Peter Benson – författare

Black Orpheus and Transition stand as towering landmarks in Africa’s cultural and intellectual history between 1957 and 1978, serving as incubators for the continent's postcolonial literary and artistic awakening. Founded in 1957 by Ulli Beier in Nigeria, Black Orpheus was a platform for artistic experimentation and dialogue, initially inspired by the Paris-based Présence Africaine but quickly evolving into its own distinctive voice. Beier’s initiatives, such as the Mbari Clubs in Ibadan and Oshogbo, complemented the magazine’s mission, offering creative spaces that nurtured some of Africa’s most notable artists and writers. By 1961, Transition, founded in Uganda by Rajat Neogy, emerged as a dynamic forum for cultural redefinition and incisive political commentary. Both publications became indispensable for grappling with the intellectual and cultural challenges of decolonization, exploring themes ranging from African aesthetics to the politics of independence.Despite their profound influence, neither magazine enjoyed smooth trajectories. Black Orpheus weathered internal upheavals, with a second editorial generation—led by Abiola Irele and J.P. Clark—taking the reins and redefining its vision. Meanwhile, Transition faced outright suppression when Neogy was imprisoned for sedition in Uganda. Relocating to Ghana under the stewardship of Wole Soyinka, the magazine continued to thrive, but both journals struggled to adapt to Africa’s rapidly evolving post-independence realities. Their pages reflected a rich tapestry of debates: pan-Africanism versus tribalism, artistic primitivism versus modernism, and indigenous languages versus Western literary conventions. Ultimately, these magazines were more than periodicals—they were crucibles of creativity and intellectual exchange that catalyzed a generation of thinkers and writers. While their eventual closures were due to economic and logistical challenges, their legacy as formative platforms for Africa’s modern cultural identity remains unparalleled.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

Black Orpheus and Transition stand as towering landmarks in Africa’s cultural and intellectual history between 1957 and 1978, serving as incubators for the continent's postcolonial literary and artistic awakening. Founded in 1957 by Ulli Beier in Nigeria, Black Orpheus was a platform for artistic experimentation and dialogue, initially inspired by the Paris-based Présence Africaine but quickly evolving into its own distinctive voice. Beier’s initiatives, such as the Mbari Clubs in Ibadan and Oshogbo, complemented the magazine’s mission, offering creative spaces that nurtured some of Africa’s most notable artists and writers. By 1961, Transition, founded in Uganda by Rajat Neogy, emerged as a dynamic forum for cultural redefinition and incisive political commentary. Both publications became indispensable for grappling with the intellectual and cultural challenges of decolonization, exploring themes ranging from African aesthetics to the politics of independence.Despite their profound influence, neither magazine enjoyed smooth trajectories. Black Orpheus weathered internal upheavals, with a second editorial generation—led by Abiola Irele and J.P. Clark—taking the reins and redefining its vision. Meanwhile, Transition faced outright suppression when Neogy was imprisoned for sedition in Uganda. Relocating to Ghana under the stewardship of Wole Soyinka, the magazine continued to thrive, but both journals struggled to adapt to Africa’s rapidly evolving post-independence realities. Their pages reflected a rich tapestry of debates: pan-Africanism versus tribalism, artistic primitivism versus modernism, and indigenous languages versus Western literary conventions. Ultimately, these magazines were more than periodicals—they were crucibles of creativity and intellectual exchange that catalyzed a generation of thinkers and writers. While their eventual closures were due to economic and logistical challenges, their legacy as formative platforms for Africa’s modern cultural identity remains unparalleled.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.

This one-of-a-kind literary and conceptual experiment does anthropology differently—in all the wrong ways. No field trips. No other cultures. This is a personal journey within anthropology itself, and a kind of love story. A critical, candid, hilarious take on the culture of academia and, ultimately, contemporary society.   Stuck Moving follows a professor affected by bipolar disorder, drug addiction, and a stalled career who searches for meaning and purpose within a sanctimonious discipline and a society in shambles. It takes aim at the ableist conceit that anthropologists are outside observers studying a messy world. The lens of analysis is reversed to expose the backstage of academic work and life, and the unbecoming self behind scholarship. Blending cultural studies, psychoanalysis, comedy, screenwriting, music lyrics, and poetry, Stuck Moving abandons anthropology’s rigid genre conventions, suffocating solemnity, and enduring colonial model of extractive knowledge production. By satirizing the discipline’s function as a culture resource for global health and the neoliberal university, this book unsettles anthropology’s hopeful claims about its own role in social change.

