Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom

A living, freely readable edition

Author

Johan Fourie

Modified

June 2, 2026

First edition (Tafelberg, 2021) Cambridge University Press edition (2022) Afrikaans edition (Skatryk) isiXhosa edition (Izinhanha) Revised second edition (Tafelberg, 2025)

From the first edition (2021) to the revised second edition (2025), with the Cambridge international edition and the Afrikaans (Skatryk) and isiXhosa (Izinhanha) translations.

Welcome to the free online edition of Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom. The book offers an accessible, engaging introduction to economic history from an African perspective. It was first published in 2021 (Tafelberg), then by Cambridge University Press in 2022, with a revised edition in 2025.

This online edition is free to read thanks to the generosity of the publishers. It is also a living book: I update it as new research – my own and others’ – appears, and I link the text to the original papers, working papers, and datasets behind the argument so you can go straight to the source. I prescribe it to my second-year economics students at Stellenbosch University, and you are welcome to read along.

“This is the first book to bring Africa in from the margins and place it centrally into the big narratives of world economic history. The subject will never be the same again.” – James Robinson, University of Chicago and 2024 Nobel laureate

How to read this book

  • Use the sidebar to move between chapters, or the search box (top of the sidebar) to find any topic, name, or place.
  • Hover over a citation to preview the source; click it to jump to the full reference and, where available, a link to the original paper.
  • Each chapter ends with a Sources & data box linking the papers and the GitHub datasets behind it.
  • Toggle reader mode (top-right) for a distraction-free view.

How to cite this edition

Fourie, Johan. Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom (living online edition). johanfourie.com/OLWTEF. Accessed [date].

A citable, versioned snapshot (with a DOI via Zenodo) will be added at launch.

Licence. This edition is free to read online. © Johan Fourie. The text is not for download or redistribution. The print and ebook editions remain available from Cambridge University Press and booksellers.