Description

This book, by 1999 IDRF Fellow Jeremy Prestholdt, destabilizes the idea of globalization as a recent phenomenon driven by Western interests by offering a compelling new perspective on global interconnectivity in the nineteenth century. During an era of broad social and economic change, Prestholdt examines East African consumers’ changing desires for material goods from around the world. By exploring the complex webs of local consumer demands that impacted exchange and production patterns as far reaching as India and the United States, the book challenges the assumption that Africa’s global relationships have historically been dictated by outsiders. Full of powerful vignettes that outline forgotten trajectories of global trade and consumption, it demonstrates how modern-day globalization is foreshadowed in deep histories of expansive intersecting and reciprocal relationships. Buy from Amazon.