Frederick Cooper (historian)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Frederick Cooper (born October 27, 1947, in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) is an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
who specializes in colonialization, decolonialization, and African history. He is Professor Emeritus of History at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
.


Career

In 1969, Cooper received a BA from
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. In 1974, Cooper received his PhD in history from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
where he specialized in African history. His PhD dissertation, "Plantation Slavery on the East Coast of Africa in the Nineteenth Century," was published with
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
in 1977. Prior to NYU, Cooper taught at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
from 1974 to 1982 and the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
from 1982 to 2002.


Academic contributions

Cooper initially studied the history of labor and of labor movements in East Africa, but later moved on to broaden his scope to embrace francophone West Africa as well. Though a firm base in social and polit-economical history is a constant of his works, one characteristic of Cooper's approach to history is a strong concern with epistemological questions and the possibilities and limits of knowledge production, as can best be seen in his articles on globalization and identity, reprinted in his book ''Colonialism in Question'' in 2005. Cooper's research on federalist and confederated proposals to structure relations between the French metropole and its African colonies influenced a new scholarly literature on federalism. Cooper's contributions to the history of colonialism in Africa and to contemporary African history have been crucial in the fields of African studies and beyond. One of his best known conceptual contributions is the concept of the gatekeeper state that he developed in a number of article contributions in the late 1990s, and in his 2002 book-length essay ''Africa since 1940. the past of the present''. Cooper made some important impacts on the growing field of global history, not least with ''Empires in World History'' co-written with his wife, the historian
Jane Burbank Jane Richardson Burbank (born 11 June 1946 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States) is an American historian who is emeritus professor of history at New York University. She is known for her scholarship on Russia and its empire, as well as global h ...
, and published in 2010. Moreover, over the course of the last decades, several topical collections of articles by a wide array of international scholars which Cooper edited or co-edited, have had a lasting impact on global historical thought and research directions. These include ''Struggle for the City'' (1983), ''International Development and the Social Sciences'' (1997), and ''Tensions of Empire'' (1997).


Awards and honors

*1982 Melville Herskovits Prize, African Studies Association, ''From Slaves to Squatters'' *2010 World History Association Book Prize, ''Empires in World History'' *2015 George Louis Beer Prize, ''Citizenship between Empire and Nation'' *2020 Distinguished Africanist Award, African Studies Association


Selected publications


Books

* 1977 - ''Plantation Slavery on the East Coast of Africa'' (New Haven: Yale University Press) * 1980 - ''From Slaves to Squatters: Plantation Labor and Agriculture in Zanzibar and Coastal Kenya , 1890-1925'' (New Haven: Yale University Press) * 1983 - Editor, ''Struggle for the City: Migrant Labour, Capital and the State in Urban Africa''(Beverly Hills, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications) * 1996 - ''Decolonization and African Society: The Labor Question in French and British Africa'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) ; French translation: ''Décolonisation et travail en Afrique: L`Afrique britannique et francaise 1935-1960'' (Paris: Karthala, 2004) * 1997 - co-editor, with Randall M. Packard, ''International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge'' (Berkeley: University of California Press) * 1997 - co-editor, with Ann Laura Stoler, ''Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World'' (Berkeley: University of California Press) ; French translation: ''Repenser le colonialisme'' (Paris: Payot, 2013) * 2000 - with Holt, Thomas C. and Scott, Rebecca J., ''Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor, and Citizenship in Postemancipation Societies'' (The University of North Carolina Press) * 2002 - ''Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) ; French translation: ''L'Afrique depuis 1940'' (Paris, Payot, 2008) * 2005 - ''Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge History'' (Berkeley: University of California Press) ; French translation: ''Le Colonialisme en question. Théorie, connaissance, histoire'' (Paris, Payot, 2010) ; German translation ''Kolonialismus denken: Konzepte und Theorien in kritischer Perspektive'' (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2012) * 2010 - in collaboration with
Jane Burbank Jane Richardson Burbank (born 11 June 1946 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States) is an American historian who is emeritus professor of history at New York University. She is known for her scholarship on Russia and its empire, as well as global h ...
, ''Empires in World History. Power and the Politics of Difference'', (Princeton and Oxford:
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
) ; German translation: ''Imperien der Weltgeschichte: Das Repertoire der Macht vom alten Rom und China bis heute'' (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2012) * 2013 - ''Out of Empire: Redefining Africa`s Place in the World'' (Goettingen: Vienna University Press) * 2014 - ''Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State'' (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...
) ; French translation: ''L'Afrique dans le monde: Capitalisme, empire, Etat-nation'' (Paris: Payot, 2015) * 2014 - '' Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-60'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press) ; French translation: ''Français et africains? Etre citoyen au temps de la décolonisation'' (Paris: Payot, 2014) * 2018 - ''Citizenship, Inequality, and Difference: Historical Perspectives'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press) * 2023 - in collaboration with Jane Burbank: "Post-Imperial Possibilities. Eurasia, Eurafrica, Afroasia" (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press)


Articles

* 1994 - Conflict and Connection. Rethinking African Colonial History, "The American Historical Review", 99, 5: 1516-1545. * 1996 - 'Our Strike': Equality, Anticolonial Politics, and the French West African Railway Strike of 1947-48, ''Journal of African History'', 37: 81-118. * 2000 - Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians, ''Canadian Journal of African Studies'', 34: 298-336. * 2001 - What Is the Concept of Globalization Good For? An African Historian's Perspective, ''African Affairs'', 100: 189-213. * 2004 - Empire Multiplied, ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', 46: 247-72. * 2000 - with Brubaker, R., Beyond Identity, ''Theory and Society'', 29: 1-47. * 2019 - with Brubaker, R., Empires after 1919: Old, New, Transformed, ''International Affairs'', 95: 81-100. * 2023 -


References


External links


Frederick Cooper's web page
a
Department of History, New York University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Frederick Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Historians of Africa Historians of colonialism New York University faculty Historians of Kenya Historians of the British Empire Labor historians University of Michigan faculty American male non-fiction writers 1947 births 20th-century American historians ASA Best Book Prize winners