the continent. Extraordinarily written and researched, the book paints a huge, complex canvas, crammed with individual detail.'� (Julia Lovell Wall Street Journal)'A rich and insightful work. . . . What emerges is a radically different view of the region from the one that has been generally available. West Africa, according to Green, was both cosmopolitan in its outlook, culturally and politically sophisticated and in some ways globally connected long before Europeans arrived to �civilise the natives.' . . . Green concludes by pointing to the lack of history being taught in schools and universities in West Africa and elsewhere; if it is taught at all, it tends to focus on the slave trade. A Fistful of Shells shows that there was so much more, and of so much relevance when looking at the issues of our own time.' (Spectator)'All too often, the history of early modern Africa is told from the perspective of outsiders. In his book�A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution,�Toby Green�draws upon a range of underutilized sources to describe the evolution of West Africa over a period of four transformative centuries. With these sources Green demonstrates that the region was integrated into the developing transcontinental trade networks far earlier than is often portrayed in more Western-centric accounts, and in ways that influenced the development of local communities long before European ships arrived off of their coast.' (New Books Network)'One of its great strengths is that it reveals the often surprising success that Africans had throughout the first four hundred years of their encounter with Europe. . . . [a]�sprawling and nuanced look at the steady depletion of a continent with a powerful lament about the lack of academic interest in Africa�s precolonial eras.' (New York Review of Books)'A Fistful of Shells is the fruit of research conducted in the archives of nine nations and required the author to undertake fieldwork across eight West African states. It shows. Passages from the author�s travels provide observations and anecdotes that usefully link the past to the present day and give voice to the lives and experiences of African themselves. Ranging far beyond economics, Green�s thesis becomes, ultimately, an almost philosophical meditation on the nature of value across differing cultures and societies during a long and underexamined era of early globalisation.' (New Statesman)'Green doesn�t conjure a nostalgic vision of a 'merrie Africa' before European contact. Rather, he shows that cultural and commercial ties connecting west Africa to the wider world existed and flourished long before the consolidation of a capitalist system dominated by Europe and its settler-colonies. What was lost in the acceleration of western capitalism was a more generous, expansive and flexible idea of equality.' (The Guardian)'This original and thoughtful work is based on detailed first-hand knowledge of and collaboration with the cultures and peoples it depicts. Green uses a combination of documentary sources, both primary and secondary (many previously unexplored by European scholars), material culture and oral sources, including both extensive local collections and literature such as the Sunjata epic, skilfully woven into a persuasive and insightful narrative. . . .�For all its impressive scholarship A Fistful of Shells is notably readable, supported by great illustrations and a stunning cover � and, in the best sense, personal.' (Times Higher Education) Read more Review �Very seldom do I pick up a history book and wish I had written it myself. Toby Green�s Fistful of Shells is one such book. Brilliantly conceptualized, beautifully written, Fistful of Shells breaks with colonially configured regional boundaries�which work to re-create unintended silos of knowledge�to imagine a West and West Central African Atlantic era history of money, power, religion, and inequality that is as rich as it is sound.� (Nwando Achebe, Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, Michigan State University)�The range and depth of this book is simply stunning. By masterfully drawing on primary research and secondary sources in multiple languages, Green delivers a provocative book that is also a landmark of historical imagination and craftsmanship.� (Roquinaldo Ferreira, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania)'A magisterial, extensive and fresh account of the history of West Africa that rewrites the region and its peoples back into World History, where they belong.'� (Miranda Kaufmann, author of Black Tudors)'Toby Green's transformative book repositions West African history in an entirely new light. It brings into focus the region's fundamental place in shaping�the modern world as well as the powerful and also difficult legacy of this today.' (Paul Reid, director, Black Cultural Archives) Read more See all Editorial Reviews
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