Oceans of grain : how American wheat remade the world Scott Reynolds Nelson

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nelson, Scott Reynolds, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wheat trade--United States--History.

Wheat trade--History.

World history.

Physical Description:

vii, 356 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, 2022.

Summary:

"A revelatory global history shows how cheap American grain toppled the world's largest empires. To understand the rise and fall of empires, we must follow the paths traveled by grain-along rivers, between ports, and across seas. In Oceans of Grain, historian Scott Reynolds Nelson reveals how the struggle to dominate these routes transformed the balance of world power. Early in the nineteenth century, imperial Russia fed much of Europe through the booming port of Odessa. But following the US Civil War, tons of American wheat began to flood across the Atlantic, and food prices plummeted. This cheap foreign grain spurred the rise of Germany and Italy, the decline of the Habsburgs and the Ottomans, and the European scramble for empire. It was a crucial factor in the outbreak of the First World War and the Russian Revolution. A powerful new interpretation, Oceans of Grain shows that amid the great powers' rivalries, there was no greater power than control of grain"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The black paths, 10,000-800 BC

The gates of Constantinople, 800 BC-AD 1758

Physiocratic expansion, 1760-1844

P. infestans and the birth of free trade, 1845-1852

Capitalism and slavery, 1853-1863

"Ceres Americana," 1861-1865

Boom, 1866

What is to be done? 1866-1871

The great grain crisis, 1873-1883

The grain power of Europe, 1815-1887

"Russia is the shame of Europe," 1882-1909

Orient express, army of action, 1910-1914

A world war over bread, 1914-1917

Grain as authority, 1916-1924.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781541646469

1541646460

OCLC:

1257293139

Publisher Number:

40031215868