
Antony Gerald Hopkins, (born 21 February 1938) is a British historian specialising in the
economic history
Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...
of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, European colonialism, and
globalisation
Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...
. He is Emeritus
Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, an Emeritus Fellow of
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...
and a fellow of the
British Academy
The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.
It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
.
Career
Antony Gerald Hopkins was born on 21 February 1938, the son of George Henry Hopkins and his wife, Queenie Ethel .
["Hopkins, Prof. Antony Gerald"](_blank)
''Who's Who 2016'' (online edition), Oxford University Press, November 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2016. Following schooling at
St Paul's School between 1953 and 1957, he completed a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
degree in History at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, graduating in 1960.
He then completed a PhD at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...
(1964), with a thesis entitled "An Economic History of Lagos, 1880–1914".
After completing his doctorate, Hopkins was employed as an Assistant Lecturer at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
; he was subsequently a Lecturer and then a Reader there, before his appointment in 1977 as a Professor of Economic History on the University's faculty. In 1988, he moved over to the
Graduate Institute of International Studies
Graduate may refer to:
Education
* The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree
** Alumni, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution
* High school graduate, someone who has completed hi ...
in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
to be Professor of History, an appointment which lasted until 1994, when he became
Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. From 2002 to 2013 he held the
Walter Prescott Webb Chair of History at the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
,
where he won the University 'Eyes of Texas' Teaching Award, and the College of Liberal Arts Student Council Teaching Award.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Stirling (D. Univ.) in 1996 and the University of Birmingham (D. Litt.) in 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996. In 2011, former students and colleagues presented him with a book of essays, edited by
Toyin Falola and Emily Brownell, entitled ''Africa, Empire and Globalization: Essays in Honor'' ''of A. G. Hopkins'' (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC).
Hopkins is known for his extensive work on the history of Africa, empires, and globalisation. He has been an editor of both the ''Journal of African History'' and the ''Economic History Review''. His principal works include ''An Economic History of West Africa'' (1973), and, with Peter Cain, ''British Imperialism, 1688–2000'' (1993), which won the Forkosch Prize awarded by the American Historical Association in 1995 and is considered to be one of the most influential interpretations of the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
proposed in the last half century. His most recent work is a study of the United States from an
imperial perspective, entitled ''American Empire: A Global History'' (2018).
Quotes
Selected bibliography
Books
* ''An Economic History of West Africa'' (1973).
* (with P. J. Cain) ''British Imperialism, 1688-2015'' (1st ed. published in two volumes in 1993; 2nd ed. in one volume, 2001; 3rd ed. in one volume, Routledge, 2016).
* (as editor) ''Globalization in World History'' (2002).
* (as editor) ''Global History: Interactions Between the Universal and the Local'' (2006).
* ''American Empire: A Global History'' (Princeton University Press, 2018).
* ''An Economic History of West Africa'' (2nd Ed. Routledge, 2019).
* ''Africa, Empire, and World Disorder: Historical Essays'' (Routledge, 2020).
* ''Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851–1931'' (Princeton University Press, 2024).
Articles and book chapters
* ‘Macmillan’s Audit of Empire, 1957’, in Peter Clarke and Clive Trebilcock, eds., ''Understanding Decline: Perceptions and Realities; Essays in Honour of Barry Supple'' (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 234–60.
* (with P. J. Cain), ‘The Theory and Practice of Imperialism’, in Raymond E. Dumett, ed. ''Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: the New Debate on Empire'' (Longman, 1999), pp. 196–220.
* ‘Development and the Utopian Ideal, 1960-1999’, in Robin Winks and Alaine Low, eds., ''The Oxford History of the British Empire'', Vol. 5 (Oxford, 1999), pp. 635–52.
* 'Back to the Future: From National History to Imperial History', ''Past and Present'', 164 (1999), pp. 198–243.
* ‘Quasi-States, Weak States and the Partition of Africa’, ''Review of International Studies'', Vol. 26, No. 2 (Apr., 2000), pp. 311–320.
* ‘Asante and the Historians: Transition and Partition on the Gold Coast’, in Roy Bridges, ed. ''Imperialism, Decolonisation and Africa: Historical Essays in Honour of John Hargreaves'' (2000), pp. 25–64.
