Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• THOMAS, LYNN M.

Titel

Modernity's Failings, Political Claims, and Intermediate Concepts

Ist Teil von

• The American historical review, 2011-06, Vol.116 (3), p.727-740

Ort / Verlag

Oxford: University of Chicago Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EBSCOhost Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• African history as a disciplinary subfield came into being partly by challenging racist, teleological, and condescending presumptions embedded in such conceptions of the modern. This genealogy helps explain why recent discussions of modernity among Africa scholars have been so contentious. Drawing insight from those debates, historians of Africa and elsewhere are well positioned to make scholarly discussions of modernity more concrete and analytically productive by developing two approaches. The first involves examining how historical actors have embraced various definitions of the modern to make political claims and envision different futures; the second entails focusing on mid-level or intermediate analytical concepts. Here, Thomas examines historical scholarship on Africa.