Allen Isaacman Explained

Allen Isaacman is an American historian specializing in the social history of Southern Africa. He is a Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. In 2015, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[1]

Education and career

Isaacman earned his B.A. at the City College of New York in 1964. He next studied African History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under Jan Vansina and Philip D. Curtin, earning an M.A. in 1966 and a PhD in 1970. That same year, he joined the faculty in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota. In 2001, he became a Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

From 1978 to 1980, Isaacman was the Chaired Professor of Mozambican History at Eduardo Mondlane University, located in Maputo, Mozambique. From 1988 to 1998, he served as the Director of MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability and Justice at the University of Minnesota and retained that role, from 1998 to 2011, as the program transitioned to become the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC).^[2] Meanwhile, from 1997 to 1998, he was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Zimbabwe, in Harare, Zimbabwe, and in 2009 was named an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Western Cape, located in Cape Town, South Africa.

Academic awards and honors

Isaacman awards includes . His 1972 book, Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution, The Zambezi Prazos, 1750-1902, won the Melville J. Herskovits Award as the most distinguished publication on African Studies for the year 1972, while the 2013 book which he coauthored, Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965-2007, won both the Herskovits Prize^[3] and the Martin Klein award from the American Historical Association (AHA). In 2013, Isaacman received the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association.^[4]

Selected publications

Monographs

• Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution, The Zambezi Prazos, 1750-1902 (University of Wisconsin Press, June 1972).^[5]
• The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique: The Zambezi Valley, 1850-1921 (Heinemann and University of California Press, 1976) Translated into Portuguese in 1979.^{[6] [7]}
• A Luta Continua: Creating a New Society in Mozambique (Fernand Braudel Center, SUNY, 1978).^[8]
• Co-authored with Barbara Isaacma, Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution: 1900-1982 (Westview Press, 1983).^[9]
• Co-authored with Fred Cooper, Florencia E. Mallon, Steve J. Stern, and William Roseberry, Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor, and the Capitalist World System in Africa and Latin America (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993).^{[10] [11]}
• Cotton is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique 1938-1961 (Heinemann, 1996).^{[12] [13]}
• Slavery and Beyond: The Making of Men and Chikunda Ethnic Identity in the Unstable World of South Central Africa, 1750-1920 (Heinemann, 2005).^[14]
• Co-authored with Barbara Isaacman, Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965-2007 (Ohio University Press, 2013)^{[15] [16]}
• Co-authored with Barbara Isaacman, Samora Machel: A Life Cut Short (Ohio University, Press 2020)^{[17] [18]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: Allen F. Isaacman . American Academy of Arts & Sciences . en.
2. Web site: Allen Isaacman . College of Liberal Arts . en.
3. Web site: Herskovits Award Winners . African Studies Association Portal - ASA - ASA . 2 May 2013 . 13 September 2022 . 14 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210414072403/https://africanstudies.org/awards-prizes-asa/herskovits-award-winners/ . dead .
4. Web site: Distinguished Africanist Award Winners . African Studies Association - ASA. 8 April 2013.
5. Opello . Walter C. . Review of Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution, the Zambezi prazos, 1750-1902; Portuguese Africa: A Handbook; Portuguese Africa and the West . The Journal of Modern African Studies . 1974 . 12 . 3 . 487–491 . 10.1017/S0022278X00009757 . 159946 . 0022-278X.
6. Gupta . Anirudha . Book Reviews : Allen F. Isaacman (in collaboration with Barbara Isaacman). The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique: The Zambesi Valley, 1850-1921. Berkeley and Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, 1976. Pp. xxiv+232. Price $13.75. George W. Shepherd, Jr. Anti-Apartheid: Transnational Conflict and Western Policy in the Liberation of South Africa. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977. Studies in Human Rights, No. 3. Pp. xii+246. Price $15.95 . International Studies . January 1979 . 18 . 1 . 120–122 . 10.1177/002088177901800116 . en . 0020-8817.
7. Wright . Marcia . Allen Isaacman. The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique: Anti-Colonial Activity in the Zambesi Valley, 1850-1921. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976. xxvi + 267 pp. Maps, tables, appendices, bibliography, index. $13.75 . ASA Review of Books . 1978 . 4 . 22–23 . 10.1017/S0364168600051306 . 255893369 . en . 0364-1686.
8. Chilcote . Ronald H. . Socialist Transformation in Mozambique . Africa Today . 1980 . 27 . 2 . 55–57 . 4185925 . 0001-9887.
9. WhitakerSpring 1984 . Jennifer Seymour . Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution, 1900-1982 . Foreign Affairs . 28 January 2009 . 62 . Foreign Affairs Magazine . 0015-7120.
10. Gebissa . Ezekiel . Review of Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor, and the Capitalist World System in Africa and Latin America . African Economic History . 1995 . 23 . 154–156 . 10.2307/3601736 . 3601736 . 0145-2258.
11. Seligmann . Linda J. . Review of Confronting Historical Paradigms: Peasants, Labor, and the Capitalist World System in Africa and Latin America . Ethnohistory . 1995 . 42 . 3 . 520–522 . 10.2307/483220 . 483220 . 0014-1801.
12. Allen Isaacman. Cotton Is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work, and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique, 1938–1961. (Social History of Africa.) Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, or David Philip, Cape Town, or James Currey, London. 1996. Pp. xii, 272. Cloth $60.00, paper $24.95 . The American Historical Review . February 1997 . 10.1086/ahr/102.1.150 . en . 1937-5239.
13. Cramer . Chris . Allen Isaacman, Cotton is the Mother of Poverty: peasants, work and rural struggle in colonial Mozambique, 1938–61. Social History of Africa series, Portsmouth NH: Heinemann; Cape Town: David Philip; London: James Currey, 1996, 272 pp., £35.00, ISBN 0 435 08976 5 hard covers, £15.95, ISBN 0 435 08978 1 paperback. . Africa . January 1999 . 69 . 1 . 163–165 . 10.2307/1161083 . 1161083 . en . 1750-0184.
14. Miller . Joseph C. . Review of Slavery and Beyond: The Making of Men and Chikunda Ethnic Identities in the Unstable World of South-Central Africa, 1750-1920 . The International Journal of African Historical Studies . 2005 . 38 . 2 . 351–353 . 40034931 . 0361-7882.
15. McKITTRICK . MEREDITH . Review of Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007. New African Histories Series . The International Journal of African Historical Studies . 2014 . 47 . 1 . 153–155 . 24393342 . 0361-7882.
16. Penvenne . Jeanne Marie . ALLEN F. ISAACMAN and BARBARA S. ISAACMAN, Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007. Athens OH: University of Ohio Press (pb $32.95 – 978 0 82142 0 331). 2013, xvi + 291pp. . Africa . May 2016 . 86 . 2 . 355–357 . 10.1017/S0001972016000139 . 147826684 . en . 0001-9720.
17. Wetzel . Johanna M. . Mozambique's Samora Machel: A Life Cut Short . South African Historical Journal . 2 January 2022 . 74 . 1 . 189–193 . 10.1080/02582473.2022.2040580 . 247486154 . 0258-2473.
18. Fernandes . Carlos . A llen I saacman and B arbara I saacman . Mozambique's Samora Machel: A Life Cut Short . . The American Historical Review . 6 September 2021 . 126 . 2 . 715–718 . 10.1093/ahr/rhab213 .