Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana

Rezensionen / Stimmen

[Austin] is able to familiarize Africanists with important developments in economic history as well as combat the marginalization of African economic history that, like so much in African studies, has fallen victim to a preoccupation with contemporary problems. The result is a work that is as rich and diverse in its offerings as the rain forest environment that it describes. -- Roger Gocking * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 2006 * This is an excellent work, a major contribution to literature on the kingdom of Asante, an African society that has in the last 25 years attracted more than its fair share of high-quality scholarship. --Larry Yarak, Associate Professor of History, Texas -- Larry Yarak, Associate Professor of History, Texas A&M University Austin's book is a groundbreaking survey of Ghana's economic history, based upon an extraordinarily perceptive case study of Asante. It is painstakingly researched and combines a strong empirical base with highly relevant theoretical considerations of current models of institutional change. He has written what will surely become a classic in the field of African economic development. -- Ivor Wilks, Professor Emeritus of History, Northwestern University Long anticipated, Austin's account of the material conditions in which the ordinary Asante people of Ghana lived their lives is an exemplary retrieval of the past. All at once richly documented, theoretically sophisticated and persuasively argued, it is a major contribution to African studies and to the wider field of economic history. -- T.C. McCaskie, Professor of Asante history, University of Birmingham, UK The overwhelming impression left on the reader is one of awe. . . . The readability of the book matches the importance of the arguments made, and it makes without doubt a very substantial contribution to . . . our knowledge about the transformation of slave trade in the economies of [West] Africa in the nineteenth century. * INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL HISTORY, 2006 * Austin's economic history of the agricultural and labour patterns of pre-colonial and colonial central Ghana may be considered a magnum opus . . . it represents a crowning achievement and the product of many years of careful research and analysis. -- Benjamin N. Lawrance * AFRICA: THE JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTITUTE *