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History 6395 Fall 2007
The Postcolonial World
Instructor Karl Ittmann
Office 530 AH, ext 743-3102
Email-KITTMANN@uh.edu
Office Hours: M,W, 11:45a-12:45p and by appointment.
This course will examine postcolonialism in three ways. First we will examine the
process of decolonization and how both imperialism and its aftermath affected former
colonial societies. We will also examine the rise of post-colonial studies and finally
discuss new approaches to writing imperial and post-imperial history from a global
perspective.
Course Requirements: An in-class presentation, weekly summary of readings (1 page),
and an historiographic essay on a topic in imperialism 15-25 pages in length. A first draft
will be due by November 30th. You must submit one or receive a penalty on your final
grade!
Texts
David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of
Empire
P. Cain and A. Hopkins, British Imperialism 1688-2000
Frederick Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Ebook in UH
system)
Basil Davidson, The Black Man’s Burden
David Fieldhouse, The West and the Third World
John Perkins, Geopolitics and the Green Revolution
Edward Said, Orientalism
Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism’s Culture
Crawford Young, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective
Schedule of Classes
Week 1 August 20th Introduction
Week 2 August 27th Decolonization
Mark Berger, “Decolonization, Modernization and Nation Building: Political
Development Theory and the Appeal of Communism in Southeast Asia, 1945-1975,”
Journal of Southeastern Asian Studies, 34, 2, (2003), 421-447
Matthew Connelly, Rethinking the Cold War and Decolonization: The Grand Strategy of
the Algerian War for Independence, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 33, 2,
(2001), 221-245. (e)
John Darwin, “Diplomacy and Decolonization,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth
History, 28,3, (2000), 5-24.
Maarten Kuitenbrouwer, “The Never-Ending Debt of Honour: The Dutch in the PostColonial World,” Itinerario, 20,2, (1996), 20-42.
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Taras Kuzio, “History, Memory and Nation Building in the Post-Soviet Colonial Space,”
Nationalities Papers 30, 2, (2002) 241-264. (e)
Wm. Roger Louis and Ronald Robinson, “The Imperialism of Decolonization,” Journal
of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 22, 3, (1994), 462-511.
September 3 Labor Day-no class
Week 3 September 10th The Meaning of Decolonization
Frederick Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Ebook in UH
system)
Week 4 September 17th Post-colonial economies
P. Cain and A. Hopkins, British Imperialism 1688-2000, 617-681
David Fieldhouse, The West and the Third World, 223-355
Fouad Makki, “The Empire of Capital and the Remaking of Centre-Periphery Relations,”
Third World Quarterly, 25,1, (2004), 149-168. (e)
Nicholas White, “The Business and the Politics of Decolonization: The British
Experience in the Twentieth Century,” Economic History Review, 53, 3, (2000), 544-564.
(e)
Patrick O'Brien, “Intercontinental Trade and the Development of the Third World Since
the Industrial Revolution, Journal of World History, 8,1, (1997), 75-133. (e)
Week 5 September 24th War and Counterinsurgency
David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of
Empire
Oliver Richmond, “Decolonization and Post-Independence Causes of Conflict: The Case
of Cyprus,” Civil Wars, 5,3, (2002), 163-190. (e)
Frank Furedi, “Britain’s Colonial Wars: Playing the Ethnic Card,” The Journal of
Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 28,1, (1990), 70-89.
Week 6 October 1st The Post colonial state
Crawford Young, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective
Bruce Berman, “The Perils of Bula Matari: Constraint and Power in the Colonial State,”
Canadian Journal of African Studies, 31, 3 (1997), 556-570. (e)
John Darwin, “What was the Late Colonial State?” Itinerario 23, 3-4, (1999), 73-82.
Week 7 October 8th Nationalism and and its discontents
Basil Davidson, The Black Man’s Burden
Victor Azarya, “Ethnicity and Conflict Management in Post-Colonial Africa,”
Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, 9(3), (2003): 1-24.(e)
Devleena Ghosh, “Recrossing a Different Water: Colonialism and Third-Worldism in
Fiji,” Third World Quarterly 2004 25(1): 111-130. (e)
Week 8 October 15th The Green Revoltion
John Perkins, Geopolitics and the Green Revolution
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Nick Cullather, “Miracles of Modernization: The Green Revolution and the Apotheosis
of Technology,” Diplomatic History, 28,2, (2004), 227-254. (e)
Niazi, Tarique “Rural Poverty and the Green Revolution: The Lessons from Pakistan,
Journal of Peasant Studies 2004 31(2): 242-260.(e)
Week 9 October 22th Environmentalism and globalism
Melissa Leach and James Fairhead, “Challenging Neo-malthusian Deforestation Analyses
in West Africa’s Dynamic Forest Landscapes,” Population and Development Review, 26,
1, (2000), 17-43. (e)
Roderick Neumann, “The Post-War Conservation Boom in British Colonial Africa,”
Environmental History, 7, 1, (2002) 22-47.
William Beinart, “Soil Conservation and Ideas about develoment: A South African
Exploration,” Journal of Southern African Studies, 11,1, (1984), 52-83. (e)
Douglas Weiner, “Demthologizing Environmentalism,” Journal of the History of
Biology, 25,3 (1992), 385-411.
Week 10 October 29th The Origins of Post-Colonial Theory
Edward Said, Orientalism
David Arnold, “Race, Place and Bodily Difference in Early Nineteenth Century India,
Historical Research, 77, 196, (2004), 254-273. (e)
Week 11 November 5th Colonial Studies
Nicholas Thomas, Colonialism’s Culture
Ann Stoler, “Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History, 34, 3, (1992), 514-551. (e)
Week 12 November 12th Globalism and Transnationalism
Matthew Connelly, “Seeing Beyond the State: The Population Control Movement and the
Problem of Sovereignty,” Past and Present, 193, (2006), 197-233. (e)
Alison Bashford, “Global Biopolitics and the history of world health,” History of the
Human Sciences, 19,1, (2006), 67-88.
Firoze Manju and Carl O’Coil, “The missionary position: NGO’s and development in
Africa,” International Affairs, 78,3, (2003), 567-583. (e)
John Stuart, “Beyond Sovereignty?: Protestant Missions, Empire and Transnationalism,
1890-1950,” in Frank Trentman, ed., Beyond sovereignty : Britain, empire and
transnationalism, c. 1880-1950, 103-125.