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How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Paperback – November 27, 2018

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,038 ratings

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The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis

In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated.

In his magnum opus,
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Walter Rodney's magisterial opus is recognized globally as a landmark in African studies, not to mention the history of colonialism and imperialism. Beautifully written and expertly argued, it is that rare book that can be called a classic. It belongs on every bookshelf."
—Gerald Horne, historian and author of The Counter-Revolution of 1776 and Confronting Black Jacobins

"This book is a legendary classic that galvanized freedom fighters around the world."
—Cornel West, philosopher, author, critic, and activist

"Walter Rodney was a pioneering scholar who provided new answers to old questions and posed new questions in relation to the study of Africa."
—Professor Winston McGowan

"This classic work of black political thought, political economy, and Africa history inspired scholars and political activists in the struggle against colonialism and its misrepresentations of the past. I applaud this reissue, which should bring Rodney's prescient analysis to a new generation struggling from below, in whose hands, he would have reminded us, is no less than the future of humankind."
—Lewis R. Gordon, Author of An Introduction to Africana Philosophy

"“Appearing in 1972,
HEUA was a genuine tour de force. It fused, as had never been done in a single volume before, African history in the global sense and underdevelopment theory, Marxism and black nationalism, intellectual passion and political commitment. HEUA instantly joined a select pan-Africanist canon that would be read at least as much outside as within the academy, an exclusive category that included the two texts that had greatly influenced Rodney’s intellectual development, notably James’s Black Jacobins and Williams’s Capitalism & Slavery, along with Black Reconstruction, W. E. B. Dubois’s magisterial work on the struggle for democracy in the United States during the post-Civil War, post-slavery era. HEUA, however, differed from the above-mentioned works, which were written long after the events they charted occurred. HEUA, by contrast, was more urgent and immediate, having been produced in the heat of battle, which is to say amid the ongoing struggle of Africans against capitalist and neocolonialist underdevelopment. His purpose in writing the book, Rodney explained in the Preface, was “to try and reach Africans who wish to explore further the nature of their exploitation, rather than to satisfy the ‘standards’ set by our oppressors and their spokesmen in the academic world.”"
—Michael West, Groundings: Development, Pan-Africanism, Critical Theory, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2018

"A masterpiece."
—Andy Higginbottom, Redline

"Rodney’s analysis remains as relevant as it was when first published — a call to arms in the class struggle for racial equality."
LA Review of Books

"This groundbreaking literary powerhouse performed a vital function in resistance to institutional racism."
—Paul Boateng, Guardian

About the Author

Walter Rodney was an internationally renowned historian of colonialism and a leader of Black Power and Pan-African movements across the diaspora, most notably the Guyanese Working People's Alliance. His life and work brought together struggles for independence on the African continent with the strivings of the black working classes of North America and the Caribbean basin. On June the 13th, 1980, Rodney was assassinated, most likely by the then-president of Guyana. He was 38 years old.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Verso (November 27, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1788731182
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1788731188
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.53 x 1.03 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,038 ratings

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4.7 out of 5 stars
1,038 global ratings

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Super sad about 33 MISSING PAGES
4 out of 5 stars
Super sad about 33 MISSING PAGES
Great resource and I highly recommend BUT my book is missing about 33 pages which is very heartbreaking. Especially since I just now noticed. Maybe that’s what I get for being a slow reader because now I am unable to return it.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2024
    8-22-24

    Review of Walter Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" 8-22-24

    The work is a good communist's survey of the beginnings of oppression and the consequences thereby. Showing that the only way forward out of the path the Europeans forced the native populations into is the reintroduction of the natural economies, Economies tailored to the needs, wants and desires of the native populations

    Economies that are the Janus-face of the colonization. Economies that could be reawakened so as to provide not just the ability to survive but the ability to thrive and, at last, to be able to leave the twentieth century and face and step forward proudly into a new century.

    A coming of the realization, a new horizon that is the transformation of the world; but even more so, the rebirth of ourselves, of each of us, as joint partners, leading to what prophets and religions have foretold; what constitutions--and the writes of man--have promised.