This one-of-a-kind literary and conceptual experiment does anthropology differently—in all the wrong ways. No field trips. No other cultures. This is a personal journey within anthropology itself, and a kind of love story. A critical, candid, hilarious take on the culture of academia and, ultimately, contemporary society.   Stuck Moving follows a professor affected by bipolar disorder, drug addiction, and a stalled career who searches for meaning and purpose within a sanctimonious discipline and a society in shambles. It takes aim at the ableist conceit that anthropologists are outside observers studying a messy world. The lens of analysis is reversed to expose the backstage of academic work and life, and the unbecoming self behind scholarship. Blending cultural studies, psychoanalysis, comedy, screenwriting, music lyrics, and poetry, Stuck Moving abandons anthropology’s rigid genre conventions, suffocating solemnity, and enduring colonial model of extractive knowledge production. By satirizing the discipline’s function as a culture resource for global health and the neoliberal university, this book unsettles anthropology’s hopeful claims about its own role in social change.

Although the law of contract is largely settled, there appears to be no widely-accepted comprehensive theory of its main principles and doctrines or of its normative basis. Contract law theory raises issues concerning the relation between law and morality, the role and the importance of rights, the connection between justice and economics, and the distinction between private and public law. This collection of six full-length essays, written by some of the most eminent scholars in the field, explores the general theory of contract law from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The volume addresses a wide range of issues, both methodological and substantive, in the theory and practice of contract law. While the essays build upon past theoretical contributions, they also attempt to take contract theory further and suggest promising ways to develop theory of contract law.

Although the law of contract is largely settled, there appears to be no widely-accepted comprehensive theory of its main principles and doctrines or of its normative basis. Contract law theory raises issues concerning the relation between law and morality, the role and the importance of rights, the connection between justice and economics, and the distinction between private and public law. This collection of six full-length essays, written by some of the most eminent scholars in the field, explores the general theory of contract law from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The volume addresses a wide range of issues, both methodological and substantive, in the theory and practice of contract law. While the essays build upon past theoretical contributions, they also attempt to take contract theory further and suggest promising ways to develop theory of contract law.

“One of the most important contributions to the field of contract theory—if not the most important—in the past 25 years.” —Stephen A. Smith, McGill UniversityCan we account for contract law on a moral basis that is acceptable from the standpoint of liberal justice? To answer this question, Peter Benson develops a theory of contract that is completely independent of—and arguably superior to—long-dominant views, which take contract law to be justified on the basis of economics or promissory morality. Through a detailed analysis of contract principles and doctrines, Benson brings out the specific normative conception underpinning the whole of contract law. Contract, he argues, is best explained as a transfer of rights, which is complete at the moment of agreement and is governed by a definite conception of justice—justice in transactions.Benson’s analysis provides what John Rawls called a public basis of justification, which is as essential to the liberal legitimacy of contract as to any other form of coercive law. The argument of Justice in Transactions is expressly complementary to Rawls’s, presenting an original justification designed specifically for transactions, as distinguished from the background institutions to which Rawls’s own theory applies. The result is a field-defining work offering a comprehensive theory of contract law. Benson shows that contract law is both justified in its own right and fully congruent with other domains—moral, economic, and political—of liberal society.

Tobacco Capitalism tells the story of the people who live and work on U.S. tobacco farms at a time when the global tobacco industry is undergoing profound changes. Against the backdrop of the antitobacco movement, the globalization and industrialization of agriculture, and intense debates over immigration, Peter Benson draws on years of field research to examine the moral and financial struggles of growers, the difficult conditions that affect Mexican migrant workers, and the complex politics of citizenship and economic decline in communities dependent on this most harmful commodity. Benson tracks the development of tobacco farming since the plantation slavery period and the formation of a powerful tobacco industry presence in North Carolina. In recent decades, tobacco companies that sent farms into crisis by aggressively switching to cheaper foreign leaf have coached growers to blame the state, public health, and aggrieved racial minorities for financial hardship and feelings of vilification.Economic globalization has exacerbated social and racial tensions in North Carolina, but the corporations that benefit have rarely been considered a key cause of harm and instability, and have now adopted social-responsibility platforms to elide liability for smoking disease. Parsing the nuances of history, power, and politics in rural America, Benson explores the cultural and ethical ambiguities of tobacco farming and offers concrete recommendations for the tobacco-control movement in the United States and worldwide.

This book takes a surprising look at the hidden world of broccoli, connecting American consumers concerned about their health and diet with Maya farmers concerned about holding onto their land and making a living. Compelling life stories and rich descriptions from ethnographic fieldwork among supermarket shoppers in Nashville, Tennessee and Maya farmers in highland Guatemala bring the commodity chain of this seemingly mundane product to life. For affluent Americans, broccoli fits into everyday concerns about eating right, being healthy, staying in shape, and valuing natural foods. For Maya farmers, this new export crop provides an opportunity to make a little extra money in difficult, often risky circumstances. Unbeknownst to each other, the American consumer and the Maya farmer are bound together in webs of desire and material production.

This is the first biography of the controversial and misunderstood African boxer, now in paper. Battling Siki (1887-1925) was once one of the four or five most recognizable black men in the world and was written about by a host of great writers, including George Bernard Shaw, Ring Lardner, Damon Runyon, Janet Flanner, and Ernest Hemingway. Peter Benson's lively biography of the first African to win a world championship in boxing delves into the complex world of sports, race, colonialism, and the cult of personality in the early twentieth century.

