Review
“Andrew Ivaska brings historical depth and nuance to an inherently fascinating subject: cultural politics in early postcolonial Africa. His original, conceptually sophisticated chronicle of the heated cultural debates that took place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the 1960s demonstrates a masterful grasp of comparative scholarship on popular culture, modernity, and globalization.”—Lynn M. Thomas, author of Politics of the Womb: Women, Reproduction, and the State in Kenya
“Cultured States is an enormous contribution to scholarship on the cultural politics of postcolonial East Africa. It is filled with rich and wonderful insights into youth, fashion, and the political culture of the 1960s.”—Luise White, author of Speaking with Vampires: Rumor and History in Colonial Africa
“Andrew Ivaska has written a highly effective monograph that explores how state ideology, popular cultural practices, historical era, and emergent social structure intersected in postcolonial Tanzania.... Cultured States is a very good monograph full of valuable insights for scholars, graduate students, and upper-level undergraduates with an interest in cultural history, politics, anthropology, African studies, globalization, popular culture, and postcolonial studies.”―Anne S. Lewinson, International Journal of African Historical Studies
“Andrew Ivaska’s book may stand as a pioneering work in the historiography of postcolonial Africa. In its finely textured depictions of the distinctive cultural imaginaries fueling official and unofficial visions of nation building and citizenship in postindependence Tanzania, the book offers compelling material for broader studies in comparative nationalisms worldwide. The same can be said of its potential contributions to comparative studies of the cosmopolitan sensibilities and social movements of the global 1960s.”―Jay Straker, American Historical Review
“Andrew Ivaska’s fascinating book explores the raucous and hotly contested cultural politics of 1960s Dar es Salaam, showing how debates over national culture were simultaneously critical public discussions about changing gender roles, intergenerational tensions and growing material inequalities – all of which were visible in the public spaces of Tanzania’s rapidly expanding capital city…. Cultured States will surely attract a wide readership in African studies, but it merits an audience beyond this as well, in areas including urban studies, the global history of the 1960s and postcolonial studies.”―Emily Callaci, Social History
“Cultured States is a welcome contribution to the growing field of histories that explore cultural politics in the decades immediately following decolonization… This book should be extremely effective in graduate and upper-level undergraduate classrooms. It is well-organized, explores theoretically complex issues in clear language, and is very entertaining. Ivaska carefully places the study within the larger body of literature on youth culture and gender debates in the global 1960s. He succeeds in showing the richness and complexity in Tanzanian conflicts over socialism, culture, and young people.”―Jeremy Rich, Canadian Journal of History
“On the whole, Andrew Ivaska’s Cultured States is a well-written book that documents a fascinating historical period and offers significant theoretical insights.”―Daniel Mains, American Ethnologist
About the Author
Andrew Ivaska is Associate Professor of History at Concordia University in Montreal.
