Inikori, Joseph E.

(J.E. Inikori)

PERSONAL:

Education: Graduated from University of Ibadan.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, 364 Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, former faculty member; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, former faculty member, became chair of history department; University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, professor of history, 1988—.

MEMBER:

Urhobo Historical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Received fellowships to the London School of Economics and the University of Birmingham; Leo Gershoy Award from the American Historical Association and the Herskovits Prize from the African Studies Association, both 2003, both for Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in International Trade and Economic Development.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Forced Migration: The Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies, Africana Publishing (New York, NY), 1982.

(Editor, with Stanley L. Engerman) The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1992.

(With D.C. Ohadike and A.C. Unomah) The Chaining of a Continent: Export Demand for Captives and the History of Africa South of the Sahara, 1450-1870, University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica), 1992.

Slavery and the Rise of Capitalism, University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica), 1993.

Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in International Trade and Economic Development, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Member, editorial board, Journal of Global History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joseph E. Inikori is an economic historian whose best-known book is Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in Interna-tional Trade and Economic Development, which Gareth Austin, writing in the Journal of African History, called "a magnum opus," and "a landmark contribution by an African historian to the study of British and Atlantic economic history." The work parses the supply and demand aspects of industrialization as new technologies began to change the way the world worked. Central to his argument is a discussion of previous scholarly works on the topic, which Inikori believes fall victim to trendy theories rather than objectively interpret available data.

The book's main thesis is that the Industrial Revolution relied on African labor, both in England and in the colonies. Slavery was a major component of this; it enabled increased demand for goods to be met with an increase in innovations that led to productivity gains. African colonies also supplied Britain with valuable raw materials, such as fabric dyes and gum. In return, West Africa became a prime export market for finished products such as wool, metal, and cotton. The British colonies in America, fueled by rich natural resources, became economic powerhouses as the population increased. The transportation necessary to fuel this economic expansion, both in terms of goods and slaves, made shipbuilding and shipping booming industries. The primary market for these British-produced goods was not Britain, however; it was the Americas and other colonized countries, but high tariffs and taxes brought the money back to the homeland.

Inikori's book received high praise from a number of critics, including John Darwin, who wrote in Albion that Africans and the Industrial Revolution is a "densely argued, learned, and important book." Nevertheless, Darwin felt that Inikori's work leaves some open-ended questions, such as "Were the economic effects of the slave trade on West Africa so uniformly negative when evidence exists that it encouraged a wider commercial exchange?" Andre Gunder Frank, writing in the Journal of World History, took issue with the book's title, claiming that the work focuses almost exclusively on the Atlantic economy, not the international economy. Frank concluded that "apart from the author's exaggerated claims about its uniqueness, his book makes a valuable and necessary contribution to our knowledge and understanding of the past and present world."

Along with Stanley L. Engerman, Inikori edited The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe, a well-received collection of essays from a 1988 conference on the Atlantic slave trade. "Professors Inikori and Engerman have organized a very diverse and, by the specific content of each article, only tangentially connected assortment of essays," wrote Light Townsend Cummins in Reviews in American History. "Nonetheless, taken as a whole, the book presents a surprisingly cogent commentary on history's winners and losers in the Atlantic slave trade," Cummins concluded. The winners were Western Europe and the Americas. Africa suffered. Many of the essays focus on the economics of slavery, rather than the social costs, or explain how the economics of the situation resulted in a specific social situation.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Africa, spring, 1994, William Gervase Clarence-Smith, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe, p. 275.

African Studies Review, December, 1994, Melvin E. Page, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 175.

Albion, spring, 2004, John Darwin, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in International Trade and Economic Development, p. 159.

Hispanic American Historical Review, February, 1994, J.R. McNeill, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 136.

Historical Journal, March, 1995, David Richardson, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 195.

History: Journal of the Historical Association, July, 1996, Michael Tadman, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 385.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, spring, 1995, Richard H. Steckel, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 443; spring-summer, 2002, Ronald W. Bailey, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, pp. 485-487.

International Review of Social History, December, 2003, Eric Kimball, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, pp. 483-484.

Journal of African History, July, 2005, Gareth Austin, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 348.

Journal of Economic History, September, 2003, Kenneth Morgan, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, pp. 875-876.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 2002, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 1375.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, spring, 1994, Toyin Falola, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 700.

Journal of Modern History, June, 2004, Pat Hudson, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 434.

Journal of Social History, spring, 1994, David Richardson, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 619.

Journal of Southern History, August, 1993, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 602; May, 2004, Scott P. Marler, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 491.

Journal of World History, June, 2005, Andre Gunder Frank, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 232.

Labour/Le Travail, fall, 2003, Robert C.H. Sweeny, review of Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, p. 318.

Latin American Research Review, winter, 1996, Patrick J. Carroll, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 135.

Reviews in American History, September, 1993, Light Townsend Cummins, review of The Atlantic Slave Trade, p. 379.