Ed fits kitchens for the small family business in London, and he’s wondering if there isn’t more to life. So when Marcus, a client in banking, offers him an extra job refurbishing a cottage in Stromness he thinks, why not? Orkney is certainly a welcome change of scene from Bermondsey, and the work’s easy enough. Then Marcus’ sister Claire arrives, all city power and perfume, and events take an unexpected turn. The Stromness Dinner is an offbeat, entirely readable novel about relationships. Beautifully observed, gently humorous, it is a very human and contemporary story about how we live today, and what happens when two people follow their dreams. Peter Benson has created a new sort of ‘hero’ in Ed Beech, whose homespun philosophy of life stays in the memory long after the novel ends.

Fargo Hawkins dropped out of school. Now he is a gardener. He’s twenty years old, and works for Harry Swaine, an abusive butcher with a chain of shops on the south coast of England. After witnessing a fight between Harry and Anne (his wife) Fargo steals a car and together he, Anne and a dog called Radar go on the run. They have £9,653, a bag of apples, a penknife and three bottles of wine. An incandescent Harry, a firm of private detectives, and their emotions chase them across the country. In no time they are a newspaper headline – Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers.After a series of close calls, Anne and Fargo pitch up at a caravan site in North Wales, where they find work and lie low. But a man as possessive as Harry is not to be denied. Their journey becomes one of revelation for all three of them as their relationships move from pure emotion to something more contemplative. Journey’s end for Fargo and Anne is the Llyn peninsula and the cottage of late poet R.S. Thomas. For Harry, it is somewhere darker.Kidnap Fury of the Smoking Lovers is classic Benson: imaginative, inventive, page-turning, full of lyrical images and unexpected turns in the plot., confirming his place as one of the most individual voices in modern British fiction.

The Whittling Handbook is the perfect introduction to the simple, yet immensely pleasurable, craft of creating attractive objects with nothing more than a knife and a piece of timber. Whittling is an art form that can be as simple or as complex as you like.This delightful book guides the reader through the basics starting with straightforward projects such as a garden dibber and paper knife then progresses to more complex and intricate items such as a linked chain and whistle. The tools you'll need, plus the basic techniques and how to perform them safely are all covered in a clear and straightforward way.Projects include:butter spreaderforkcane toppersbookmarkpolar bearnuthatchThis book makes the perfect gift for all whittle enthusiasts in your life!

When the stresses of modern life get too much, what could be better than gathering a few simple tools, heading into the woods and literally whittling away a few hours? The gentle art of whittling is a relaxing and absorbing hobby that can be enjoyed almost anywhere from round the campfire to in a cosy armchair at home. All you need is a good pocket knife, a piece of wood and your imagination. Projects can range from the delightfully simple to impressively intricate – it’s up to you. This delightful book guides you through the basics explaining what basic equipment you need, how to hold the knife, and what timber to use. The projects are then all described in detail with clear step-by-step photographs. Projects include: letter opener, thumb stick, ring tree and egg cup.

Whittling Woodland Animals introduces the simple art of whittling with 15 wilderness creatures to create from scratch.The relaxing and rewarding craft of whittling is synonymous with a woodland setting, which provides the ideal subject matter for this new book from seasoned woodcarver, Peter Benson. Intricately carved and infused with character, this collection of 15 whittled woodland creatures makes a perfect beginner’s guide to the hobby. Making delightful gifts and trinkets for nature lovers, you’ll want to carve every single animal in the book. The main tools and techniques are clearly explained, how to carve safely and clear step-by-step instructions for each animal. A handy campfire-friendly size, simply grab your whittling kit and head out into the woods to while away the hours.15 wilderness creatures to whittle from scratchComprehensive techniquesHandy size for taking out on outdoor adventuresIdeal gifts for friends and familyProjects suitable for all abilitiesBestselling author of Whittling Handbook (40,000 units) and Woodland Whittling (10,000 units)

Whittling Walking Sticks introduces the relaxing and traditional craft of whittling with 10 carved animal heads to mount on walking sticks. Explore making personalised walking sticks with seasoned woodcarver, Peter Benson. Intricately carved and infused with character, this charming collection of 10 whittled stick toppers is perfect for would-be whittlers and those with some whittling experience who wish to hone their skills. The main tools you’ll need, plus the basic techniques and how to perform them safely are all covered in a clear and easy-to-follow way. There are also fully illustrated step-by-step instructions for each project. Decorative yet useful, these whittled walking sticks make wonderful gifts for nature lovers and are a great introduction to the delightful and enjoyable craft of whittling.Projects include: fox, eagle, kingfisher dog, cheetah and frog.

Seasoned woodcarver Peter Benson guides readers through the basics of whittling, explaining what equipment is needed, giving essential advice on best practice and showing how to carve safely. The projects have clearly presented, easy-to-follow instructions that increase in difficulty. Readers can hone their whittling skills as they make their way through the book.Projects include a dolphin, polar bear, kingfisher and more.