* (with P.J. Cain), ‘The Peculiarities of British Capitalism: Imperialism and World Development’, in Shigeru Akita, ed., ''Gentlemanly Capitalism, Imperialism, and Global History'' (2002), pp. 207–55.
* ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism in New Zealand’, ''Australian Economic History Review'', (43) 2003, pp. 289–99.
* ‘Towards a Cosmopolitan History of Imperialism’, in Olivier Petre-Grenouilleau, ''From Slave Trade to Empire: Europe and the Colonisation of Black Africa, 1780s-1880s'' (2004), pp. 231–43.
* ‘Making Poverty History’, ''International Journal of African Historical Studies'', 38 (2005), pp. 513–31.
* ‘"Crooked Like a Stick in Water": A Fractured Autobiography’, in Wm. Roger Louis, ed., ''Burnt Orange Britannia'' (2005), pp. 245–65.
* ‘The “Victory Strategy”: Grand Bargain or Grand Illusion?’, ''Current History'', 105 (2006), pp.14-19.
* ‘Capitalism, Nationalism and the New American Empire', ''Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'', Vol. 35, No. 1 (2007), pp. 95-117.
*‘Comparing British and American Empires’, ''Journal of Global History'', 2 (2007), pp. 395–404.
* 'Rethinking Decolonization', ''Past and Present'', 200 (2008), pp. 211–47.
* 'Explorers’ Tales: Stanley Presumes – Again', ''Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'', Vol. 36, No. 4 (2008), pp. 669–684.
* 'The New Economic History of Africa', ''Journal of African History'', 50 (2009), pp. 155–77.
* 'A Lagos Merchant and his Money: I. B. Williams, 1846-1925', in Toyin Falola, ed. ''Empire and Slavery in the Atlantic World: Essays in Honor of Robin Law'' (2008), pp. 201–19.
* 'The Historiography of Globalization and the Globalization of Regionalism', ''Journal of the Economic & Social History of the Orient'', 53 (2010), pp. 19–36.
* 'The United States, 1783-1861: Britain's Honorary Dominion?', ''Britain and the World'', 4 (2011), pp. 232–46.
* 'Causes and Confusions in African History', ''Economic History of Developing Regions'', 26 (2011), pp. 107–10.
* 'The Real American Empire', in James Belich, John Darwin and Christopher Wickham, eds. ''The Prospect of Global History'' (Oxford, 2015), pp. 146–59.
* 'Globalisation and Decolonisation', ''Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History'', 45 (2017).
* 'Is Globalisation Yesterday's News?', ''Itinerario'', 41 (2017), pp. 109–28.
* 'Kut Losses', ''History Today'', 68 (2018), pp. 34–45.
* 'American Empire in the Nineteenth Century', in Shigeru Akita, ed. ''Beyond the Great Divergence: Reconsidering the Nineteenth Century from Asian Perspectives'' (Mineruva-shobo, Kyoto, 2018), pp. 33–52.
* 'Fifty Years of African Economic History', ''Economic History of Developing Regions'', 34 (2019), pp. 1–15.
* 'Response' to Roundtable Review of A. G. Hopkins, ''American Empire: A Global History'', ''H-Diplo'', XX-33 (April 2019).
* 'How I Got from There to Here', H-Diplo Essay on Learning the Scholar's Craft, ''H-Diplo'', 190 (February 2020).
* 'Response' to Roundtable Review of A. G. Hopkins, ''An Economic History of West Africa'' (2nd ed.), ''H-Diplo'', XXI-46 (June 2020).
* 'Response' to Contributions to a Symposium on ''American Empire: A Global History'', ''Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History'', 49 (2021), pp. 607–25.
* 'The Philippines in Imperial History', ''Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History'', 49 (2021), forthcoming.
Footnotes
External links
A. G. HopkinsThe British Academy Fellowship.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, A. G.
British historians
1938 births
Living people
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Fellows of the British Academy
University of Texas at Austin faculty
Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Academics of the University of Birmingham
Academic staff of the University of Geneva
Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
Historians of Africa
Smuts Professors of Commonwealth History
Historians of Nigeria