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Tensions of an Oeuvre: Historical Materialism, Cultural History, and the Work of Frederick Cooper

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2019

Andrew Ivaska
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Abstract:

Using the Tensions of Empire volume as a pivot point, this article traces Frederick Cooper’s work in relation to trajectories of historical materialism and cultural history over the past forty years. Highlighting Cooper’s contributions to both approaches, it points to a generative tension between these strands of his scholarship – as well as between his oeuvre and the arc of broader historiography on empire. Specific features of Cooper’s approach were key to the success of the Tensions of Empire collaboration, and attention to them can help recapture aspects of these historiographies that have become obscured over time.

Résumé:

En utilisant le livre Tensions of Empire comme point de référence, cet article retrace l’œuvre de Frederick Cooper en relation avec les trajectoires du matérialisme historique et de l’histoire culturelle au cours de ces quarante dernières années. En soulignant les contributions de Cooper à ces deux approches, cet article met en évidence une tension génératrice entre ces deux dimensions de ses publications ainsi qu’entre ses écrits et l’historiographie au sens plus large sur l’“empire.” Les caractéristiques spécifiques de l’approche de Cooper ont été déterminantes pour le succès de l’ouvrage collectif Tensions of Empire. En se focalisant sur le matérialisme historique et l’histoire culturelle, cet article entend apporter un éclairage nouveau à des aspects historiographiques qui se sont effacés au fil du temps.

Type
Frederick Cooper and the Historiography of Africa
Information
History in Africa , Volume 47 , June 2020 , pp. 55 - 64
Copyright
© African Studies Association 2019

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