Empire of cotton : a global history / Sven Beckert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beckert, Sven.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cotton textile industry--History.

Cotton textile industry.

Cotton trade--History.

Cotton trade.

Cotton plantation workers--History.

Cotton plantation workers.

Slavery--Economic aspects.

Slavery.

Enslaved persons.

Textile workers.

Capitalism--History.

Capitalism.

Labor--History.

Labor.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 615 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.

Summary:

"The epic story of the rise and fall of the empire of cotton, its centrality in the world economy, and its making and remaking of global capitalism. Sven Beckert's rich, fascinating book tells 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 1780, these men created a potent innovation (Beckert calls it war capitalism, capitalism based on unrestrained actions of private individuals; the domination of masters over slaves, of colonial capitalists over indigenous inhabitants), and crucially affected the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how this thing called war capitalism shaped the rise of cotton, and then was used as a lever to transform the world. The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant 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 modern world. The result is a book as unsettling and disturbing as it is enlightening: a book that brilliantly weaves together the story of cotton with how the present global world came to exist"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The rise of a global commodity

Building war capitalism

The wages of war capitalism

Capturing labor, conquering land

Slavery takes command

Industrial capitalism takes wing

Mobilizing industrial labor

Making cotton global

A war reverberates around the world

Global reconstruction

Destructions

The new cotton imperialism

The return of the global South

The weave and the weft: an epilogue.

Notes:

"This is a Borzoi Book"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cundill Prize in Historical Literature Finalist, 2015.

Bancroft Prize, 2015

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Livezey Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780375414145 (hardback)

0375414142 (hardback)

OCLC:

875554374