Category Archives: Historical-Geographies

On the Postcolony

Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Intro, Ch. 1-2] In On the Postcolony, Achille Mbembe writes against the making of Africa (and Africans) as a monstrous place, a timeless netherworld suspended from the forward march … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, City, Drugs, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The Body, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Insurgent Collective Action

Wood, Elisabeth J. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Elisabeth Jean Wood’s book explores why some Salvadoran peasants decided to collectively thrust themselves toward that country’s insurgency in the 1970s-1990s. Through a … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Boundaries, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Insurgent Collective Action

Fighting for the Rain Forest

Richards, Paul. 1996. Fighting for the Rainforest: War, Youth and Resources in Sierra Leone. Oxford: James Currey. Paul Richards main aim in Fighting for the Rain Forest is to argue against what he calls the “New Barbarism” thesis, which presents … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Drugs, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Nation/Nationalism, Peace, Place, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Post-Colonial, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Scale, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Body, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies

Beckett, Ian FW. 2001. Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies: Guerrillas and their Opponents Since 1750. New York: Routledge. Ian Beckett’s Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies provides a sweeping yet surprisingly detailed, if rather conventional, historical survey of insurgency and counter-insurgency. Despite the … Continue reading

Posted in Bandits, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Sovereignty, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies

On the Trail of Latin American Bandits

Joseph, Gilbert M. 1990. “On the Trail of Latin American Bandits: A Reexamination of Peasant Resistance,” Latin American Research Review 25(3): 7-53; & Various Authors. 1991. “Debate on Banditry in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 26(1): 145-174. Gil Joseph … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Dialectics, Hegemony, Historical Materialism, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Marxism, Nation/Nationalism, Political Ecology, Political Economy, Terror, The State, Violence | Comments Off on On the Trail of Latin American Bandits

Hobsbawm’s Bandits

Hobsbawm, Eric J. 2000. Bandits. New York: The New Press. Hobsbawm develops his essay on “social banditry” from Primitive Rebels into a book-length exploration in this book, and in this reworked edition responds to some of the critics of the original … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Boundaries, Everyday Life, Forests, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Territory, Terror, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

Primitive Rebels

Hobsbawm, Eric. 1959. Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic forms of Social Movements in the 19th and 20th Century. New York: Norton In Eric Hobsbawm’s famous book, primitive rebels are those engaged in “pre-political” or “blind and groping” forms of social … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Bandits, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Power, Primitive Accumulation, Spatiality, Terror, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Mercenaries, Pirates & Sovereigns

Thomson, Janice E. 1994. Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. The main task of Janice Thomson’s Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns is to reveal how non-state violence became monopolized in its legitimate form by the state. How did … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, Frontiers, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Pirates, Post-Colonial, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Sea, The State, Violence | 1 Comment

Villains of All Nations

Rediker, Marcus. 2004. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press. The dialectics of violence on the eighteenth century Atlantic were spurred by three sources of terror: pirates, violent state repression against piracy, and the … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, Frontiers, Gender, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Law, Pirates, Political Economy, Power, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Sea, The State, Violence | 2 Comments

The Enemy of All

Heller-Rozen, Daniel. 2009. The Enemy of All: Piracy and the Law of Nations. Boston: Zone Books. Daniel Heller-Rozen’s The Enemy of All departs from a deceptively simple question: How is it that the pirate came to be the original enemy … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, Frontiers, Gender, Historical-Geographies, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Law, Pirates, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, Terror, The Sea, The State | 4 Comments