Why read Global Shadows?

Book cover of Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order

Book description

Both on the continent and off, "Africa" is spoken of in terms of crisis: as a place of failure and seemingly insurmountable problems, as a moral challenge to the international community. What, though, is really at stake in discussions about Africa, its problems, and its place in the world? And…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Global Shadows as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kathleen R. Smythe

Author

I love Ferguson’s book because it seeks to be useful rather than academic. He uses the category of “Africa” to understand large-scale dynamics that have perpetually underestimated or misunderstood the agency of Africans.

For example, globalization is not passing over Africa; it is deeply implicated there but in isolated ways that perpetuate inequalities rather than erase them, as globalization proponents promote. Or that global capital can thrive in a failed state without peace, property law, or many other attributes of the modern state.

Again, like in all my book picks, Ferguson is eager to show how Africa’s role in global…

From Kathleen's list on The best books that explain why African History matters to us all.