Overview

Over the past two centuries, industrial societies hungry for copper – essential for light, power, and communication – have demanded ever-increasing quantities of the metal. Born with a Copper Spoon examines how the metal has been produced, distributed, controlled, and sold on a global scale. However, this is not simply a narrative of ever-increasing and deepening global connections. It is also about periods of deglobalization, fragmentation, and attempts to sever connections. Throughout history, copper production has spawned its own practices, technologies, and a constantly changing political economy. Large-scale production has affected ecologies, states, and companies, while creating and even destroying local communities dependent on volatile commodity markets. Former president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda once remarked that Zambians were ""born with a copper spoon in our mouths,"" but few societies managed to profit from copper's abundance. From copper cartels and the futures market to the consequences of resource nationalism, Born with a Copper Spoon delivers a global perspective on one of the world's most important metals.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robrecht Declercq ,  Duncan Money ,  Hans Otto Frøland
Publisher:   University of British Columbia Press
Imprint:   University of British Columbia Press
Weight:   0.640kg
ISBN:  

9780774864855

ISBN 10:   0774864850
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   15 November 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Worlds of Copper? / Robrecht Declercq, Hans Otto Frøland, and Duncan Money Part 1: Connections, Technologies, People: Creating the Global Fabric of Copper 1 The Gains of Going Global: The Return on Investment in International Copper Mining during the Second Industrial Revolution / Klas Rönnbäck, Oskar Broberg, and Dimitrios Theodoridis 2 Futures Markets as Trustbusters: The Secrétan Copper Cartel and the London Metal Exchange, 1887–89 / Nathan Delaney 3 American Mining Engineers and the Global Copper Industry, 1880–1945 / Duncan Money 4 The Path to Dominance: American Copper Mining, 1880–1916 / Jeremy Mouat 5 Comparing Copper Nationalism in Zambia and Papua New Guinea, 1964–74 / Ingeborg Guldal and Frida Brende Jenssen Part 2: Grounding Copper: Communities and Socio-Ecological Transformations 6 Copper Mining in Cuba at the Beginning of Mining Internationalization, 1829–70 / Ángel Pascual Martínez-Soto, Miguel Á. Pérez de Perceval, and Susana Martínez-Rodríguez 7 Copper Communities on the Central African Copperbelt, 1950–2000 / Iva Peša 8 Confronting Kennecott: The Lost City of Bingham Canyon and the History of Mining-Induced Resettlement / Brian James Leech 9 Global and Local Interactions: The Great War, Global Trade, and Community Impacts in the Australian Copper Mining Industry, 1900–20 / Erik Eklund Part 3: Haves and Have-Nots: Copper in the Age of National Control 10 The Copper Industry as National Enterprise in Modern Japan / Patricia Sippel 11 Katanga and the American World of Copper: Mechanization, Vertical Integration, and the Territorialization of Colonial Capitalism, 1900–30 / Robrecht Declercq 12 The Establishment of Iran’s Copper Mining Industry: The Downfall of Anaconda and Selection Trust in the 1960s–70s / Abdolreza Alamdar and Ali A. Saeidi 13 Copper in Chile: From the New Deal to Full Concessions, 1955–81 / Ángel Soto and Alejandro San Francisco 14 Producer Cartel, International Commodity Agreement, and the Role of the US Government Copper Stockpile / Hans Otto Frøland Index

Reviews

Almost every specialist on the history of copper appears in this volume, creating a comprehensive and useful account of modern copper history. --Joshua Specht, University of Notre Dame Born with a Copper Spoon tells a story of fundamental importance to understanding the world system that we have inherited--with all its dependencies on copper. --Stephen Tuffnell, University of Oxford

"""The book's approach has merits beyond the history of copper. A focus on the world systems which underpinned the exploitation of a commodity shows that the idea of a neat and simple division between ""colonial"" and ""post-colonial"" worlds is unrealistic.""-- ""The Africa Report"" ""Almost every specialist on the history of copper appears in this volume, creating a comprehensive and useful account of modern copper history.""--Joshua Specht, University of Notre Dame ""Born with a Copper Spoon tells a story of fundamental importance to understanding the world system that we have inherited--with all its dependencies on copper.""--Stephen Tuffnell, University of Oxford"

The book's approach has merits beyond the history of copper. A focus on the world systems which underpinned the exploitation of a commodity shows that the idea of a neat and simple division between colonial and post-colonial worlds is unrealistic. -- The Africa Report Almost every specialist on the history of copper appears in this volume, creating a comprehensive and useful account of modern copper history. --Joshua Specht, University of Notre Dame Born with a Copper Spoon tells a story of fundamental importance to understanding the world system that we have inherited--with all its dependencies on copper. --Stephen Tuffnell, University of Oxford

Author Information

Robrecht Declercq is a senior postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, Belgium, and the author of World Market Transformation: Inside the German Fur Capital Leipzig, 1870–1939. Duncan Money is a historian of central and southern Africa at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is the author of White Mineworkers on Zambia's Copperbelt, 1926–1974: In a Class of Their Own. Hans Otto Frøland is a professor of European contemporary history at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. He is a co-editor of From Warfare to Welfare: Business–Government Relations in the Aluminium Industry and Industrial Collaboration in Nazi-Occupied Europe: Norway in Context. Contributors: Abdolreza Alamdar, Oskar Broberg, Nathan Delaney, Erik Eklund, Ingeborg Guldal, Frida Brende Jenssen, Brian James Leech, Susana Martínez-Rodríguez, Ángel Pascual Martínez-Soto, Jeremy Mouat, Miguel Á. Pérez de Perceval, Iva Peša, Klas Rönnbäck, Ali A. Saeidi, Alejandro San Francisco, Patricia Sippel, Ángel Soto, Dimitrios Theodoridis

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions