Trevor R. Getz

I read this anticipating a graphic novel depicting the story of an African woman facing down "the Important Men" to get what she felt was her due. And I got that. But Abina and the Important Men is much more of a lesson on how to be a historian than it is a graphic portrayal of a historical event.

Getz does an admirable job---in my admittedly non-historian perspective---of showing how historians do their work: looking at primary sources of several varieties, piecing together the context for those sources, taking into consideration their own biases, painstakingly sketching in a deeper understanding of the past, and opening themselves to the critical assessments and alternate perspectives of their fellow historians. For that reason, I'd say that Abina is an excellent introduction for any hopeful future historians.

As a graphic novel, it's entertaining, but while Abina's story matters, it's only the beginning of a journey this book encourages its reader to undertake.… (mere)

I have studied quite a bit of history, most of it more or less Eurocentric. This book opened my eyes to larger patterns in modern world history. In effect, it argues that European colonialism and imperialism have shaped the entire world over the last several centuries, affecting almost everyone on Earth as well as numerous species, ecosystems, technologies, etc. In particular, the account of how of the spread of the sugar economy restructured more or less the entire human race made me look anew at the bag of refined white sugar that I regularly see in the supermarket. Also, the suggestion that Nazi genocide (toward Jews and Slavs, among others) was simply an application of the colonizer/colonized distinction within Europe that Europeans had applied to other peoples around the world for several centuries made me stop and think.… (mere)