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A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the…
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A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution (original 2019; edition 2019)

by Toby Green (Author)

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1432189,831 (3.57)22
"With A Fistful of Shells, Toby Green transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa by reconstructing the world of these kingdoms, which revolved around trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, and the production of art. Green shows how the slave trade led to economic disparities that caused African kingdoms to lose relative political and economic power. The concentration of money in the hands of Atlantic elites in and outside these kingdoms brought about a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa, parallel to the upheavals then taking place in Europe and America. Yet political fragmentation following the fall of African aristocracies produced radically different results as European colonization took hold. Drawing not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, art, oral history, archaeology, and letters, Green lays bare the transformations that have shaped world politics and the global economy since the fifteenth century and paints a new and masterful portrait of West Africa, past and present."--Publisher's website.… (more)
Member:cptodd
Title:A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution
Authors:Toby Green (Author)
Info:University of Chicago Press (2019), Edition: First, 640 pages
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A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution by Toby Green (2019)

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» See also 22 mentions

Showing 2 of 2
I hate to give up on this, because in the first part of the book, although I was often in over my head, I was also learning a lot. The second part of the book I do not seem to be following at all. Bottom line, I'm not enjoying it, I don't need to read this, I've invested a lot of time and money into it, but it's time to stop throwing more time after it. ( )
  MarthaJeanne | Dec 2, 2020 |
This aims to be a history of West Africa with very much an economics view of interactions and trade. And most of it went well over my head. Some chapters made sense, but to someone who can barely balance their current account, it just passed me by. I also found it very confusing as to who was where and when. The end papers were a modern map of Africa, and there were a few maps of regions within the book but, on the whole, ot was assuming a far greater familiarity with the geography than I possess. He uses landmarks but they weren't on the map, so I don;t know where he means. A few more maps of terretories and groups of people over time would have helped enormously. Overall I found it a bit muddled, but I think that is as it was assuming knowledge I don't have.
This is the first of the 2019 Al Rhodan shortlist that I can't say I enjoyed reading. ( )
  Helenliz | Nov 29, 2020 |
Showing 2 of 2
"Although not always the easiest text to follow – the thematic approach at times obscuring the sense of a developing narrative – this is a stunning work of research and argumentation. It has the potential to become a landmark in our understanding of the most misunderstood of continents."
added by ndara | editNew Statesman, David Olusoga (pay site) (Jan 30, 2019)
 
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"With A Fistful of Shells, Toby Green transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa by reconstructing the world of these kingdoms, which revolved around trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, and the production of art. Green shows how the slave trade led to economic disparities that caused African kingdoms to lose relative political and economic power. The concentration of money in the hands of Atlantic elites in and outside these kingdoms brought about a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa, parallel to the upheavals then taking place in Europe and America. Yet political fragmentation following the fall of African aristocracies produced radically different results as European colonization took hold. Drawing not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, art, oral history, archaeology, and letters, Green lays bare the transformations that have shaped world politics and the global economy since the fifteenth century and paints a new and masterful portrait of West Africa, past and present."--Publisher's website.

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