    Do you, dear reader, not believe that we cam live better as humans, as Bretherens and Ssterens? Can you not see it? Would you work for it? Will you work for it? Will you be both kind and brave to and with fellow citizens of the planet? Helping them and, in turn, being helped by them.

    John A Imani 8-22-24
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2024
    Highly recommended
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2024
    No dislike
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2021
    Missing 33 pages but overall a really good and insightful book!! I just read the missing pages on a free online PDF which was a hassle
    Customer image
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good book but missing 33 pages :(
    Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2021
    Missing 33 pages but overall a really good and insightful book!! I just read the missing pages on a free online PDF which was a hassle
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    10 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2018
    This book really provides the connection between capitalism, enslaved Africans as capital and the modern economy and how it all emerged out of the natural progressions from feudalism. Very interesting. This should be read with Gerald Horn's book about the United States American Revolution and the counter revolution of the enslaved African's who in large part provided a major reason for the US's breaking away from the British. You really see how the victors get the spoils and get to define history.
    46 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2024
    Verso books should be ashamed of themselves. Can you imagine releasing such an important work and not thoroughly proofreading. Numerous mistakes that are obviously due to their pdf reader mistaking “b” and “h” and lots of other dumb typos. Really disappointed
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2020
    To the young generations coming after us, please read this book. You will need it for your liberation, if not yours but those coming after you. To know history is important so it is not repeated.
    8 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2019
    If you want to get an overview of African problems without speaning hours of research, read this book. It's short. It goes straight to the point and provides a wide variety of facts. So, yes, I do recommend it.
    32 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • Jean Francois Sonson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in Canada on January 3, 2025
    Great book and timely service delivery!
  • Isma
    5.0 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ein kraftvolles und wichtiges Werk
    Reviewed in Germany on October 5, 2024
    Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” ist eine tiefgründige und scharfsinnige Analyse der kolonialen Ausbeutung und ihrer langfristigen Auswirkungen auf den afrikanischen Kontinent. Das Buch beleuchtet, wie die europäischen Mächte Afrikas wirtschaftliche, soziale und politische Entwicklung bewusst behindert haben, um ihre eigenen Interessen zu fördern.

    Rodney erklärt die Komplexität des Themas auf verständliche Weise, und seine Forschung ist beeindruckend detailliert. Dieses Buch ist ein unverzichtbares Werk für alle, die sich mit Kolonialgeschichte und ihrer anhaltenden Wirkung auf die Gegenwart befassen möchten. Ein absolut empfehlenswertes Buch!
    Customer image
    Isma
    5.0 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ein kraftvolles und wichtiges Werk
    Reviewed in Germany on October 5, 2024
    Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” ist eine tiefgründige und scharfsinnige Analyse der kolonialen Ausbeutung und ihrer langfristigen Auswirkungen auf den afrikanischen Kontinent. Das Buch beleuchtet, wie die europäischen Mächte Afrikas wirtschaftliche, soziale und politische Entwicklung bewusst behindert haben, um ihre eigenen Interessen zu fördern.

    Rodney erklärt die Komplexität des Themas auf verständliche Weise, und seine Forschung ist beeindruckend detailliert. Dieses Buch ist ein unverzichtbares Werk für alle, die sich mit Kolonialgeschichte und ihrer anhaltenden Wirkung auf die Gegenwart befassen möchten. Ein absolut empfehlenswertes Buch!
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  • Y
    5.0 out of 5 stars It’s a great book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 19, 2024
    Good for studying the legacy of European colonialism on Africa’s socioeconomic and political fabric
  • Ubong Inyang
    4.0 out of 5 stars Il libro è bene per ricercare.
    Reviewed in Italy on November 24, 2023
    Mi piace il prodotto perché ho ricevuto è molto bene per il mio ricercare.
  • Saffre
    5.0 out of 5 stars Très bon livre
    Reviewed in France on January 25, 2022
    Un livre très important. Tout s'est bien passé avec ma commande et le service client a été très réactif concernant un retard de la poste.