People sections

Dr. James R. Brennan

Assistant Professor of History

Contact Info

Office Hours

Areas of Specialization

Urbanization, Political Thought, and Media in East Africa, History of Decolonization, History of the Indian Ocean

Research Focus

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Political History of Tanzania and Kenya

Education

B.A. University of Illinois 1991, M.A. University of Alabama 1994, Ph.D. Northwestern University 2002

Committees

Graduate Admissions Committee

Publications

Books

  • Dar es Salaam: Histories from an emerging African metropolis. Ed. James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, and Yusuf Lawi. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi: Mkuki na Nyota/British Institute in Eastern Africa, 2007.

Book Contributions

  • Brennan, James R. "Radio Cairo and the Decolonization of East Africa, 1953-1964." Making a World after Empire: The Bandung Moment and Its Political Afterlives. Ed. Christopher J. Lee. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010.
  • Brennan, James R. "Youth, the TANU Youth League, and Managed Vigilantism in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1925-1973 (reprinted from journal article)." Generations Past: Youth in East African History. Ed. Andrew Burton and Helene Charton. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2010.
  • Brennan, James R. "Between segregation and gentrification: Africans, Indians, and the struggle for housing in Dar es Salaam, 1920-1950." Dar es Salaam: Histories from an emerging African metropolis. Ed. James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, and Yusuf Lawi. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi: Mkuki na Nyota/BIEA, 2007. 118-135.
  • Brennan, James R., and Andrew Burton. "The emerging metropolis: a short history of Dar es Salaam, circa 1862-2005." Dar es Salaam: Histories from an emerging African metropolis. Ed. James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, and Yusuf Lawi. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi: Mkuki na Nyota/BIEA, 2007. 13-75.
  • Brennan, James R., and Andrew Burton. "Introduction." Introduction. Dar es Salaam: Histories from an emerging African metropolis. Ed. James R. Brennan, Andrew Burton, and Yusuf Lawi. Dar es Salaam/Nairobi: Mkuki na Nyota/BIEA, 2007.
  • Brennan, James R. "The Short History of Political Opposition & Multi-Party Democracy in Tanganyika, 1958-1964." In Search of a Nation: Histories of Authority & Dissidence in Tanzania. Ed. Gregory H. Maddox and James L. Giblin. Oxford/Athens: James Currey/Ohio University Press, 2005. 250-276.

Journal Articles

  • Brennan, James R. "Lowering the Sultan's Flag: sovereignty and decolonization in coastal Kenya." Comparative Studies in Society and History 50.4 (2008): 831-861.
  • Brennan, James R. "Destroying mumiani: cause, context and violence in late colonial Dar es Salaam." Journal of Eastern African Studies 2.1 (2008): 95-111.
  • Brennan, James R. "Blood enemies: exploitation and urban citizenship in the nationalist political thought of Tanzania, 1958-1975." Journal of African History 47.3 (2006): 387-411.
  • Brennan, James R. "Youth, the TANU Youth League, and Managed Vigilantism in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 1925-1973." Africa: Journal of the International Africa Institute 76.2 (2006): 221-246.
  • Brennan, James R. "Realizing civilization through patrilineal descent: African intellectuals and the making of an African racial nationalism in Tanzania, 1920-1950." Social Identitites 12.4 (2006): 405-423.
  • Brennan, James R., and Cedric Barnes. "Political Genealogy, Race and Territory in Eastern Africa." Social Identities 12.4 (2006): 401-404.
  • Brennan, James R. "Democratizing Cinema and Censorship in Tanzania, 1920-1980." International Journal of African Historical Studies 38.3 (2005): 481-511.
  • Brennan, James R. "South Asian Nationalism in an East African Context: the case of Tanganyika." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 19.2 (1999): 24-39.

Reviews

  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Surrogates of the State: NGOs, Development and Ujamaa in Tanzania, by Michael Jennings. African Affairs 108.431 (2009): 334-336.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Imperial Connections: India and the Indian Ocean Arena, 1860-1920, by Thomas Metcalf. Journal of African History 49.2 (2008): 330-332.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of The Global Worlds of the Swahili: Interfaces of Islam, Identity and Space in 19th and 20th-century East Africa, ed. Roman Loimeier and Ruediger Seesemann. Journal of African History 48.3 (2007): 512-514.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Witchcraft, Violence and Democrach in South Africa, by Adam Ashforth. Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft 2.2 (2007): 199-202.
  • Rev. of Urban Africa: Changing Contours of Survival in the City, ed. AbdouMaliq Simone and Abdelghani Abouhani. African Studies Review 50.2 (2007): 221-223.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of A History of the Excluded: Making Family a Refuge from State in Twentieth-Century Tanzania, by James L. Giblin. Journal of African History 48.2 (2007): 337-340.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Extended Handshake or Wrestling Match? Youth and Urban Culture Celebrating Politics in Kenya, by Fibian Kavulani Lukalo. H-Review (2007): 7 Apr. 2007.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Africa Since Independence, by Paul Nugent. Journal of Agrarian Change 48.2 (2006): 140-141.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Voices of the Poor in Africa, by Elizabeth Isichei. Journal of African History 46.3 (2005): 541-543.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of The Forgotten Front: The East African Campaign 1914-1918, by Ross Anderson. Journal of Military History 69.4 (2005): 1231-1232.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of 'Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan': Chieftaincy and Civil Culture in a Yoruba City, by Ruth Watson. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 68.3 (2005): 40-41.
  • Brennan, James R. "Revisiting nationalism in Tanganyika." Rev. of TANU Women and The life and times of Abdulwahid Sykes, by Susan Geiger and Mohamed Said. Afrika Spectrum 37.3 (2003): 367-371.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Challenge to Colonialism: the struggle of Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee for equal rights in Kenya, by Zarina Patel. International Journal of African Historical Studies 34.2 (2001): 433-435.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Quest for the Jade Sea: Colonial Competition around an East African Lake, by Pascal James Imperato. Journal of Asian and African Studies 36.3 (2001): 320-321.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Out of One, Many Africas: Reconstructing the Study and Meaning of Africa, ed. William Martin and Michael West. International Journal of African Historical Studies 33.2 (2000): 481-483.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Personality and Popular Culture in Modern Africa: Studies presented to Professor Harold G. Marcus, ed. Melvin E. Page, Stephanie F. Beswick, Tim Carmichael, and Jay Spaulding. Journal of Modern African Studies 38.1 (2000): 152-153.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of The Making of a Periphery: Economic development and cultural encounters in southern Tanzania, ed. Pekka Seppala. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 18.1 (2000): 302-305.
  • Rev. of Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and Their Transformations in Taita, Kenya 1800-1950, by Bill Bravman. H-Review (1999): 12 Oct. 1999.
  • Brennan, James R. Rev. of Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914, by H. L. Wesseling. H-Review (1997): 25 Jun. 1997.