Women’s Committee Virtual Book Club

Join us for a virtual book club! Hosted by the Economic History Society Women’s Committee, this book club will be an opportunity to learn about and discuss the recent book by Professor Leigh Gardner, Sovereignty without Power: Liberia in the Age of Empires (Cambridge, 2022).

Date: Thursday 18 May 2023

Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm (UK time)

What did independence mean during the age of empires? How did independent governments balance different interests when they made policies about trade, money and access to foreign capital? Sovereignty without Power tells the story of Liberia, one of the few African countries to maintain independence through the colonial period. Established in 1822 as a colony for freed slaves from the United States, Liberia’s history illustrates how the government’s efforts to exercise its economic sovereignty and engage with the global economy shaped Liberia’s economic and political development over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Liberia’s history anticipated challenges still faced by developing countries today and offers a new perspective on the role of power and power relationships in shaping Africa’s economic history.

Leigh Gardner is Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Research Affiliate at Stellenbosch University . She is the author of Taxing Colonial Africa: The Political Economy of British Imperialism (2012) and co-author (with Tirthankar Roy) of Economic History of Colonialism (2020).

Any queries can be directed to Dr Emily Buchnea.

Register now.