Overview

The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality in the world economy, and its making a remaking and of global capitalism. Sven Beckert's rich, fascination book tells how the story of how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast the world's most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to change the world. Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780's, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into in empire, and how this empire transformed the world. The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant and global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, farmers and merchants, workers and factory owners. In this as in so many other ways, Beckert makes clear how these forces ushered in the world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with is today. The result is a book as unsettling as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist.

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9781665155977

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Reviews

Empire of Cotton proves Sven Beckert one of the new elite of genuinely global historians...The writing is elegant, and the use of both primary and secondary sources is impressive and varied. Overviews on international trends alternate with illuminating, memorable anecdotes. -- Washington Post A highly detailed, provocative work. -- Booklist Hefty, informative, and engaging...Beckert's narrative skills keep the story of capitalism fresh and interesting for all readers. -- Publishers Weekly His close-up study of the cotton economy is a valuable model for the study of capitalism generally, an economic system in which slavery and colonialism were not outliers but instead integral to the whole...a valuable contribution. -- Kirkus Reviews Intellectually ambitious...a masterpiece of the historian's craft. -- Nation It fostered 'war capitalism' among European nations. It helped launch the industrial revolution in England. It drove slavery. The story of cotton is the story of modern capitalism...for better or worse. -- Amazon.com, editorial review Masterly...Gives new insight into the relentless expansion of global capitalism. With graceful prose and a clear and compelling argument, Beckert not only charts the expansion of cotton capitalism...he addresses the conditions of enslaved workers in the fields and wage workers in the factories. An astonishing achievement. -- New York Times Momentous and brilliant...Empire of Cotton is among the best nonfiction books of this year. -- Newsday Narrator Jim Frangione can't make international spindle count comparisons dramatic, but he makes business concepts understandable. At the same time, he relishes more interesting topics like family business dynasties...Frangione ably delivers a solid primer on economics and capitalism. -- AudioFile Persuasive...brilliant... Beckert's detailed narrative never scants the rich complexity of the cotton trade's impact on many different societies. -- Boston Globe

Author Information

Sven Beckert is the Laird Bell Professor of American History at Harvard University. Holding a PhD from Columbia University, he has written widely on the economic, social, and political history of capitalism. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including, from Harvard Business School, the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. He was also a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Jim Frangione is an actor and audiobook narrator who won AudioFile magazine's 2011 Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense for his reading of Philip Carter's The Altar of Bones and Spencer Quinn's To Fetch a Thief. He has won numerous Earphones Awards and has been was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His theater credits include the off-Broadway production of Scrambled Eggs and the New York premiere of David Mamet's plays The Old Neighborhood, Romance, and Oleanna, in which he also performed with the national tour. His film and television appearances include Joy, Transamerica, Spartan, Heist, Brotherhood, The Unit, and Law & Order.

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