Campbell, Gwyn 1952–

PERSONAL:

Born in Madagascar, February 1, 1952; immigrated to Wales. Education: Attended University of Birmingham and University of Wales; earned degrees in economic history.

ADDRESSES:

Office—McGill University, Department of History, Leacock, Rm. 608, 855 Sherbrooke W., Montréal, Quebec H3A 2T7, Canada. E-mail—gwyn.campbell@mcgill.ca.

CAREER:

Faculty member at universities in Madagascar, Britain, South Africa, Belgium, and France; academic consultant to the South African government, 1997; McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada, research chair for Indian Ocean World History and director of Indian Ocean World History Centre, member of Centre for Developing Area Studies and African Studies Program.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and author of introduction) The Indian Ocean Rim: Southern Africa and Regional Co-Operation, RoutledgeCurzon (New York, NY), 2003.

(Editor) The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2004.

(Editor) Abolition and Its Aftermath in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Edward Alpers and Michael Salman) Resisting Bondage in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, Routledge (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with Suzanne Miers and Joseph C. Miller) Women and Slavery, Ohio University Press (Athens, OH), 2007.

Also author and editor of articles and chapters on the economic history of the Indian Ocean region.

SIDELIGHTS:

Gwyn Campbell was born in Madagascar on February 1, 1952. Although he was raised in Wales, he retained a strong fascination for Madagascar and the Indian Ocean. He attended college at the Universities of Birmingham and Wales, receiving degrees in economic history. As a specialist in the economic history of the Indian Ocean region, he has taught at universities all over the world and became a member of McGill University's Centre for Developing Area Studies and its African Studies Program. Campbell is involved in the National Geographic and IBM Genographic Project in sub-Saharan Africa, which is researching early human origins and migrations using standard research techniques combined with DNA analysis. His many research projects and interests include globalization and development of the third world, the dynamics of minority cultures, slavery, migration, and early human development.

There is a debate among Western scholars about whether or not the traditions of indigenous cultures around the Indian Ocean prevent international trade. It is argued that modernization can come about only though the intervention of the West. More recently, this idea has been challenged by scholars who suggest that the cultures around the Indian Ocean developed a system of international production and exchange predating the emergence of these ideas in Europe. Campbell's field of economic history and his specialization in Indian Ocean regional affairs make him especially qualified to enter this discussion.

From 1993 to 1997, Campbell, working as a consultant to the South African government, helped to form the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation whose mission is to promote trade and trade cooperation in the region. The Indian Ocean Rim: Southern Africa and Regional Co-Operation, which Campbell edited, is one result of this work. In the introduction, Campbell gives a short economic history of the area as one of the "earliest complex, longdistance commercial networks" in the world. The remainder of the book provides chapters detailing the region's economic history and discussing contemporary social, economic, and trade developments, problems, and solutions. Reviewing The Indian Ocean Rim for H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, Paul-Henri Bischoff wrote: "This is a rare and hence useful reference book for (political) economists, students of (Southern) regionalism and strategists who wish to apply the idea of a developmental state to future regional integration in general and the Indian Ocean Rim in particular."

Another of Campbell's interests is the slave trade around the rim of the Indian Ocean and its social and economic implications. According to a Reference & Research Book News contributor, Abolition and Its Aftermath in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia begins "filling the gap" in research on the slave trade on the eastern side of the African continent. In a series of twelve essays, Campbell discusses the slave trade in various countries around the Indian Ocean and how it changed and evolved under the influence of international trade, native resistance, and the movement toward abolition.

As the country of his birth, Madagascar holds a special place in Campbell's heart. In An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire, he brings the economic and political history of Madagascar out of the shadows of colonial assumptions by providing the history of the nineteenth-century Merina kingdom that arose in response to the demand for sugar and slaves. The book details the attempt by the kingdom's leaders to control trade and export in the island nation whose failure led to its being taken over and colonized by France.

Critics were enthusiastic in their praise of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895. In the Canadian Journal of History, Jeremy Rich began by saying it is "valuable for world and Africanist historians" because of "Campbell's determined effort to place Madagascar in wider regional contexts." The critic concluded: "This study should be required reading for those who teach African and world history. … One can only hope that more economic history of this calibre will be written on other parts of Africa." Calling it "a much-anticipated work" that is "meticulously researched and cogently argued," Pedro Machado recommended the book in his Historian review: "Campbell makes a pioneering contribution to Malagasy historiography. This book will be required reading for all of those interested in it." More high praise came from Robert Ross in the Journal of African History: "There can be no doubt that [Campbell] has very greatly increased the empirical basis for the analysis of Malagasy history during the nineteenth century."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December 1, 2006, Pier M. Larson, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire, p. 1644.

Canadian Journal of History, December 22, 2006, Jeremy Rich, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 604.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October 1, 2004, B. Weinstein, review of The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, p. 347; November 1, 2005, J.E. Flint, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 537.

Historian, June 22, 2007, Pedro Machado, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 308.

International History Review, June 1, 2006, Solofo Randrianja, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 397.

International Journal of African Historical Studies, January 1, 2006, Richard B. Allen, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 160.

International Review of Social History, December 1, 2006, review of An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750-1895, p. 511.

Journal of African History, March 1, 2006, Robert Ross, "Economic History of the Merina Empire," p. 151.

Reference & Research Book News, May 1, 2004, review of The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia, p. 140; May 1, 2006, review of Abolition and Its Aftermath in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia.

ONLINE

Canada Research Chairs,http://www.chairs.gc.ca/ (May 11, 2008), overview of author's research.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (October 1, 2004), Paul-Henri Bischoff, review of The Indian Ocean Rim: Southern Africa and Regional Co-Operation.

McGill University Web site,http://www.mcgill.ca/ (May 11, 2008), faculty profile.

Ohio University Press Web site,http://www.ohioswallow.com/ (May 11, 2008), short profile of author and summary of a selection of his books.