Harry G. West is Reader in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His research in northern Mozambique has examined how colonialism, revolutionary socialism, and post-socialist political and economic liberalization have reconfigured institutions of local authority.

“…provides an important counterpoint to prevailing claims that socialism, in all its modes and meanings, was quickly abandoned by populations that were hungry to embrace the ‘freedoms’ of a market-oriented economy…reveals its ambitious scope and its broad, comparative approach toward understanding the complex anxieties and uncertainties that people continue to face in transforming societies.”  ·  Journal of Anthropological Research

• List of ContributorsIntroduction: Poetries of the Past in a Socialist World RemadeParvathi Raman and Harry G. WestChapter 1. From Socialist Chiefs to Postsocialist Cadres: Neotraditional Authority in Neoliberal MozambiqueHarry G. WestChapter 2. ‘For Eating, It’s Guangzhou’: Regional Culinary Traditions and Chinese SocialismJakob A. KleinChapter 3. Searching for the Time of Beautiful Madness: Of Ruins and Revolution in Post-Sandinista NicaraguaDennis RodgersChapter 4. The Object of Morality: Rethinking Informal Networks in Central EuropeNicolette MakovickyChapter 5. Vietnamese Narratives of Tradition, Exchange and Friendship in the Worlds of the Global Socialist EcumeneSusan BaylyChapter 6. Waste under Socialism and After: A Case Study from AlmatyCatherine AlexanderChapter 7. Corruption and the One-party State in Tanzania: The View from Dar es Salaam, 1964–2000John R. CampbellChapter 8. Media and the Limits of Cynicism in Postsocialist ChinaKevin LathamChapter 9. The Rooted Anthropologies of East-Central EuropeChris HannChapter 10. Historical Analogies and the Commune: The Case of Putin/StolypinCaroline HumphreyChapter 11. Signifying Something: Che Guevara and Neoliberal Alienation in LondonParvathi RamanIndex