Robin Law

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Robin C. C. Law (born 1944) is a British Africanist and since 2009 Emeritus Professor of the History of Africa at the University of Stirling. He obtained a BA degree in Literae Humaniores at the University of Oxford in 1967 and a PhD in History at the University of Birmingham in 1972. As a researcher, he worked at the University of Lagos, Nigeria (1966-1969) and at the Centre of West African Studies of the University of Birmingham (1970-1972). He joined the University of Stirling in 1972, and was subsequently Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Reader, becoming Professor of African History in 1993. [1] [2] [3] He was a Visiting Fellow at the African Studies Centre Leiden (1993-1994), and a visiting professor at York University, Canada (1996-1997) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2000-2001). [1] Law received the Distinguished Africanist award of the African Studies Association of the UK for 2010. [4]

Contents

Publications

Law published many scholarly books and research articles on Africa, including: [2]

Related Research Articles

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Capitalism and Slavery is the published version of the doctoral dissertation of Eric Williams, who was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in 1962. It advances a number of theses on the impact of economic factors on the decline of slavery, specifically the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the British West Indies, from the second half of the 18th century. It also makes criticisms of the historiography of the British Empire of the period: in particular on the use of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 as a sort of moral pivot; but also directed against a historical school that saw the imperial constitutional history as a constant advance through legislation. It uses polemical asides for some personal attacks, notably on the Oxford historian Reginald Coupland. Seymour Drescher, a prominent critic among historians of some of the theses put forward in Capitalism and Slavery by Williams, wrote in 1987: "If one criterion of a classic is its ability to reorient our most basic way of viewing an object or a concept, Eric Williams's study supremely passes that test."

References

  1. 1 2 Law, Robin. "Professor Robin Law, About me". stir.ac.uk. University of Stirling. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 "Professor Robin Law FBA, History of Africa, Elected 2000, Section Early Modern History to 1850". thebritishacademy.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Robin Law Contributor. Professor of African History, University of Stirling, Scotland. Author of The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550–1750 and others". britannica.com. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  4. "Outstanding African Studies Award". asauk.net. African Studies Association of the UK. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  5. Irwin, Graham W. (1 February 1979). "Journal Article. [Review] Robin Law. The Oyo Empire, c. 1600–c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. (Oxford Studies in African Affairs.) Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1977". American Historical Review. 84 (1): 223–224. doi:10.1086/ahr/84.1.223 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  6. Oliver, Roland (24 December 2009). "Reviews. Robin Law: The horse in West African history: the role of the horse in the societies of pre-colonial West Africa". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 44 (3): 635. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00144854. S2CID   161403344 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  7. Miller, Joseph C. (1993). "Reviews of Books. Robin Law. The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society". American Historical Review. 98 (5): 1656–1657. doi:10.1086/ahr/98.5.1656 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. Rathbone, Richard (1993). "Reviews. Robin Law. The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 56 (1): 196–198. doi:10.1017/S0041977X0000238X. JSTOR   620360. S2CID   162583469 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  9. Massing, Andreas (2011). "Analyses et comptes rendus. Law, Robin (ed.). — The English in West Africa". Cahiers d'Études africaines. 204: 1018–1022. doi: 10.4000/etudesafricaines.14323 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  10. Brunger, Scott (2006). "Reviewed Work: Ouidah: The Social History of a West African Slaving "Port," 1727-1892 by Robin Law". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 39 (2): 313–315. JSTOR   40033870 . Retrieved 5 August 2022.