| Description |
1 online resource (xxii, 615 pages) : illustrations |
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text file rda |
| Contents |
Introduction -- The rise of a global commodity -- Building war capitalism -- The wages of war capitalism -- Capturing labor, conquering land -- Slavery takes command -- Industrial capitalism takes wings -- Mobilizing labor -- Making the global -- A war reverberates around the world -- Reconstructing the empire of cotton -- Creative destructions -- The new cotton imperialism -- The return of the global south -- Epilogue : the weave and the weft. |
| 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 the 1780s, 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 an empire, and how this empire transformed 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 world of modern capitalism, including the vast wealth and disturbing inequalities that are with us 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. From the Hardcover edition. |
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Details the rise of the cotton industry through a combination of imperial expansion, slave labor, machine production, and wage workers; its centrality in the world economy; and its making and remaking of global capitalism. |
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"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. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 449-587) and index. |
| System Details |
Requires Boundless App. |
| Subject |
Cotton textile industry -- History.
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Cotton trade -- History.
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Cotton plantation workers -- History.
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Slavery -- Economic aspects.
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Slaves.
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Textile workers.
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Capitalism -- History.
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Labor -- History.
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History.
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History. |
| Genre |
Downloadable e-Books.
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Electronic books. |
| Other Form: |
Electronic reproduction of (manifestation): Beckert, Sven. Empire of cotton New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2014 9780375414145 (DLC) 2014009320 (OCoLC)875554374 |
| ISBN |
9780385353250 : $53.85 |
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0385353251 : $53.85 |
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