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Investing in Indebtedness: World History and Impoverishment in Africa

Modern Africa's impoverishment, though often alleged to have begun in the era of slaving, deepened during colonial rule, barely paused during the early years of national independence, intensified with the Cold War era of military rule, and – recently – provoked painful structural adjustment programs, has in fact been at the core of the continent’s relationship with the commercial economies surrounding it for a millennium and may reveal as much about world economies as about Africa itself.

Date & Time

Monday
Sep. 16, 2013
4:00pm – 5:30pm ET

Location

6th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Washington History Seminar
Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs

"Investing in Indebtedness:
World History and Impoverishment in Africa"

Joseph C. Miller
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Modern Africa's impoverishment, though often alleged to have begun in the era of slaving, deepened during colonial rule (1900-1960), barely paused during the early years of national independence (1960-70), intensified with the Cold War era of military rule (1970-1990), and – recently – provoked painful structural adjustment programs, has in fact been at the core of the continent’s relationship with the commercial economies surrounding it for a millennium and may reveal as much about world economies as about Africa itself.

Joseph C. Miller has contributed to historical studies of Africa, to world history, and to the global history of slavery since 1970.  He is T. Cary Johnson Professor at the University of Virginia and a former president of the American Historical Association and the African Studies Association.  His publications include Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade (1988) and The Problem of Slavery as History (2012).  He is writing a history of slaving worldwide.

Monday September 16, 2013
 4:00 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Moynihan Board Room
Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Triangle Metro Stop

Reservations requested because of limited seating:
mbarber@historians.org or 202-450-3209
Photo ID required for admittance to the building.

September 23: Maya Jasanoff (Harvard University) on the worlds of Joseph Conrad

Co-sponsored by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center, the seminar meets weekly during the academic year. See www.nationalhistorycenter.org for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar is grateful for the support of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

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Speaker

Joseph C. Miller

T. Cary Johnson Professor at the University of Virginia
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Hosted By

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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