In 1957, the economist and journalist Barbara Ward gave the first of the Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lectures at the University College of Ghana. Shortly after Kwame Nkrumah led the British colony of the Gold Coast towards self-government, he invited Ward to address the independent country’s first cohort of students. Ward was well acquainted with the local political landscape because she had spent the previous four years living in the Gold Coast, witnessing its political transformation. As the world’s eyes were set on Ghana, the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve independence from European rule, Ward was determined to provide her audience with the knowledge needed to govern their newly founded country.

Her lectures, titled Five Ideas that Change the World , developed a world-historical narrative of the supposed human progress from nationalism to colonialism, industrialism, communism, and finally to internationalism, the highest point of political order.

Ghana’s peaceful democratic transition showed…