...Elizabeth Schmidt A new book by Frederick Cooper seeks to change our understanding both of Africa's role in the global economy over the centuries and of how the independent nation-state replaced colonial rule. Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State , by Frederick Cooper...

...J. R. McNeill The grand social and ideological systems that people construct for themselves invariably carry large consequences, for the environment no less than for more strictly human affairs. Among the swirl of ideas, policies, and political structures of the twentieth century, the most...