Frederick Cooper, the author of "Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History," is a history professor at New York University. He specializes in the history of "Empire", especially of the French and British colonial empires. "Colonialism in Question" reads like one, long essay on the historiography of Empire and of colonial and post-colonial nations (which overlap). The book has been produced in reaction to the last half a century or more's rigorous examination of the history of colonialism. The trend was birthed in the 1950's. Since then, the history of colonialism has faced a lot of debates and been treated with renewed interest. Many writers and thinkers have taken stands in obvious confrontation with the ideology of colonialism and either reject it outright or, at the very least, try to distance themselves from it. However, Cooper's book suggests that erasing every trace of colonial ideology is far from easy. The book also reacts to the temptation of meta-narrative and of totalizing concepts. To delineate the areas covered by the book, we have to identify two levels of analysis.
             First, the level of historiography: Cooper's analysis of the colonial and post-colonial studies. Here the chronological area goes from 1951 to the current day. There is no geographical limit, as Cooper studies academic papers and not events, meaning that his objects of focus are not tied to a particular geographical area. Cooper mentions his ambition has been to consider a balanced selection of interdisciplinary work in forming his analyses.
             Secondly, the book proposes a direct historical analysis. Here Cooper covers a wide period, from 1492 to 1970's. The geographical area is the whole world. "Colonialism in Question" copes with the conceptual language and scientific approach of colonial and post-colonial studies. It asks and tries to answer the question: what is colonialism, and how can we write its history? Cooper critiques ma...