Introduction: the economizing logic of the state; 1. From colonial economics to political economy 1820–1940; 2. Planning and the territorial perspective, 1945 until 1951; 3. Calculable development, 1951 to 1954; 4. The new finance officials; 5. The nation, in whose name they could act: the military and national income accounting; 6. A nation-state alone cannot transform its destiny; Conclusion: towards a new African economic history; Bibliography; Index.
This book traces the formation of the Sudanese state following the Second World War through a developmentalist ideology.
Alden Young is an Assistant Professor of African History and the Director of the Program in Africana Studies at Drexel University, Philadelphia. He was previously a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University, New Jersey.
'Today, a technocratic, economistic vision of a modern Sudan is a
half-remembered dream. Alden Young's superb book - a combination of
political economy and cultural history - brings into focus the
important but neglected story of how the country was once a model
of planned development, led by an elite of Sudanese and British
economists.' Alex DeWaal, Tufts University, Massachusetts
'This is a compelling study of the imaginative, destructive
projects of economic planning. Alden Young explains how officials
in late colonial and independent Sudan came to imagine 'the
economy' as a particular, measurable, phenomenon; how they sought
to transform it through schemes of development - and how calamitous
the consequences of those policies were for the people of Sudan.
This book makes a major contribution to our understanding of
Sudan's history - and provides a salutary lesson for planners
everywhere.' Justin Willis, Durham University
'Young genuinely advances the literature on decolonization,
development, and state formation. Transforming
Sudan belongs on the bookshelf of every scholar of these
related fields and will be of great interest to African and Middle
Eastern historians, too.' Cyrus Schayegh, H-IslamInAfrica
'… [Alden Young] offers an insightful and valuable history of how
political choices shaped the creation of national statistics and
how the implementation of those statistics necessarily constrained
the economic imaginaries of Sudanese leaders. One great
contribution of his book is to show just how important a vision of
limitless economic growth was to post-colonial Sudanese officials.'
Stephen Macekura, Diplomatic History
'A series of crises in Sudan, which in the 2000s saw the country
being discussed in the company of countries such as Rwanda and
Somalia, is often explained as the result of old, lingering ethnic
and religious hatreds. But Alden Young offers a well-researched and
compelling alternative explanation, arguing that an 'economizing
logic' that became the 'policy making lens' in Sudan (p. 10) is to
blame.' Jessica Watson, Survival
'… the book powerfully illuminates how discussions regarding
economic policy cannot be disentangled from broader questions of
meaning of nationalism and legitimate political order as well as
how political and economic marginalization is rationalized with
purportedly neutral justifications.' Zhe Yu Lee, Journal of
Economic Geography
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