The Brink of Freedom
Improvising Life in the Nineteenth-century Atlantic World
Duke University Press · Print & ebook · June 10, 2016
In The Brink of Freedom David Kazanjian revises nineteenth-century conceptions of freedom by examining the ways black settler colonists in Liberia and Mayan rebels in Yucatán imagined how to live freely.
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- Who it’s for
- Letters from Liberia and Yucatán recast nineteenth-century ideas of freedom.
- Genres
- Colonialism & Its Aftermath, Global Black Studies, Mexican History
- Published
- Duke University Press, June 10, 2016
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Start with this bookAbout this book
In The Brink of Freedom David Kazanjian revises nineteenth-century conceptions of freedom by examining the ways black settler colonists in Liberia and Mayan rebels in Yucatán imagined how to live freely. Focusing on colonial and early national Liberia and the Caste War of Yucatán, Kazanjian interprets letters from black settlers in apposition to letters and literature from Mayan rebels and their Creole antagonists.
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He reads these overlooked, multilingual archives not for their descriptive content, but for how they unsettle and recast liberal forms of freedom within global systems of racial capitalism. By juxtaposing two unheralded and seemingly unrelated Atlantic histories, Kazanjian finds remarkably fresh, nuanced, and worldly conceptions of freedom thriving amidst the archived everyday. The Brink of Freedom’s speculative, quotidian globalities ultimately ask us to improvise radical ways of living in the world.
Atlantic Freedom
Letters from Liberia and Yucatán recast nineteenth-century ideas of freedom.
Come here for
- Letters from Black settlers in Liberia
- Letters and literature from Mayan rebels and Creole antagonists
Expect
- Colonial and early national Liberia
- The Caste War of Yucatán in a global frame of racial capitalism
Where it sits
| Colonialism & Its Aftermath | 79% |
|---|---|
| Mexican History | 27% |
| Global Black Studies | 22% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- African History
- Mexican History
- Authors
- David Kazanjian
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Published
- June 10, 2016
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- African History