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Overview"In Automotive Empire, Andrew Denning uncovers how roads and vehicles began to transform colonial societies across Africa, but rarely in the manner Europeans expected. Like seafaring ships and railroads, automobiles and roads were more than a mode of transport-they organized colonial spaces and structured the political, economic, and social relations of empire, both within African colonies and between colonies and the European metropole. European officials in French, Italian, British, German, Belgian, and Portuguese territories in Africa shared a common challenge-the ""transport problem."" While they imagined that roads would radiate commerce and political hegemony by collapsing space, the pressures of constructing and maintaining roads rendered colonial administration thin, ineffective, and capricious. Automotive empire emerged as the European solution to the ""transport problem,"" but revealed weakness as much as it extended power. As Automotive Empire reveals, motor vehicles and roads seemed the ideal solution to the colonial ""transport problem."" They were cheaper and quicker to construct than railroads, overcame the environmental limitations of rivers, and did not depend on the recruitment and supervision of African porters. At this pivotal moment of African colonialism, when European powers transitioned from claiming territories to administering and exploiting them, automotive empire defined colonial states and societies, along with the brutal and capricious nature of European colonialism itself." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Andrew DenningPublisher: Cornell University Press Imprint: Cornell University Press Weight: 0.907kg ISBN: 9781501775369ISBN 10: 1501775367 Pages: 366 Publication Date: 15 July 2024 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Not yet available ![]() This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationAndrew Denning is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Kansas. He is author of Skiing into Modernity and coeditor of The Interwar World. His work has also appeared in The Journal of Modern History, American Historical Review, Technology and Culture, and Environmental History. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |