Toby Green
Toby Green FBA is a British historian of inequality. He is also a Professor of Precolonial and Lusophone African History and Culture at King's College London. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in African studies, at the University of Birmingham. He is Chair of the Fontes Historiae Africanae (Sources of African History) Committee of the British Academy,[1] and has written extensively about African early modern history and colonial African slavery, mainly focused on slavery in the Portuguese colonies.
He has also written on the Spanish Inquisition.[2] Green disagrees with the notion of a Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition and often quotes sixteenth-century sources, regarding the institution's abuse of power in Latin America, and is often cited regarding this subject. He has other publications regarding the issues of religious prosecution and oppression in Africa and other European colonies. His interests are slavery in the Atlantic and cultural and economic links between America and Africa.[3]
His book, A Fistful of Shells won the 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.[4] It was a finalist for the 2019 LA Times Book prize,[5] and was shortlisted for the 2019 Cundill History Prize[6] and 2020 Wolfson History Prize.[7]
Green was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2024.[8]
Views on the Spanish Inquisition
[edit]Green addresses the Spanish Inquisition mainly through Hispano-American sources. He notes that the great unchecked power given to inquisitors meant that they were "widely seen as above the law",[9] and sometimes had motives for imprisoning, while sometimes executing alleged offenders other than for the purpose of punishing religious nonconformity, mainly in Ibero-America.[9][10][11]
Publications
[edit]Articles
[edit]- Baculamento or Encomienda?: Legal Pluralisms and the Contestation of Power in Pan-Atlantic World of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Green, T. 28 Sep 2017 In : Journal of Global Slavery. 2, p. 310-336
- “Africa and the Price Revolution: Currency Imports and Socioeconomic Change in West And West-Central Africa During the 17th Century”, Journal of African History, 57/1 (2016), 1-24.
- “Beyond an Imperial Atlantic: Trajectories of Africans From Upper Guinea and West-Central Africa in the Early Atlantic World", Past and Present 230 (Feb 2016), 91-122
- “Beyond an Imperial Atlantic: Trajectories of Africans From Upper Guinea and West-Central Africa in the Early Atlantic World", Past and Present 230 (Feb 2016), 91-122
- Brokers of Change: Atlantic Commerce and Cultures in Pre-Colonial Western Africa (Oxford University Press, for the British Academy: 2012)
- “Building Slavery in the Atlantic World: Atlantic Connections and the Changing Institution of Slavery in Cabo Verde, 15th-16th Centuries”, Slavery and Abolition 32/2, 2011, 227-45:
Major books (selected only)
[edit]- Saddled with Darwin: A Journey through South America on Horseback (1999) ISBN 0571248284
- Meeting the Invisible Man: Secrets and Magic in West Africa (2001) ISBN 978-0297646150
- Thomas More's Magician: A Novel Account of Utopia in Mexico (2004) ISBN 0753819783
- The Inquisition: The Reign of Fear (2007) ISBN 978-0330443357
- The Rise of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa (2012)ISBN 978-1107634718
- A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution (2019) ISBN 9780226644578
- The Covid Consensus: The New Politics of Global Inequality (2021) ISBN 978-1787385221
Further reading
[edit]A Fistful of Shells by Toby Green review – the west African slave trade - The Guardian
What heart of darkness? Busting myths about West African history - The Telegraph
Interview with Toby Green in QG Media - QG Media
Interview with Toby Green in La Presse du Soir - La Presse du Soir
Interview with Toby Green - Times Higher Education
Three Years on there is a New Generation of Lockdown Sceptics - The Guardian
We Must Change the Way we Understand our History - Big Issue North
References
[edit]- ^ Fontes Historiae Africanae
- ^ Pindar, Ian (25 August 2007). "Review of The Inquisition: The Reign of Fear by Toby Green". The Guardian.
- ^ "King's College London - Dr Toby Green". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- ^ "'A Fistful of Shells' wins 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize". Books+Publishing. 2019-10-31. Retrieved 2019-11-08.
- ^ "Ronan Farrow, Emily Bazelon and Colson Whitehead among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists". Los Angeles Times. 19 February 2020.
- ^ "Jurors hail works that "seek to illuminate…". January 2024.
- ^ "Shortlist announced for £40k Wolfson History Prize". Books+Publishing. 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
- ^ "The British Academy welcomes 86 new Fellows in 2024". The British Academy. 2024-07-18. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
- ^ a b Green, Toby (2007). Inquisition : the Reign of Fear. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-312-53724-1.
- ^ Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 63
- ^ Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 81A, n.33
