Synopses & Reviews
This book boldly unsettles the idea of globalization as a recent phenomenonand#151;and one driven solely by Western interestsand#151;by offering a compelling new perspective on global interconnectivity in the nineteenth century. Jeremy Prestholdt examines East African consumers' changing desires for material goods from around the world in an era of sweeping social and economic change. Exploring complex webs of local consumer demands that affected patterns of exchange and production as far away as India and the United States, the book challenges presumptions that Africa's global relationships have always been dictated by outsiders. Full of rich and often-surprising vignettes that outline forgotten trajectories of global trade and consumption, it powerfully demonstrates how contemporary globalization is foreshadowed in deep histories of intersecting and reciprocal relationships across vast distances.
Review
and#8220;Domesticating the World comes at an important moment in the development of globalization studies.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This is truly a remarkable and important book. It is extremely well written, includes some wonderful pictures and illustrations, and is very accessible and engaging for scholars and students.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The breadth and methodological approach, along with the singularity of its content, make this book a highly necessary addition to the ever-growing body of scholarship on globalization.and#8221;
Review
“Domesticating the World comes at an important moment in the development of globalization studies.” Jessica Lynn Achberger
Synopsis
and#147; Ingeniously stands the study of globalization and trade on its head.and#8221;and#151;Edward Alpers, Chair of Department of History, UCLA
About the Author
Jeremy Prestholdt is Assistant Professor History at the University of California, San Diego.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Histories and Globality
1. Similitude and Global Relationships: Self-Representation in Mutsamudu
2. The Social Logics of Need: Consumer Desire in Mombasa
3. The Global Repercussions of Consumerism: East African Consumers and Industrialization
4. Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Domestication: Consumer Imports in Zanzibar
5. Symbolic Subjection and Social Rebirth: Objectification in Urban Zanzibar
6. Picturesque Contradictions: New Taxonomies of East Africa
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index