History
The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen
In 1997 Diamond wrote the best-seller, “Guns, Germs and Steel”. Nearly three decades later, a similar sounding book (The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen) by Linda Colley shifts the gaze from environmental determinism to political technology (primarily constitutions). The author is a historian and the book is woven around key individuals, which makes the […]
Tags: #Constitution #History #Linda Colley #Political technology
Age of Revolutions
Written by Fareed Zakaria (yes, the CNN one), “Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present” (2024) runs through a selection of European history (Netherlands, Great Britain, France) to make a case for liberalism, participatory governance, markets and innovation in the rise of powerful nations (or their downfall). The title of this book […]
Tags: #Age of Revolutions #Fareed Zakaria #History #Politics #Revolution
From Black Gold to Frozen Gas
In 2023, Tusiani and Johnson wrote “From Black Gold to Frozen Gas: How Qatar Became an Energy Superpower”, published by Columbia University Press, in the Center on Global Energy Policy Series. The book provides a unique and detailed look into the deal, actors, contracts of the development of the energy sector in Qatar, often interwoven […]
Imagining Afghanistan
Quite a number of books have followed in the tradition of Edward Said, critiquing and contesting the manufacturing of narratives. Nivi Manchanda’s “Imagining Afghanistan” The History and Politics of Imperial Knowledge” (2020) provides a deep dive into those narratives of Afghanistan. Chapters of the book explore the use of “tribe” and “tribalism”, the colonial construction […]
Tags: #Afghanistan #Colonial #Colonialism #History #Manufactured consent
God’s Unruly Friends
I discovered “God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in the Islamic Middle Period 1200-1550” (2006) by Ahmet Karamustafa largely by accident (it was a footnote in another book I had read). The title got me, but it sat on the shelf for a while until I got to it. The book itself is quite short, the […]
The Silk Roads
In a random bookshop in Kathmandu I came across “The Silk Roads: A New History of the World” (2015) by Peter Frankopan. Having taught Global Political Economy in the past and gone through a number of textbooks (which are largely centered on the Euro-West and its perspectives on global matters) I was hoping this book […]
Tags: #History #Politics #Power #Silk Roads #Trade
Julius Nyerere
Ohio University Press has a series of “Short Histories of Africa”. I recently decided to pick up most of the collection for potential use as reading materials for classes. This post covers “Julius Nyerere” (2017), by Paul Bjerk. A few notes: “Upon returning he was told he no longer had a job at St. Francis […]
Tags: #History #Julius Nyerere #Paul Bjerk #Tanzania #Ujamaa
The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf
In reading books on Qatar (see this section for the list), many of the criticisms I have made of contemporary scholarship is a continuation of colonial attitudes and perspectives. On that note, I was glad to come across the gem of a book, “The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf” (1986), by Sultan Muhammad […]
Tags: #Al-Qasimi #Colonialism #Gulf #History #Myth of Arab Piracy
Emperor Haile Selassie
Ohio University Press has a series of “Short Histories of Africa”. I recently decided to pick up most of the collection for potential use as reading materials for classes. This post covers “Emperor Haile Selassie” (2014) by Bereket Habte Selassie. Books usually take more than a year to write, get reviewed, go into publication, and […]
Tags: #Biography #Emperor Haile Selassie #Ethiopia #History #Ohio University Press
The Pain of Others
One of Sontag’s classic works is “Regarding the Pain of Others” (2003). It is a short book, almost an essay length, on the depiction of pain through photography. Part history, part critical reflection. Few notes: “nonstop imagery (televisions, streaming video, movies) is our surround, but when it comes to remembering, the photograph has the deeper […]
Tags: #History #Pain of others #photograph #Photography #Sontag
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last twenty years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.
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