Reversal of fortune or continued misery? Ulbe Bosma’s Making of a Periphery reviewed

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

With his latest book, The Making of a Periphery, Ulbe Bosma makes a successful attempt to “decompress history”. Apart from praising his work, I want to offer two critical comments and a suggestion for global comparison. First, I argue that the role of colonialism/imperialism is somewhat downplayed in the book. Second, although I am impressed by the vast body of literature cited, I believe that at several instances the book might have benefited from its arguments being underpinned by more solid empirical quantitative data. Finally, I raise the question how unique the “plantation economies” of Island South East Asia actually were, which also implies a suggestion for further research along the lines of Bosma's impressive monograph.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)495-505
JournalInternational Review of Social History
Volume65
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Reversal of fortune or continued misery? Ulbe Bosma’s Making of a Periphery reviewed'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this