Biography
After teaching at a harambee school in Kenya, Gareth Austin read History at Cambridge and proceeded to the PhD Economic History at Birmingham. He has worked at the University of Birmingham, the University of Ghana, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (University of London), and the London School of Economics (economic history department), and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He took up the chair of Economic History at Cambridge on 1 January 2016, dividing his time between Cambridge and Geneva until becoming full-time in Cambridge on 1 September 2016. Austin is a former editor of the Journal of African History, a former president of the European Network in Universal and Global History, and was a founder of the Journal of Global History.
Research
African, comparative and global economic history. My primary research continues to focus on Ghana and other parts of West Africa, mainly nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Publications
Key publications:
- Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807-1956 (University of Rochester Press: Rochester, NY, USA; Boydell & Brewer, UK, 2005; paperback 2008).
- (Co-edited with Kaoru Sugihara), Labour-Intensive Industrialization in Global History (London: Routledge, 2013).
- Edited, Economic Development and Environmental History in the Anthropocene: Perspectives on Asia and Africa (London: Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming 2017).
- ‘Comment: the Return of Capitalism as a Concept’ in Capitalism: the Reemergence of a Historical Concept, edited by Jürgen Kocka and Marcel van der Linden (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016), pp. 207-34.
- Guest editor, with Stephen Broadberry, The Renaissance of African Economic History, special issue of the Economic History Review, 67: 4 (2014).
- ‘Reciprocal comparison and African history: tackling conceptual euro-centrism in the study of Africa’s economic past’. African Studies Review 50:3 (2007), pp. 1-28. (Translated into Italian: ‘Oltre l’eurocentrismo. La storia economica dell’Africa e l’approccio comparato’, Passato e presente numero 73, anno XXVI, pp. 65-90).
- ‘Resources, techniques and strategies south of the Sahara: revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500-2000’, Economic History Review 61:3 (2008), pp. 587-624.
- ‘The “reversal of fortune” thesis and the compression of history: perspectives from African and comparative economic history’, Journal of International Development 20:8 (2008), pp. 996-1027.
- ‘Cash crops and freedom: export agriculture and the decline of slavery in colonial West Africa’, International Review of Social History 54:1 (2009), pp. 1-37.
- ‘Vent for surplus or productivity breakthrough? The Ghanaian cocoa take-off, c.1890-1936’, Economic History Review, 67:4 (2014), pp. 1035-64.
- ‘The Economics of Colonialism’, in Célestin Monga and Justin Lin (eds), Oxford Handbook of Africa and Economics (Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 522-35.
Other Publications
- AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- 'Sub-Saharan Africa’ in Joerg Baten (ed.), A History of the Global Economy from 1500 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 316-50.
- 'Is Africa too late for "late development"? Gerschenkron south of the Sahara', in Diverse Development Paths and Structural Transformation in the Escape from Poverty, edited by Martin Andersson and Tobias Axelsson (Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 206-35.
- 'African Economic History in Africa', Economic History of Developing Regions, 30:1 (2015), pp. 79-94.
- With Gerardo Serra), ‘West Africa’, in Vincent Barnett (ed.), The Routledge Handbook to Global Economic Thought (London, 2014), pp. 243-56.
- (With Stephen Broadberry), ‘Introduction: the renaissance of African economic history’, Economic History Review, 67:4 (2014), pp. 893-906.
- ‘Explaining and evaluating the cash-crop revolution in the “peasant” colonies of tropical Africa: beyond “vent-for-surplus”’, in Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James Robinson (eds), Africa’s Economic Development in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 295-320.
- ‘Commercial agriculture and the ending of slave-trading and slavery in West Africa, 1787-c.1930’, in Robin Law, Suzanne Schwarz and Silke Strickrodt (eds), Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa (Oxford: James Currey, October 2013), pp. 243-65.
- With Joerg Baten and Bas van Leeuwen, ‘The biological standard of living in early nineteenth-century West Africa: new anthropometic evidence for northern Ghana and Burkina Faso’, Economic History Review 65:4 (2012), pp. 1280-1302.
- ‘Developmental “paths” and “civilizations” in Africa and Asia: reflections on strategies for integrating cultural and material explanations of differential long-term economic performance’, in Masahiko Aoki, Timur Kuran and Gérard Roland (eds), Institutions and Comparative Economic Development (Palgrave Macmillan; International Economics Association, 2012), pp. 237-53.
- ‘Foreword’ to new edition of K. Onwuka Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885 [first published 1956] (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2011), pp. vii-xxi.
- ‘A. G. Hopkins, West Africa, and economic history’, in Toyin Falola and Emily Brownell (eds), Africa, Empire and Globalization: Essays in Honor of A. G. Hopkins (Carolina Academic Press: Durham NC, 2011), pp. 51-80.
- ‘Poverty and development as themes in British films on the Gold Coast, 1927-1957’, in Lee Grieveson and Colin MacCabe (eds), Film and the End of Empire (Palgrave Macmillan for the British Film Institute: London, 2011), pp. 225-35.
