This article reviews how colonial rule and African actions during the colonial period affected
the resources and institutional settings for subsequent economic development south of the …

Over the past two decades, the literature on comparative development has moved from
country-level to within-country analyses. The questions asked have expanded in scope as …

As Africa's role on the global stage is rising, so does the need to understand the shadow of
history on the continent's economy and polity. We discuss recent works that shed light on …

This book is the first major study in several decades to consider Uganda as a nation, from its
precolonial roots to the present day. Here, Richard J. Reid examines the political, economic …

Recent literature on the historical determinants of African poverty has emphasized structural
impediments to African growth, such as adverse geographical conditions, weak institutions …

One of the biggest debates in economic history deals with the Great Divergence. How can
we explain that at a certain moment in time (the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) a …

The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan
blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. We exploit historical …

Drive the streets of Nairobi, and you are sure to see many matatus—colorful minibuses that
transport huge numbers of people around the city. Once ramshackle affairs held together …

This article considers the marginalization of precolonial history from mainstream Africanist
scholarship in recent decades, and argues that this can be understood in the context of a …

We use a new trade dataset showing that nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa
experienced a terms of trade boom comparable to other parts of the “global periphery.” A …