- ‘The developmental state and labour-intensive industrialization: “late development” re-considered’, Economic History of the Developing Regions, 25:1 (2010), pp. 51-74.
- ‘Factor Markets in Nieboer Conditions: Early Modern West Africa, c.1500-c.1900’, Continuity and Change, 24: 1 (2009), pp. 23-53.
- ‘Global history and economic history: a view of the L.S.E. experience in research and graduate teaching’, in Patrick Manning (ed.), Global Practice in World History: Advances Worldwide (Princeton: Markus Weiner, 2008), pp. 99-111.
- ‘Labour and land in Ghana, 1879-1939: a shifting ratio and an institutional revolution’, Australian Economic History Review (special issue on ‘Factor Prices and the Performance of Less Industrialised Countries), 47:1 (2007), pp. 95-120.
- With Chibuike Uche, ‘Collusion and competition in colonial economies: banking in British West Africa, 1916-1960’, Business History Review 81 (Spring 2007), pp. 1-26.
- ‘The political economy of the natural environment in West African history: Asante and its savanna neighbors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’, in Richard Kuba and Carola Lentz (eds), Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa (Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, 2006), pp. 187-212.
Other publications:
- AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- 'Sub-Saharan Africa’ in Joerg Baten (ed.), A History of the Global Economy from 1500 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 316-50.
- 'Is Africa too late for "late development"? Gerschenkron south of the Sahara', in Diverse Development Paths and Structural Transformation in the Escape from Poverty, edited by Martin Andersson and Tobias Axelsson (Oxford University Press, 2016), pp. 206-35.
- 'African Economic History in Africa', Economic History of Developing Regions, 30:1 (2015), pp. 79-94.
- With Gerardo Serra), ‘West Africa’, in Vincent Barnett (ed.), The Routledge Handbook to Global Economic Thought (London, 2014), pp. 243-56.
- (With Stephen Broadberry), ‘Introduction: the renaissance of African economic history’, Economic History Review, 67:4 (2014), pp. 893-906.
- ‘Explaining and evaluating the cash-crop revolution in the “peasant” colonies of tropical Africa: beyond “vent-for-surplus”’, in Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn and James Robinson (eds), Africa’s Economic Development in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 295-320.
- ‘Commercial agriculture and the ending of slave-trading and slavery in West Africa, 1787-c.1930’, in Robin Law, Suzanne Schwarz and Silke Strickrodt (eds), Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa (Oxford: James Currey, October 2013), pp. 243-65.
- With Joerg Baten and Bas van Leeuwen, ‘The biological standard of living in early nineteenth-century West Africa: new anthropometic evidence for northern Ghana and Burkina Faso’, Economic History Review 65:4 (2012), pp. 1280-1302.
- ‘Developmental “paths” and “civilizations” in Africa and Asia: reflections on strategies for integrating cultural and material explanations of differential long-term economic performance’, in Masahiko Aoki, Timur Kuran and Gérard Roland (eds), Institutions and Comparative Economic Development (Palgrave Macmillan; International Economics Association, 2012), pp. 237-53.
- ‘Foreword’ to new edition of K. Onwuka Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885 [first published 1956] (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2011), pp. vii-xxi.
- ‘A. G. Hopkins, West Africa, and economic history’, in Toyin Falola and Emily Brownell (eds), Africa, Empire and Globalization: Essays in Honor of A. G. Hopkins (Carolina Academic Press: Durham NC, 2011), pp. 51-80.
- ‘Poverty and development as themes in British films on the Gold Coast, 1927-1957’, in Lee Grieveson and Colin MacCabe (eds), Film and the End of Empire (Palgrave Macmillan for the British Film Institute: London, 2011), pp. 225-35.
- ‘The developmental state and labour-intensive industrialization: “late development” re-considered’, Economic History of the Developing Regions, 25:1 (2010), pp. 51-74.
- ‘Factor Markets in Nieboer Conditions: Early Modern West Africa, c.1500-c.1900’, Continuity and Change, 24: 1 (2009), pp. 23-53.
- ‘Global history and economic history: a view of the L.S.E. experience in research and graduate teaching’, in Patrick Manning (ed.), Global Practice in World History: Advances Worldwide (Princeton: Markus Weiner, 2008), pp. 99-111.
- ‘Labour and land in Ghana, 1879-1939: a shifting ratio and an institutional revolution’, Australian Economic History Review (special issue on ‘Factor Prices and the Performance of Less Industrialised Countries), 47:1 (2007), pp. 95-120.
- With Chibuike Uche, ‘Collusion and competition in colonial economies: banking in British West Africa, 1916-1960’, Business History Review 81 (Spring 2007), pp. 1-26.
- ‘The political economy of the natural environment in West African history: Asante and its savanna neighbors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries’, in Richard Kuba and Carola Lentz (eds), Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa (Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, 2006), pp. 187-212.
